A Poem - Camden Lock (2008)

The gift you gave me
Was love.

The gift you gave me
Was a recollection of happy times
We shared.

The gift you gave me
Was hope.

The gift you gave me
Was release from nagging torment.

The gift you gave me
Was a breathing space.

The gift you gave me
Was...

A mojito.

Your consideration,
Your care,
Your concerned, caring, pained eyes,
Your tending touch,
Your laughter,

The wonder of you!

Love, love, love!

Looking over the sun-drenched sea of stalls,
Rapt in your oasis,
Wrapped in your bower of hope,
At liberty, the chains of sadness loosed,
By your gifts,
By your sunshine,
Tears welled in my eyes for the joy of you.

How I loved that mojito,
How tears well for you.

Can you not remember
That our love was truth?



(c) Tales of Seamus 2005

A Poem - A Memory (2005)

Every crystal of magic
In the snowflake soft silence of effulgence,
Centered in your love-brimmed eyes.

Our first Noel
With wondrous promise,
Trod soft on warm white blankets
Under starry skies.


But the promise faded:
Magic was denied.



(c) Tales of Seamus 2005

A Poem - Peregrine (i) (2009)

Hoar-gouts of frost-sharp crystal screams
Buffet the crossed wings of the face-barred falcon,
Closed tight over his crown,
Tight against the cruel wind,

The keening world.

Eyes that have seen too far, too fierce, too keen,
Beheld white fire masquerading as inviolate truth Complete,
Feeding from its own flame,

Reflection

Burned, burned, burned,
Are hooded and blind.

No prophecies are scried, no magic glanced;
They are not filled with the white sharp edge of the sun's light
That comes searing in and binds the lidless eye
And coils the fire-mind.
 
The falcon's head lifts, its eyes craving roseate dawn,
Not the black-iced pain of night.
A scream is cast into the maelstrom and torn away
Like a tongue that cannot talk of truce.

Would that a fleet curved wing
And the pained yearning of a fierce heart
Would soon carry a pilgrim, steeped
In the sadness and the madness,
Back to the great Axis of Life.


 (c) Tales of Seamus 2011

A Poem - Lament for Lost Love (2005)

Oh what dread torment is this?
Riven from her that used to kiss
Away my troubles and my fears;
Her warm lips once soothed away my tears.


If I'd been given any choice,
She never would have heard my voice
Unfeeling, cruel and far away
From where my own true sentiments lay.


And I have spoken to her since,
And it seems she will convince
Herself it's better we did part;
She told me that I broke her heart.


With calmer mind but crippled soul
I'm at the diametric pole
And though many months have passed
My heart is broken too at last.


Now sleep is stolen, all is ashes,
There is no solace in the world.
My angel-light in fearful darkness
Tortured as my mind unfurled.


She strove so hard and gave so much,
But so much is all that one can bear,
Her heart and soul were wounded, bleeding.
But mania hid away my share.


I must have seemed so cruelly heartless,
Not gentle, tender, loving, kind.
My soul that loved her deeply,

Locked deep in my wounded mind.


Ah darling, darling! please forgive me!
You were the one that took my heart
And gave it all your shining beauty
And drove away the binding dark.


You gave me that most precious gift,
That I wondered so to feel,
By every facet of your beauty
My wounded troubled heart was healed.


So precious are you to me darling
For every soothing of my heart,
That I should hurt and lose you is
The deepest cut and cruellest dart.


(c) Tales of Seamus 2004 - 2012

A Poem - Sip (2006)

I see you sitting back,
That far and yet focused look in your eyes,
The smoke of a contemplative cigarette,
Floating gentle,
As the gentle sips I take of each one of your 

Sighs.

I see you sitting back,
Desire rushes in,
With its continual butterfly-winged surprise.
I see the sweetest dizzying,
Headiest wine of desire
Born in the narrowing reflection of your eyes.


(c) Tales of Seamus 2001 - 2012

A Poem - All Things Fade Yet Never Wholly Do Depart (2006)

All things fade
In the seasons of the heart.

Love springs verdant, born of joy
And twines us as one part.

But all things fade
And Springtime does depart;
Brave summer's sun shines down
On the summer of brave hearts.

And love's sweet petals bloom
Yet in the end they pall,
For the wind blows keen from 

Clouded skies,
The rain begins to fall.

Yet all things fade,
Mere rain is chilled to sleet;
The heart's heart knows too well the cold,
The seasons are complete.

For love's tumultuous chords rang forth,
Yet in the end all fell,
Our heart beats sound no more as one
Yet ever beat, 'farewell'.

Yes all things fade
Yet never wholly do depart,
For always faint strains of our love
Sound in the quiet heart.

When the heart's heart finding stillness
Finds the inner voices clear,
Hearts sing the songs of happiness,
Hearts sing the songs of tears.


(c) Tales of Seamus 2004 - 2012

A Poem - Seesaw (2010)

The seesaw hangs in the balance,

As an implacable stone gaze looks on,

Pitiless and cold,

Withholding any meaning

From the timid anguished rider

And destroying demon bold.

One slumps leaden in defeat,

The other stamps with dreadful glee;

If they'd meet at my soul's fulcrum

Then they'd both let me be free.

One's thoughts weigh more than oceans,

Dreadful fathoms of despair,

The others ticking, flicking thoughts

Are lighter than the air.

One builds not but holds the oceans,

The other labours night and day,

Turning all that's builded up before

To chaos and dismay.

One can never summon Hope,

The future is a turning knife.

The other's plans are towers

Of gleaming fire and brittle ice.

The seesaw hangs in the balance,

I found you once at the fulcrum

And joy spread, like a wave of sunshine,

Over my life.

But when I returned to the fulcrum,

The stooped crippled wretch

And broker of confusion

Had let out the tide

Through my soul.


(c) Tales of Seamus 2004 - 2012