Six Poems by Ed Lyons

 

Friendship Sonnets

Unbreakable you have declared our friendship.

A love of purely higher order

Along the luminescent border

Of bright divinity and ardent kinship.

This feeling lifts us up on eagle’s wings

To the angelic realms and back

To earth again. There is no lack

Of sympathy. A single church bell rings.

You, child of the sun by sea salt kissed,

How you love the warming breezes

While I go forth in wind that freezes,

I, a creature of the rain and mist.

We have seen our hours together weld us fast

And knit our way of growing as our lives are cast.

 

 

Another day draws to a close. The sun

Shines white like pearls behind the clouds.

Now, before the nightfall shrouds,

Breaks the faintest rainbow. Then it’s gone.

And next we’re seated in a taquería

You know out near the edge of town,

Nibbling quesadilla down.

I burn my mouth with every kind of salsa.

You ask to ride on fast now. Up the freeway,

The skyline now lit up at night.

You want to get off at the right.

We circle back through town, with all the leeway

To find our own way home, to stop for drinks, and then

To say goodnight, and thanks, until we meet again.

Like fifty thousand watts a-coursing through me

And setting every nerve ablaze

Until I’m in a dazzled daze

That lays my life before me to renew me.

I cannot help but want to hold your hand

On days you need somewhere to lean,

A friend to give you warmth serene,

And lead you to a green and pleasant land.

I’d hug you and I’d warm you if you’d like

With sweet and gentle tenderness,

For you are family. Nothing less,

Whether you’re asleep or you’re awake.

Let’s shoot across the galaxy from star to star

When someday comes. But things are perfect as they are.

 

 

Through corridors of time my footsteps echo

As ages past flow through my pen.

I have to pick it up again

Because my heart and mind are ever with you.

To see you free and happy I desire.

I’ll stand by your dreams with you.

Your love that had nowhere to go

Is love indeed. It sets my soul on fire.

This love of yours as found its course to flow,

And like a hot spring it enfolds

Me like warm wings would. It holds

So closely, and so deep. I love you so.

Let’s ride out on the backroads of eternity,

For time is on our side. We’ll see what we can see.

In Those Moments

 

As childhood sweethearts take the long way home

From school and stop awhile by the river,

Skipping stones, or gathering flowers in

The meadow out behind the railroad tracks,

With birds as numerous as they were five hundred

Years ago; they oftimes rose in clouds

Up from abundant trees into the skies.

Through life we wander in our innocence.

When I behold you seated at the table

With your plate of steak set out before you

And your dark glass of wine before your hand,

I see how elegant you are, how refined,

This humble woman who prefers to stay

Unheard, unseen, unless she wants to be.

It’s in those moments when her face shines forth,

So that I cannot keep from watching her.

And other times I learn about her needs

So I can have things settled as she likes

Without her saying.

                                    To ride into the west

For miles and miles and miles and miles and miles

Into the setting sun, and through the night,

Until it rises up again behind us,

Until we cross the border and keep going

For many miles more until we reach the

Sierra Madre, climb into the heights,

Onto the Altiplano with its ancient

Towns and cities, and explore the visions

Of those realms of colour, sight and sound,

And happy music, flowers everywhere,

Love in every face, pyramids,

Cathedrals vast, exquisite food and tiled

Walls and fountains. And the mighty sun,

And starry night, until we start back down,

And reach the blue Pacific, and we’ll walk

For many miles along the crystal beach,

The coolness of wet sand beneath our feet.

Such is our dream, our dream so wild and free.

Or maybe we will come to Erin’s shore,

From Dublin Bay to Derry Quay explore,

And into Donegal where wild waves crash

Upon the rocky headlands, and the hills

And glens resound with greenness and the songs

The people hold in common age to age,

And sit before a fire built of turf

Inside some homelike pub where neighbours gather

For song and dance and jokes and other craic,

A pint of black stuff, or perhaps a dram.

But you like country cream. As you will have.

 

            And when you win the jackpot we will go,

You always tell me, and I love the thought.

It cheers me in this country cold and drab,

Where people snarl at their neighbour fellow

By day and night. The news is always bad.

And yet we have our outings to the river,

Or to the lake, or the October fair,

Or maybe sometimes going out to dinner.

Love and protect each other we must do.

Trust me with things that you can’t understand,

As I trust you with matters I don’t know.

