The Journey
Poetry
by Chris Brennan
Poems for the Journey Home
That Too Will Pass
That too will pass
And a star will shine
And you will look up and know
That a dreams a star
That lights the night
And draws you ever on
Be brave
Be foolish
Reach far and dream
Let the brightest star be yours
Honour your heart
Though the night is dark
Trust
It will be
You’ll see
Perhaps One Day
And perhaps one day
You will chance upon a great sage
And she will look at you
Twisted and contorted
Into your peculiar version of reality
And say to you
“ The only way out is out”
And you will stare back at her
With that expression
That you reserve for idiots and reply
“Tell me something I don’t know”
And all she will say to you is
“I just did”
Eight of Swords
The swords of the yesterday lie lifeless at your feet
Without their masters
Threat less and still
Calling out to you for life
And you blinded by fear
Cowering in terror at their sight
As if they, insentient, had harmed you
Long gone the ghosts that wielded threat
Long past the hand that struck
Their weapons are yours now
You have paid life’s price
And in turn your pain has yielded fruit
Old foe now servant
Waiting for your touch for life
For eyes blinded by fear to know
Hunger Hunts
Hunger hunts
The good earth bares its flesh
To the blade
Dreams that don’t mount the white stallion
Fade with the night
Entropy is potential waiting to decay
Hope hopes the dreamer dreams
The wind fills the set sail
Distant lands and fortune beckons
On the quayside the dreamer tends to broken hope
Tomorrow he will be ready
Today the ocean calls
Potential is a drawn bow
Waiting for a dream
Whose time has come to fly
Hope is an eagle with broken wings
Entropy is decay
Waiting for hope to die
I Started Writing
I started writing to flush out my demons
To route them on the points of pens
And drown them in rivers of ink
Then inter their scattered fragments
In cheap school copy book tombs
This was my battle plan
Like all plans balanced on perspective
Reliant on complicity
I deceived myself thinking they thought like me
But they were warriors
Unlike me they hung though
Guerilla warfare raged in my sorry soul
The enemy struck I felt his blade
But when I turned he was lost in the undergrowth
Of my parched earth
I smelled their scent and it reeked of resilience
I saw their reflection and it was blinding strength
I heard their echo and it was the throb of courage
It turned out they weren’t demons after all
They were reality dispossessed by a notion
They prevailed they won the day
Terrorist became freedom fighter became nation builder
Looking back now I see that freedom was my flaw
My only enemy the notion that oppressed my sovereign soul
The silly notion that I thought I was
Life Hinges on a Chance
All you can ever buy is that which is being sold
All you can take is that which is given
You can however choose to give all that you are
Nestled deep within me
Is the dream I dare not be
The me I fear to give
To a you who may not take
Life hinges on a chance
A dice seldom rolled
A pot seldom won
All I ask of this life
Is the courage to place my bet
Maydays and Mondays
Maydays and Mondays always start things
And isn’t it great to start
Anything
Never mind something
A girl I knew once blew my mind
Then blew the dust from my cover
Get thee out there she bellowed
And me meekly squirming
Am I not (out there)
That was years ago
She owns the fortune five hundred
And me
I’m broke
I guess I never listened
No I never got out there
Much is Possible
Much is possible
It is the will to do
That is in short supply
Ah! Will, the reluctant warrior
The love child of belief
The bastard of despair
Entropy mans peak of choice
Walks hand in hand
With comfort and stillborn dreams
Nothing Happens
I’ve read every self-help book
And still haven’t helped myself
And then out of the blue it came
The reason I go nowhere
Is that I go nowhere
The human race is impaled
On the long finger
Great intentions
Are but great intentions
Going nowhere and fast
The secret is action
The malady is inaction
The remedy is do something
Nothing happens because
Nothing happens
Success is for fools
Success is for fools
Who haven’t grasped the concept of life
Building sandcastles oblivious to the turning tide
Who haven’t seen a shoot break the frozen earth
Intent only on being a daffodil
Who don’t know that and acorn is an oak rich in itself
What’s to be found but what you are
What can you gain but yourself
What good is anything else
When it’s passing
When the day is done and the tally tolled
Will you swell with pride in your fortune
Or grasp at the straw you’ve become
Hoping it’s good enough to hold you
Through the night ahead
The Seed that Lies Dormant
The seed that lies dormant
Meets no resistance
It is the seed that longs to grow
That must fight for the light
Success and entropy have this in common
Their path is worn and weary
Failure is that rare courage to face adversity
To strive for a dream
Growth is the journey to what you are
Sailing from safe harbour
In search of new worlds
That you have seen in your hearts dream
The ocean calls to the hero’s heart
The storm swells and threatens
Victory’s price is pain
Few have the heart to pay
Remember my son when the wind blows chill
And the harbour seems a blessing
The dream of a heart is the blood of the sea
A soul in full sail a sight to behold
Waiting
The teeth of yesterday sink deep into my flesh
Shark like
They tear at me
And I helpless fear bound
Craving a safe place
A haven from the winds that howl
Oh mother was I sired for this
A cross would be a blessing
I stand, I wait
For what will be
While armies mass at my bastion gates
Long memories with old scores to settle
Ancient scars recalling pain
Hell will be to pay this day
No quarter asked no quarter granted
What must be will surely be
All my yesterdays stack up before me now
Waiting only for their chance to strike
And me
I
Waiting
Only
The Worst Thing of All is Hopelessness
The worst thing of all is hopelessness
Other than that it’s not too bad
Where there’s hope the bud blooms
The heart soars, the mouth smiles
We’re a tough breed
We don’t need a lot
Just that faint light, that one ray
That says come on now
That glimmer that split’s the darkness
And explodes the entropy
Into a nuclear furnace of hope
That shatters chains and prison walls
And drives the weary soul on, ever on
To what it must be
A rose must be a rose
An oak, an oak
And you, you
Hopelessness is an acorn beneath a rock
A seed that falls on concrete
A fish in a baked riverbed
Death holding sway over life
Decay over growth
Root yourself always in good ground
And look to the light
Life will take care of the rest
We Tend to Lock Our Greatest Treasures Away
We tend to lock our greatest treasures away
Relying on foot soldiers to take the day
It’s easy to pretend
Risking trinkets
A precious kind of courage is needed
To wager what you are
For this is your meaning
If it falls, you fall
A thought more unbearable than a sun that would not shine
So we form clouds to hide our dazzling brightness
Lest it not dazzle
I think in looking back
We find our lives irrelevant
Except for those few occasions
When we dared to bare our souls
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