If music is the food of love
Turn it down, don’t sing along.
All those words of sweet romance
Lull us in a lovestruck trance.
Loves and doves and stars above
Disguise the fist in velvet glove.
The honeymoons that don’t last long
Soon grow cold, as does the song.
Finale
‘I can’t sing’ he said, quietly humming.
‘Don’t worry’ she sang.
‘Neither can I.’
They arrived at some kind of harmony as soon they tried.
They were enchanted, ensung,
enthralled to the music soaring, undone.
Lovers singing the song of each other
make patterns, staves, notes in the dark.
It can’t be wiped out once it’s written.
© A.Chakir 2023
Children believe they can vanish
As long as they can’t see the world
I go to the window curtain
I don’t look out on the world
The curtain flows to the floor
I wrap it around me and softly I sing
A new song of wandering words
My voice feels held in the curtain
It’s warm and it’s so secure
No doubt there’s a child shaped mass,
Wrapped in the velvet drape,
And my feet poke out on the floor.
I have no awareness of that,
Only the warmth in darkness
And the song of the wandering words.
I don’t exist anymore.
There’s a song that wafts so gently
in music faintly heard,
a song with words so fleeting
I cannot hold them still.
Where many paths are meeting
in the tangle of the shadows,
just beyond your glance,
in the patterns of the dance,
from a farewell to a greeting
they will spin you into trance.
In a fluttering of wings, do you hear them speaking?
”No time today for sorrow, no time for needless weeping.
Mortal though you are, follow your own star”
I sense them in a twinkle,
in a gleam, a flash of star-fire
the silver light behind a cloud,
across the moonlight sweeping
in the rhythm of my breathing
and a heart that’s wildly leaping,
to the strings of their desire
”It’s a dream within a dream within a dream”
i hear them whisper
as i rest,
almost sleeping,
almost waking,
only seeming to be here.
from high above looking down on the land
there are signs of all that is gone
churches sit on old sacred sites
scattered across the earth
the motorway swallowed the village pond
the sea eats away at the shore
the old forests all gone to ships
gone to ashes and war
i see the ramparts of Rome
Legions lost in the earth
Saxon barrows and Norman walls
Celtic graves, the breaking of stones,
gone, in a battle for power
all for nothing
the land and the word lives on
the rhyme, the history, the song
deeper than dust
deeper than bone
finer, truer, strong
we travel by the hidden old ways
coming far to gladden your days
wherever we go, music is near
welcomed in from the bitterest cold
toss us some coin if you can spare
a minstrels life is not free of care
thought we are rich in our pleasure
welcome us in from winters stark cold
love fills the air with a soft golden glow
thought it be through blizzards of snow
the magic is in the measure
we holds it against winters cold
come to the warmth of the hearth
before we all grow old, lets dance
take from us the cup of good cheer
welcomed in from winters white cold
note upon note, music entwined
clear pearls that melt with sweetest wine
we will drift to a slower measure
growing drunk in a deeper pleasure
each note we play is crystal bright
we speed our beat for your delight
watching dancing feet take to flight
in firelight and starlight inflamed
the drum is our heart
the fiddle weaves spells
the lute brings the sun
angelic the flute
welcome in from winters grey cold
our music takes wing
the silver strings sing
with fingers and bow
that battle the snow
welcome in from winters dark cold
welcome to all in the winter
The world is full of blessings and light
And yet my feeble candle still stutters
Dark moths gather outside, escaping night,
They flutter softly against the shutters.
What is this feeling I cannot define,
What is the central source of this sorrow?
This darkness and loss can only be mine
I will send it away by tomorrow.
Over and over I send it away
Filling emptiness with music and song
Asking the angels to come back and stay
To help me feel I am here and belong.
Let moths burn in bright flame of desire
Transmute their wings to celestial fire.
twinkling stars above
pierce through evening mists
to shine on the fiddlers strings
this is a night of trysts
flowing with the harp strings, strummed water
the autumn leaves swim about like goldfish
awaiting winters frozen fingers, sore with playing
seeking, hunting, yearning, he turns to the lament
an autumn leaf falling, aimless, from the tree
brown scented, old wood, soaked in years of wishing
he lives to travel, moving, burning,
desiring, to be somewhere other than here
the tune plays on, long after he is gone
his music filled me up
gladly golden, red and green,
imbued in his sweet dream
remembered in the song
remembered in the song
they are not far away, they are near
the old gods cry out to us
from beneath city streets
come closer, if you would hear
the moon is hidden in daylight
waiting to light the path of the night
in silvery tones and pearl
come closer, if you would hear
the trees whisper a constant prayer
the voice of the leaves, the dance of the branch
the breath of exchange that holds us all
come closer, if you would hear
the rivers run out, the veins of all life
the clouds pour down a blessing
the sea is the constantly beating heart
come closer, if you would hear
above the rooftops venus shines
the daidem, a star, entwined in her twilight hair
she sings the song of the life spark and the long dark
come closer, if you would hear
they are not far away, they are always here
the world is a garden for which we must care
before the old gods slip silent away
come closer, if you would hear
what breaks the silence of the early morning
what shadows will the evening bring
a choir of angels, distant, softly sings
The Dreaming Path 