My latest venture – and adventure – is painting seascapes 🙂
Drake and Bear – Dachshunds of Daring
Drake and Bear Wreak Havoc
‘Stop that, Bear! You’ll topple it!’ Drake shivered nervously under the garden table as his determined companion stretched his lean
sausage body up the newly-delivered planter. Bear seemed impervious to the swaying blossoms, his excited gaze fixed firmly on
the plastic pompom dangling from an elegant gift tag.
‘Nearly got it!’ he grinned, wriggling his tiny back legs into an almost impossible position.
‘Come and give me a paw, Drake. It’ll be great fun if we can just get our teeth into it!’
‘Oooohh!’ moaned Drake, as the carefully potted planter leaned beyond the point of no return.
Crash!! The whole blooming arrangement of primroses and daffs spattered across the beautifully tiled patio.
‘Got it!’ Bear looked triumphant, the plastic ornament wedged firmly in his grinning jaws. ‘Wanna play?’
He rollicked onto the lawn, fighting an imaginary enemy while vigorously shaking the pompom left to right. ‘Grrrrr!’ he play-fought, ‘Come on, Drake. You know you want to!’
Drake edged reluctantly round the piles of earth and broken plants, tutting and moaning, and then his puppy side suddenly kicked in.
‘Give it to me!’ he yelped, sinking his teeth into the soft plastic. ‘Nah! It’s mine!’ Bear barked back, and a furious tug of war ensued.
‘Oi!’ yelled a voice from the kitchen. ‘What do you two think you are playing at?’
The pups halted their tussling, looking guilty and sheepish all at once. Drake automatically hunched down into his ‘it wasn’t me’
pose, while Bear toughed it out with a nonchalant air.
The Master crossed the soil-strewn patio in three quick strides and grabbed both pups by their collars.
‘No!’ he yelled, pointing to the fallen planter. ‘You do not destroy the plants!’ His usually kind face held a menacing look and both
daxies looked at him intently, trying their best to look penitent.
They hung their heads silently, while the Master put their leads on, attaching them securely to the outside tap.
‘You can just wait there till I tidy up this mess!’ he glared. ‘And no treats for either of you today.’ Drake whimpered, lowering his
bushy eyebrows to glare at his mischievous sidekick.
‘You’ve gone and done it again, Bear. That’s the last time I let you drag me into one of your dog-brained schemes!’
Bear just grinned.
‘Scaredy cat!’ he smirked. ‘You know they won’t stay angry for long.’
‘Wait till Mistress gets back. All will be forgiven, you’ll see.’
The Tree that caught the Moon
Her blackened branches cradled there
A lustrous gift beyond compare
Spread, wide, yet undeserving, she
Upheld the night sky’s deity
An orb immense, whose borrowed light
Suffused the tree with pure delight
Though leaf and bud had left her frame
This honour magnified her name
Her royal crown and steadfast bole
Well-suited to a starring role
As tall she stood, and proud and fine
The expertise of her design
Enveloped Heaven’s spectral sphere
Her exclusivity now clear
She swayed and smirked at trees around
Convinced she stood on hallowed ground
But ere her branches stooped to bow
A darkened shadow kissed her brow
Her love departed all too soon
As she, bereft, let slip the moon
Where the Land meets the Sea
I needed to be
Where the land meets the sea
To release my soul
From this goldfish bowl
And Heavenward soar
Where worries no more
Confounded my heart
My fears could depart
When viewed from above
And tempered with love
Dilemmas once great
Would soon dissipate
And clearly I’d see
Where the land meets the sea
The Pause
The button pressed, the breath inhaled
The music silenced, soundless
The players in their tiny space
When once their lives were boundless
New rules began to take on form
And slowly they’d be tested
The tenets of their former faith
No more on concrete rested
As eyes and hearts now locked in fear
More questions formed than answers
The certainty was some would fall
While others would be dancers
But Oh! How long? And why? And how?
Their restlessness would harm them
Until a stillness absolute
Could pacify and charm them
If hell was in a life on pause
Then Heaven flourished too
With time to re-evaluate
The good that man can do
Adventuress
In my mind and heart I am an adventuress
Chained to a rock in silent helplessness
Raised for a moment in surging wave
Lifted high with the power to save
Freedom I glimpse, and desire to dance
Leaping and breathless in happenstance
Weightless until with a sudden yank
Links in the chain slipped and down I sank
Yet, in the mud, the murk, the mire
Still burns the ember of my desire
Legacy
If all my muddled ways unravelled
And lay spread out beneath your feet
If all the tangled paths I’ve travelled
Were etched out plainly on my balance sheet
If all my thoughts of joy and sadness
Were in one vessel gathered up
And all my words of spite and kindness
Filled one enormous paper cup
Would I amount to point and purpose?
Would I a gift to mankind be?
Was I, despite my faults, a blessing?
Was mine a life of quality?
O, knit the threads to shape the shapeless
And point all roads to Destiny
Then sift the thoughts and words to filter
Goodness from the depths of me
Symmetry
I can reach you in swift time
Past millennia, past star paths, past space
I can draw you with words sublime
Yet not capture your beautiful face
I can hold you with sweet rhyme
Without breaking apart our embrace
I can touch you with tender mime
Yet never your symmetry trace
Saviour
You entered our landscape of suffering and suffered yourself for our sake
You knew we were addicts recovering and trapped by our every mistake
Our grief over goodness distorted would daily unsettle our souls
And though we found routes to oblivion
We constantly questioned our roles
Our planet breathtaking and awesome
With wonders we can’t comprehend
Yet daily humanity spoils it
Its sickness and sin without end
Our peace we ourselves cannot furnish
No power have we to put right
We can only welcome our Saviour
Acknowledging His is the fight
Until
The wing that once bore her aloft
Lies ragged on the sill
The soaring dreams, the lofty sights
The moving scenes now still
The long tomorrows endlessly
Lie winged on winds she’ll never see
So brief her days, but full and free
All life was hers, until
Bus Stop Musings 