You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
When there's a shadow
(chorus)
If you really want to
Da da dup da
When there's a journey
(chorus*2)
Da da dup da
(goh doh bae mwa)
(chorus)
Ah! Je voudrais voler
(goh doh bae mwa)
*revised lyrics
You reach for the sun
When there is love
Then you look for the one
And for the promises
There is the sky
And for the heavens
Are those who can fly
You can hear me say
Only if you want to
Will you find a way
If you really want to
You can seize the day
Only if you want to
Will you fly away
da da dup da
Da da dup da
da da dup da
da da da da
(goh doh bae mwa)
You follow the star
When there's an ocean
(goh doh bae mwa)
You sail from afar
And for the broken heart
(goh doh bae mwa)
There is the sky
And for tomorrow
(goh doh bae mwa)
All those who can fly
da da dup da
Da da dup da
da da dup da
da da da da
(goh doh bae mwa)
comme un oiseau d'aile
Ah! Je voudrais voler
comme un oiseau d'aile
d'aile...!
(Ah! I would like to fly like a winged bird)
(goh doh bae mwa)
(chorus)
If you really want to
You can seize the day
Only if you want to
Will you fly away!
Suddenly before my eyes
Who has placed the midnight sky?
Who has placed the midnight sky?
Place a name upon the night
Hues of indigo arise
With them how my spirit sighs
Paint the sky with stars
Only night will ever know
Why the heavens never show
All the dreams there are to know
Paint the sky with stars
So a spirit has to fly
As the heavens seem so far
Now who will paint the midnight star?
Night has brought to those who sleep
Only dreams they cannot keep
I have legends in the deep
Paint the sky with stars
So a spirit has to fly
As the heavens seem so far
Now who will paint the midnight star?
One to set your heart a light
And to make the darkness bright
Paint the sky with stars.
Through fellowship comes our season
Keep coming back and replace
jem
This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches,
A NOISELESS PATIENT SPIDER
A noiseless patient spider,
We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow
Birds and Ships
The birds are singing in your eyes today
Birds may be singing in my eyes this day
(Soothes THIS soul and rights MY reason)
Slowly learn to cast aside
Shields of bitternes and brainy pride
Subtle defenses with sweet grace
Bitter winter then departs
Spring arises in our hearts
give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your
income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience
and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or
to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the
young and with the mothers of families, read theses leaves in the open air every
season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told in school or
church or any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall
be a great poem and have the the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent
lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and
joint of your body... -- Walt Whitman
I mark'd where on a little promontory it stood isolated,
Mark'd how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,
It launch'd forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.
And you O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,
Till the bridge you will need be form'd, till the ductile anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.
--Walt Whitman
man; and along those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes and
they come back as effects. -- H. Melville
Sweet flowers blossom in your smile
The wind and sun are in the words you say
Where might your lonesome lover be?
Sweet flowers blossom when I smile,
but my soul is stormy and my heart blows wild,
My sweetheart rides a ship on the sea. -- Woody Guthrie
Welcomed
the last day of 1999
& the tv networks
display the world's
farewell to the old
the world's peoples
welcoming the new
celebrating their voices
I too
wanting my own
somewhere heard
search for my own
inner music
facing a giant sunflower
print on the wall
rise above it
the music & flower encouraged
rise above it?
I let the music take my body
my arms
stretch themselves
over head
hands
place themselves together
turn & part
invisible dark waters
rise above it
above what?
arms rise again in answer
pantomime
like a teammate signaling
me in a dream
that I've reached
far enough
arms slowly press
back the air around me
pulling myself
out of myself
from dark earth into light
rise & celebrate
a living voice wells up
chest neck jaw & mouth
a contorted face
squeezing out imprisoned
joy from eyes
only now
offered release
invited to taste
sweet fruit
like cool water to a slave
who earned
permission to be enough
as if there wasn't
enough
for anyone to go
around feeling
welcomed
jem
Easter Morning
I slowly woke from a dream
I do not remember
directly
only the emotional residue
echoes in my yearning
body floating with evening
its ancient rhythms
chanting down softly from the stars
you belong here
in this land
this city, street, building,
room & bed right here
right now
I belong
& joy is no longer
a strange
beggar in my heart
Where've you been?
