Behind

Tags

Aging, Behind, creative, death, loss, Love, poems, poetry, separation, verse, writing

And with each dying breath 

That settles on the breeze,

To dip its head beneath

The horizon that we see,

Our lives become a little fainter

A little thinner to the eye,

And all the things that meant so much

Fall to the ground

Like Autumn’s sigh,

To be replaced by a growth

Whose colours seem,

To weary eyes,

A little paler in their hue

A little less impactful,

And as we mourn

The loss of souls

Whose touch we feel as if it were our own,

We step ourselves,

A little closer,

To the hole they left

Behind.

Another Window

Tags

age, Another Window, creative, death, loss, Love, Memories, nostalgia, Observations, poems, poetry, verse, Wish, writing

The floorboards creaked beneath his feet

As he moved slowly

Creeping almost like a cat

One foot before the other

In metronomic time 

To a beat that sounded somewhere

In the past

In a town a million years

From where he was

A home too far ago to live

In any other memory 

He walked

From room to room to

Dusty room

Gathering the waif-like days

Like breaths between the stones

To scatter free on the passing breeze

That reminded him of

Someone else

A fragrant fragment of another life

Another prayer

Another window

He looks out over the rooves and chimneys

That pepper the town with breaths

And fill the air with silence

That floats above the houses

Like a shroud

Like a pocket watch counting

Numbering each moment

As it drifts away towards the hills

Towards the sea

Towards the beat that still

Sounds somewhere

In the past

As he watches and wants

As the floorboards creak.

Steel Riven

Tags

Belief, creative, death, Immortality, Life, poems, poetry, Sacred, Shelley, Steel riven, Text, verse, writing

We walk through winter’s halls

Our faces turned to spring now,

Each footstep on our way

Follow the dreams we’re given,

To each and everyone 

The promise of forgiveness, 

The words we hoped to hear

In sheets of steel riven.

Beyond the love and hate

And things beyond our knowledge, 

We stand in aftermath

No need for war or sword,

The light that burns outside

We find inside ourselves,

But blindly we go on

To follow Mary’s word.

See as our faces fade

Like marks made in the sand,

Tyrants and saints as one

Now dust upon our lids,

And all the games we played

The sacred words we read,

Could never satisfy 

Like lies we swallowed did.

Note for Michael (because you’ll get it) and anyone else who is interested. Try reading this to the verse melody to Adorations by Killing Joke.

Fortune

Tags

Belief, creative, death, Fate, Fortune, loss, poems, poetry, religion, Shaman, verse, writing

Fortune, fortune

Where are you now

As our blindness leads us

From the cave to the grave and

All that we had learned we left

At the foot of yesterday’s

Memorial stone

It’s granite as cold as the

Hearts that we hold and

Etched with the words

That we speak too late

And buried in the sand we

Hide our heads and faces blind

Like the touch we fear will

Give us all away as if

Another world would take us

Beyond the walls we build and press

Our heads against

Oh fortune fortune

Where are you now?

Trapped

Tags

age, Alzheimers, creative, death, dementia, loss, Love, nostalgia, poems, poetry, Trapped, verse, writing

Did you miss me

When my smile died

And my mouth would not move?

When the light that burned for you

Flickered low and, starved of fuel,

Fell silent still behind

Dead eyes?

Did you miss me

When you held my hand

And felt the skin replaced by ice?

When you looked beyond the veil

To gather moments to bring me back

To capture all that you

Had lost?

Did you miss me

As trapped behind the glass

My cries fell like snowflakes?

Did you miss me then

As much as I missed

Myself?

© All original writing copyright Chris Nelson 2000-2021

Don’t Let Me Down

Tags

Communication, creative, Creative writing, death, faith, isolation, poems, poetry, Relationships, verse, writing

Don’t let me down
Or leave me here,
Just cut me down
And disappear,
Don’t let me know
Or tell me when,
The cruellest blow
Bury me then,
Don’t let me breathe
And suffocate,
In lies you weave
It gets too late,
Don’t let my song
Hang in the air,
With words so wrong
And none to spare,
Don’t let me walk
With only hate,
Whilst others stalk
The open gate,
Don’t let me down
Or leave me here,
Just cut me down
I’ll disappear.

© All original writing copyright Chris Nelson 2000-2020

Blank Eyes

Tags

age, Communication, creative, death, dream, free-form, isolation, loss, nostalgia, poems, poetry, verse, writing

He stares at me with the resignation of a man
Who knows what is to be,
Blank eyes
Cold-grey like a quarry
Dis-used,
Abandoned,
Reflecting the past like faded notes
On a calendar,
On a piano,
Its tune familiar like a face
I once knew
Appearing through the mist
Like a bird
Lost on its journey to find the warmth
Of a new day rising
In the East,
In the South,
He stares at me like a shadow
As if all he sees is beyond me,
Through me,
Pasts and futures bound with weeds
Wrapped in the inevitable,
And for a moment
A second at least,
I recognise those empty eyes,
The greying, decaying stubble
That sprouts on his face
Hides in the cuts of time,
And withers like forgotten fruit;
He stares at me as if he wants
To watch me pluck each orb,
Replace it with my own
And see me as I am;
He stares as if, at any moment
I will know him
Then watch him walk away,
He stares.

© All original writing copyright Chris Nelson 2000-2020

Sell Me to the Crows

Tags

creative, Crows, death, faith, Freedom, Mountain, poems, poetry, thoughts, verse, writing

I’ve walked these streets too long at night,

Know every broken turn,

And when I vanish in the light,

I do not feel it burn.

I’ve sat upon the table’s head,

And humbly served its guest,

I’ve listened to the words you said,

Responded to the jest.

I’ve followed you along your path,

And tried to guide you too,

My hands wrapped tight around your snath,

To carve a way askew.

I’ve made the choices that you feared,

Torn down the bloodied wall,

Then hid behind the paper scared,

Just waiting for the fall.

So lead me to the mountain high,

And sell me to the crows,

So I at last can see the sky,

And know what no-one knows.

 

© All original writing copyright Chris Nelson 2000-2019

 

Walk Away

Tags

creative, death, Ghosts, Longing, loss, Love, poems, poetry, verse, Walk away, writing

And when you leave

Don’t turn around

Or leave the door ajar,

Just walk away

Without a smile

Don’t look me in the eye.

I’ll strip away

The years between

And hold them in my hands,

The days we stole

Without a word

And meaning in a glance.

I’ll carve them all

Into my skin

The hours that we shared,

The joke we knew

Would always end

When laughter turned to tears.

So when you go

Don’t blow a kiss

To ease you on your way,

Just walk away

I’ll watch you leave

Through gently drowning eyes.

 

© All original writing copyright Chris Nelson 2000-2019

 

Gone (Light and Dark)

Tags

creative, death, Gone, Human nature, Life, loss, poems, poetry, thoughts, verse, writing

I read the fickle words you wrote

Scribbled on a post-it note,

False sentiment caught in my throat

Made me gag and made me choke.

I heard the flowing eulogy

The standard one and not for me,

As standing there for all to see

You hung your words upon the tree.

I watched you talk of you and I

And look so meekly to the sky,

And as you spoke of when and why

To my replacement you mouthed ‘hi’.

 

I read the fickle words you wrote

But what more did I expect?

A heart torn open

Bleeding free –

A life cut short to be with me?

I heard the flowing eulogy

But I was only lost at sea

And ships will sail

And ever will –

And life goes on without me still.

I watched you talk of you and I

But true I never let you know

The secrets that

I hoped you saw –

And now I’m gone, forever more.

 

© All original writing copyright Chris Nelson 2018