People do not know the reasons
Why they give their lives away
To fair strangers in foul seasons
With disdain or recherché
Love’s exotic forms before us
Shape our dreams in dreams of shapes
One performs as in a circus
While another sits and gapes
Written in a codicil is
Everything we never say
Where our heart is, there our will is
Secrets in a faraway
Sitting down to Sunday meeting
Settling for less than needs
Pastures new where sheep are bleating
Feet uncovered bruising bleeds
I’ve not mentioned what is rarer
Love with hope or hope with love
Alcohol makes lust seem fairer
Or makes hawks out of a dove
People do not know the answers
Why they give their lives in vain
Bankers dream of being dancers
Desert dwellers dream of rain
Where the many go, we follow
Into caverns of the heart
Darkened caves with echoes hollow
Placing neither horse nor cart
Send the message to the mountains
Happiness is here for all
Cool your feet in pools and fountains
Hug the big and lift the small
Our abandoned wishes bring us
To a place beside the sea
Teachers check and often ding us
For our plain hypocrisy
I was once a café hidden
For the few who found me there
Anxious, daft and anger-ridden
Breathing in my sulky air
But my love came in and asked me
If I chose to leave or stay
Called me to the front and tasked me
With the order of the day
People do not know what’s habit
Why the same paths they will tread
And the same tombs they’ll inhabit
Loving long when love is dead
(“People Do Not Know” – 9-30-2015)
“Our abandoned wishes bring us
To a place beside the sea
Teachers check and often ding us
For our plain hypocrisy”
Loved that stanza.. I don’t know why, but I just did.
That’s really interesting. That stanza was why I used that particular photo.
Thanks.
A supper table, this poem (too), with a savory gravy at one end and fresh smooth butter at the other. You must be a rebel to have split it up unevenly — my OCD napkin would’ve been worried to bits over that — and I look forward to the 222!
Excellent!
Lovely! I really enjoyed, thanks for sharing.
Most interesting and well written, thank you. Michelle
“People do not know the answers
Why they give their lives in vain
Bankers dream of being dancers
Desert dwellers dream of rain”
I can’t get these lines out of mind. Lovely poem.
Send the message to the mountains
Happiness is here for all
Cool your feet in pools and fountains
Hug the big and lift the small
I’ll take this stanza with a big thank you to Bel for unearthing this old poem of Owens (hoping he’s feeling better soon).
In each of us their is a strength beating its wings to beak free, a flame of creative compassion that we may nurture in each other.
I normally can’t read long poems (even short poems at times, haha) but I loved this ^ ^ Your writing is better than ever ^ ^ <3