I wonder
but do not question
only bask in the silent warmth
spreading from my chest
out to my arms & finger tips
like an antidote for curari
jem
September Woods
the overstory:
a hawk squeals
it's raining
& acorns blindly
ride gravity
down through leaves
pop
intermittently
like fat brown
droplets of autumn
the understory:
a squirrel wheezes
the damp rises and I
inhale sweet
leaf mould
& it nestles
like a mourning dove
warming that mottled
egg behind my eyes
the interlaced
twigs of my darkness
jem
song/prayer
let me be
let me be
dear God
let me be
let me be
where I am
let me be
let me be
let me be
where I am
no other place
no other man
let me be
let me be
let me be
who I am
let me be
let me be
dear God
let me be
let me be
let me be
grant to me
serenity
I am spirit
let me be
with grace &
dignity
let me be
born to be
let me be
happy joy-
ful & free
let me be
let me fly
up in the sky
let me be
let me be
let me be
let me be
dear God
let me be
jem
homage
all you did was
stand there
immovable magnificence
the rain loudly pouring
allowed me to wrap
grieving arms
around your smooth
stubborness
held my drenched face
against your tenacity
while a thousand branches
did what they
could to shield my broken
soul weeping
wailing in solitude
safely under your
friends oak and pine
today
in the dry autumn
stillness & silence
my companion
a mighty beech has fallen
I had always looked up
drinking in your fullness
I did not see the insect-
ravaged viscera
a wound
thick with rot
blindly hidden
deep inside
I pick at balsa-thin flesh
pulling off chunks of inner
hollowness newly revealed
help to finish time's job
you were probably dying
as you stood for me
that wet afternoon
years ago & I rest here now
leaving collected pebbles
like tears
where men have carved
a chair in you
for other
weary
travelers
jem
at dawn
I am thinking how my dead mother
taught me the power of words
how the jugulars
bulged from her neck like freshly
buried gas lines pushing
up sod like the dead who will not
stay in their graves
how her eyes
ballooned in rage & she swore
the ugliest most potent words with all
her radiant being that shriveled
my scrotum so tightly
a little boy's testicles
ascended
sucked up
wishing they'd never
been born & my brothers & I
only then
knew it meant
something & she grew
large as the black
grackling starling
buzzing the air
tiny & persistent as ink
outside my window this
morning & will not
let me sleep
jem
in the late evening light
a wild turkey unfolds
its wide blackness
by the side of the road
lifting its strangely heavy
round black body like night
in silence
over the cool blacktop
an explosion of darkness
sprays the wild feathers
blurred in black reverse
like a photo negative of fireworks
against a background of clear film
softly falling to the berm
like black snowflakes
the driver
drives on
the body flails helplessly
unable to recover
to lift its great blacknes
s
ever again
jem
Mazeroski Makes It
cruisin' down a Pittsburgh highway
on a sunny winter's day
FM radio playin' jazz
stopped dead while
a special report was read
the Hall of Fame elected Maz
numbness drove through my head
like a frozen rope to forgotten dreams
hands leave the steering wheel
fingers rise to the mouth
with a mind of their own
whistling piercing shreiks
like a kid at Forbes Field
air rushing by the open window
like a flabbergasted crowd
now cheering alone
& wrapped
in an adulthood of glass & steel
hurling a boy's
heart down the road
of history
the odds against him
bottom of his ninth
a line drive
over time's fence & into eternity
jem
Ripe Pears & Mango Tea
There once was a woman who asked if she
could shine her special light on me.
She served ripe pears & mango tea,
like a bird, she softly sang to me,
she softly sang to me.
O, she taught me how to take
pleasure by giving for its own sake,
her hand caressed my timid face,
our heads in the clouds without a trace,
my soul opened wide as the sky,
the sky,
my soul opened wide as the sky.
Life was sweet for a while,
then she said with her smile,
I want someone else, my spirit is free
& O, she said goodbye to me,
she said goodbye to me.
Fool I am, it's plain to see,
to give my heart to one like she,
A hole in my chest as deep as the sea,
the sea,
a hole as deep as the sea.
Beware ripe pears & mango tea,
unless you want to sail like me,
& sell your soul to the sea,
the sea,
& sell your soul to the sea.
jem
Love Poem
(after Neruda)
my friend
body of a woman, giver of life
white hills, white thighs
freckled neck & face
you looked like a world
lying in surrender
my hands ached to explore
the words on my tongue
dig & find a vein,
a finger of gold, the stars
shuddered through your body
you challenge me to live in ambiguity
to be uncertain, & you know
this is difficult for me because I love you
body of skin, of moss, of trees & sun!
oh, the chalices of your breasts!
oh, your eyes of absence!
oh, the roses of the nest in your thighs!
oh, your musical voice in pleasure!
my friend, body of a woman
I want you too much to give-in to wanting
answers, to the control of reason,
I surrender to aching pleasure & joy
you make no promises
I persist in your mysterious grace
my thirst has no boundaries
I need no answers, merely to live!
body of a woman
you are that rocky gorge my soul hikes
among the fragrant pines
ferns & boulders in the white waters
where my eternal thirst flows
my weariness
the infinite ache in my knees,
my heart
jem
father & son
asleep in the bed of my childhood
I writhe in pain as he playfully
twists my toes good
morning in the early chill of starlight
a child's moon face clouds over
scowls like a dull god at the uninvited ritual
a cosmic random greeting starting my days
wrestling in my own confused universe
angry eyes flash rage like perpetual lightning
the blade of my jaw cuts
across the room into the man's darkness
today's wrinkled body lies asleep
dad's toothless mouth hangs open
dry as a desert cave full of bones
tucked in sun-warmed sand
blind eyes stubbornly closed
the steeled windows of his large
hairy ears now painted shut
shades of deafness drawn
against the noisy morning light
I twist the old man's
toes & his mouth squeezes closed
contorts into a painless grin
a smile of recognition for our dark rite
the bright ancient scythe of moon
on his face mows down my anger
dad never believed in playing god
like a lost child he lets
the almighty universe of chaos
wrestle with decisions & this morning
turns to a silent cloudless sky to choose
the final hour of his last days
jem
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The Boy Who Held His Breath
John E. Moyer, M.Ed.
