You showed me

You showed me the dark sides of my marriage.
I, being mind-blind, stumbled in shock,
Repelled by what I saw,
Discovering voids where so much should have been.

Realising that I have been afraid to live,
I now mourn for what I never had.

Autumn park

Autumn park;

my eyes carried down an artist's palate

Of leaves and off to a distant view

Of Alps, snow covered and promising 

Cold and frost.

Geneva's fountain playing high

Above any roofs, it's curving plume

A silver ark:

An ark in time,

As evening draws in.

But time will not arc back.

The sadness of autumn leaves

The sadness of autumn leaves:

their rich colours,

and gentle falling,

a promise of winter -

a warning of frost.

Their slow decay,

food for the morrow

and for thought.

I stand by the sea again

I stand by the sea again

where there is no you or I,

nor them or us,

just the slow ebb and flow

that baptises.

Valentine

What is it that turns my head

or makes me smile

deep into the core of my being,

but you?

And the days have become months

and the months have become years

and still my heart glows at our meeting,

and my head is full of things to say;

and I watch whilst you open and unfold

layers of yourself -

and yes,

sometimes standing naked

and unashamed and trusting

and knowing that my gaze is for more

than just your surface

but for your being

even to its very core.

I woke up and I was here

I woke up and I was here

the daylight touching my eyes

gravity pulling my limbs

the in-breath

the out-breath

and around me the stirrings of spring

and the knowing of a landscape

that is kind and healing.

You stirred and busied yourself in the kitchen

and I let words run through my heart

like a stream dancing on stones

and felt the stones melt

and the heart beat

and the eddy and swirl

of a life lived

embrace me.