STEPHEN DAVIS

Poetry by Stephen Davis ©

SUNRise

Heaven’s eye sheds its light upon a dawning, restless world,

weary with too much pain, exhausted from too much disappointment,

forever empty of the meaning of being and doing;

sustained by an unrecognised love who blunts the cruel edge of darkness,

nourishing a hope that will not die.

Kay

Looking into your eyes,

I see myself with you in the heart of darkness.

Naked strangers shopping for angels.

guess who’s coming for dinner?

A bit of structure would help a lot.

A bit of focus would be a great gain

‘cause losing focus is losing the plot

where hope becomes fear and love becomes pain,

That slippery slide of anger and pride

where half-blind fools wink slyly at sadness,

nodding to shadows walking side-by-side

with angels of night

– the counsel of madness!

For sanity’s sake, let’s turn on a light,

open a window and put out the cat,

put on clean clothes and lay out the table,

cut some fresh flowers, put everything right,

flush out the vermin and vacuum the flat,

get ourselves ready while we’re still able.

god and good friends

Sometimes I feel so weak I’m gonna fall when this dark and crazy world gets too much.

Somehow you always hear me when I call and catch and hold me with your gentle touch

until I feel like I can stand again, another heartbeat closer to the dawn.

Although I guess I’m just a foolish man, I know that in your love I am reborn.

When morning sunrise breaks into my night the shadows disappear like morning mist;

memories of a darkness without light dissolve like dreams the rising sun has kissed.

Your grace and mercy soothe my weary soul. Your loving kindness makes my spirit whole.

major theme

I remember I promised Heaven

I’d tear the stars from the night,

lay them at the feet of those I loved.

I remember the skidding stars,

the misty dragon coiled about a nearby tree,

watching as my mind reeled beyond breaking point.

I remember the long, slow years, tears in Christ,

tedious, hopeful healing

through false starts of hesitant, unstable courage;

finding myself in another’s smile, the awful burden of another’s trust.

I remember all those I loved, those I fear,

those few I pity;

the bitter irony:

a broken mind is often at home in this world,

grievous to an open heart.

I do not offer stars, rather,

the gentler jewels of my sanity.

remember

What special puzzles wait for each of us?

Do we remember,

between sleep and wake,

what the answer is

was

might have been?

Is it left to our reason to blindly grope for the piece that inconstant love forgot?

Or was it desire? Or need?

Or a notion we had each of us in that lost discovery:

first kiss

first embrace

first precious passion that now draws a sigh, a smile, an ache?

Are we too old and hard?

Far too foolish to recall the pink moments,

the warm and nervous charm, rough ecstasy of embarrassment

in a first kiss, first caress?

The hungry disappointment, desire and hope, which followed?

I remember…