In this dark land where devils swarm around,

And people languish, sadness and depression

Will suck the life and joy out of the soul.

Our love shall be a cozy nest to shelter

The little family we have to care for.

Our kindled hearts shall be a roaring fire

That keeps us calm when chilling winds descend

And shake the windowpanes with howling muscle,

While on the hearth the flames do dance and crackle.

These dire shadows history casts shall leave us

Untarnished when they finally pass away,

As when the morbid angel went through Egypt

And killed the first born children of the people

And all their stocks and herds until the country

Gagged in the sickness at the smell of rot;

But Israel was spared, with all her tribes,

Set forth to journey to the Promised Land.

 

            Yes, let us go our own way, let us live

Without a yesterday, only tomorrow,

Until our yesterdays grow many and

Our hearts are full of memories so dear.                       

The Breastplate of St. Patrick goes before us.

Into eternity we gently walk.

So let the rivers run with swarming fish!

Let beasts of field and forest gather thick!

Let oceans teem with myriad life abundant!

And let’s bring back our beauty world instead.

Like ocean sand the nations wash away.

 

            Now Sunday morning’s here again. You rest

From all labors at your job. I stand

Outside your door with books and toys in hand

To give that precious little girl you love,

The daughter of your son, that she may grow

Honest and intelligent and strong

As you are, not what she’s set to be

By this uncaring world, so bound to throw

Her education at her with a shovel

Until her life has withered well before

It has a chance to blossom into glory

As god intended.  I will not disturb you.

Welcome to Your Evening, Love

 

It’s quitting time. The light is almost gone.

So welcome to your evening, my dear love.

Let’s settle in now that the day is done

            With easy sentiment

            And mutual content

Until you’re tired and you have to leave.

 

We understand. We need not say a word,

If only we sit quietly together,

Whatever is unspoken will be heard,

            For all is understood,

            And all is for the good,

Without thinking of the why or whether.

 

I cannot say just when it came to be,

How we became each other’s happiness,

Or how it came so far that we agree,

            Like dolphins in an ocean

            Of wild raw emotion

That surges like the rising sun to bless.

 

And when she gets her day of rest, I like

To take her somewhere out of the mundane.

It’s in these moments when she likes to look

            At rushing rivers flowing,

            And wild creatures going,

For that’s the time we need to keep us sane.

 

It’s better for me if I see you often.

It’s better that you love me as you do.

Together now the blows of life we soften,

            And together dream,

Once driven on a beam

Of sunlight through a fantasy anew.

 

How you have taught me a new way to feel,

The wonder of a blazing love sublime,

And emerging consciousness surreal,

            That flies of magic wings,

            As every blossom sings,

And I can’t help but see it all anew.

And how I long to keep your mind at ease,

Assure you when the shadows gather round you,

Caress you like a soft and gentle breeze,

            And lend you every grace,

            And say it to your face,

And let the light of courtesy surround you.

 

The world is going mad. Hold fast we must.

The time may come when love is all we have,

When everything around us turns to rust,

            To see us through the danger

            When everyone’s a stranger,

From all of this and more our love will save.

 

But what if I could penetrate your thought?

Beneath the complex shifting of your mood.

And if I finally found the thing I sought,

            With all you have to hide,

            And all you keep inside,

And yet I could not draw it out with words.

 

But no, your mind shall be a mystery,

Beckoning a future we can’t guess,

As roots drive down and anchor a young tree,

            Until it grows so tall,

            The leaves will bloom and fall,

I know I need to live it, I confess.

 

I know the pathways through the darkened wood,

The thorny brambles that do tear and cut.

I know the several ways back to the good,

            And lead you to delight

            Within the shining light

Where blazing torches never do go out.

 

For us, a new horizon lies ahead,

Inspired by a dreamlike fascination,

And ever by such marvels we are led

            By that brilliant rainbow

            That casts a secret shadow,

Until we find we’re living in a vision.

Ed Lyons has been writing and publishing poems for over forty years. He is a regular contributor to the Poems from the Heron Clan anthology, and has also appeared in Albatross, A New Ulster, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, which earned him a Best of the Net nomination,, Án Aintiúl, and North Carolina Bards, and written hymns for the Moravian Church. The last is the subject of Ed’s 2019 chapbook Wachovia, published by Katherine James Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Ed lives in Winston-Salem, also in North Carolina.