Asleep and dreaming

The land of dreams is a strange and cryptic place
What do those dreams signify.
When you see rapid eye movement in a new born asleep just what is in their dreams?

Asleep and dreaming

Before the Dawn and wakefulness
There within the land of dreams
She tossed and turned as in distress;
Ah, but is she as she seems?

Where in her rolling firm closed eyes
Does she wander in her mind?
And in there are there sneaks and lies?
In dreams her eyes they are not blind.

Then after dawn comes wakefulness
And she leaves the land of dreams.
It’s here she learns of such distress;
Ah, but is all as all seems?

While, here there’s much that is unkind,
In her hearing sneaks and lies,
And there’s much that is a grind,
As tears flow from her open eyes.

When wide awake there’s much that’s true
And oft times folk may well be kind.
When moonbeams cast their gentle hue
Some sweeter thoughts may come to mind.

Long after dusk comes restfulness,
Back within the land of dreams.
Though what she dreams of none may guess;
Ah, but is all as all seems?

© Trevor Morgan, 19/6/2018

No healing of hate

I tire of lists of past wrongs. Whether it is complaints of colonialism of long ago or religious or political crimes. “Let the dead bury the dead.”(Luke9:60) There is much joy to be found in life.

No healing of hate

The hatred of a foe to some is sweet.
It justifies the rages that they feel.
All vengeance they may savour like some treat,
But causing pain does not cause hate to heal.
In time it turns inwards towards the soul
And harms the very thing it seeks to save.
The spirit then will never seem quite whole,
The path of hatred will at end deprave
And justify the darkest crimes of all
And lead in all things always on to strife.
Such ways may only lead men to the fall
So that they waste the very best of life.
For hate and rage lead no one on to Grace
But make this world of ours a sad and dismal place.

© Trevor Morgan, 22/6/2018

From: “Tales of the sorrowful”

Shocks and Rages

The Hymn “Rock of Ages” was composed in a storm.
Augustus Toplady was sheltering in a crevice in the rock face of Burrington Coombe in a storm when the idea came to him.
I used to cycle to Burrington regularly before leaving home to join the navy.
It is my favourite place in the Mendip Hills.
This idea came to me walking next to a cliff on the Island of Mull.

SELRES_70977eeb-0cf9-4e2a-86a0-6b71faecfab3SELRES_7aba13e1-bb74-46f9-b297-7001ea84d30bThe “Rock of Ages” Burrington Coombe todaySELRES_7aba13e1-bb74-46f9-b297-7001ea84d30bSELRES_70977eeb-0cf9-4e2a-86a0-6b71faecfab3

Shocks and Rages
Tune: Rock of ages)

Shocks and rages come to me
Strangers seek our injury.
Through the murder and the blood
Unforgiven by the good.
Despite smiles handshakes and charm
We got blows intent on harm.

Shocks and rages stay with me
With the scars of injury,
Through the need to weep and cry
We don’t know the reason why,
Is there reason here at all
As thugs answer Satan’s call.

Shocks and rages could make me
Inflict unjust injury.
Wielding such mighty hammer blows
Not sure who may be the foes;
Craving vengeance with a lust
Can make good folk act unjust.

Shocks and rages we’ll control
Not let wrath now taint each soul.
Justice we must all uphold
Like the martyrs did of old,
Not blows done in rage’s heat
But foes brought to their judgement’s seat.

© Trevor Morgan
16/6/2018

From: “Typists in the towers”

Note:
First draft written days after the mass murders at the World Trade Centre, New York, 11 September 2001.

Sonnet – Lovers Unconsoled

There is no easy way out of loss, out of bereavement.

Sonnet – Lovers Unconsoled

So lonely are the lovers unconsoled,
Now counsellors have listened to their words.
The one they love they will no longer hold;
While souls in grief just cannot soar like birds
And emptiness is not a thing to share.
But mundane tasks are still there to be done,
While sympathy well may be everywhere,
In grief there is a process to be run.
Voids in the soul are opened up by grief
And whilst it’s hard to ever see an end,
With time and little things there is relief,
Whether it is with children or a friend.
While there is horror in a bloody strife
Joy will be found when getting on with life.

© Trevor Morgan 14/6/2018

Sonnet – Final Despair

Many leave us in despair for what they had not done;
Live today try not to be despondent.

Sonnet – Final Despair

He gazed upon a shipwreck and he saw it was his life
With all the bits of Hope along the shore
For Fate it seems she likes to twist the knife,
A missed chance passed beyond him like before.
Ambition was in bits like flotsam now;
Each little piece like what just might have been
Turned his beach to a sort of mess somehow;
This was a thing he wished he had not seen.
To seek to do good work leads to a fall,
To strive with might and main a pointless thing,
To dream you might achieve a siren’s call;
It’s life not death that bears the poison sting!
The earth it spiralled on about the sun,
This dying microbe grieved for things not done.

© Trevor Morgan, 9/6/2018

From: “Tales of Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians”

Sonnet – Dylan Sings Eternally

In Welsh mythology Dylan sang so beautifully his voice did not die.
It is still heard in the winds over the Severn Sea.
It is a good choice of name for a singer with a beautiful voice, but perhaps not for any average singer.

Sonnet – Dylan Sings Eternally

So Dylan drifts about and softly sings
Off coasts he can be heard in calm or squall.
His fingers may have ceased to pluck the strings,
His gods it seemed had gone, had met their fall.
Yet Dylan seems content, his songs lived on;
The winds across the Severn Sea hum sweet.
This poet, this great bard, cannot be gone
So long as folk have hearts, good hearts that beat
And souls that seek to soar up with the birds
Proclaiming out aloud, of life, of love,
Of all that may be said with rhythmic words
That like the birds soar everywhere above.
There’s more than merely words within a lay;
Through poesy and through song Love’s on display.

© Trevor Morgan, 8/6/2018

I’ll Leave You

Love poems should be brief.
Love, that whirlwind experience of falling in love is confusing enough as it is!

I’ll Leave You

I’ll leave you when my love for you is dead.
When this internal ache has ceased and troubles me no more;
Then, I’ll seek another star
And follow it faithful as I did you
And worship with a love as true.
But as yet my love is young and strong,
So, I remain with you where I belong.
And may I be with you and you with me forever,
To face eternal strife and harmony together.

© Trevor Morgan 1968 & 2018

Well maybe they can be a little longer, but not too long:

No chance of this!

Time and circumstances can bend
Even the most inflexible of spirits.
Time and circumstances can end
Even the most demanding desires.
Like dripping water on a stone
Time can wear away a love,
Until it leaves your heart alone.

Old experience can cool
Even the hottest spirit.
Old experience is no fool
So listen to it.
“Let everyone love and learn;
But whilst loving, live and learn”

© Trevor Morgan 1967 & 2018

Well here we are still together even after all the bickering, or maybe because of it!

No chance of this!

My second theme in my poetry writing was Love.
Well it is a major part of what we are!

No chance of this!

Time and circumstances can bend
Even the most inflexible of spirits.
Time and circumstances can end
Even the most demanding desires.
Like dripping water on a stone
Time can wear away a love,
Until it leaves your heart alone.

Old experience can cool
Even the hottest spirit.
Old experience is no fool
So listen to it.
“Let everyone love and learn;
But whilst loving, live and learn”

© Trevor Morgan 1967 and 2018

Fights ahead

I came across a new word, Kuffarophobia.
This is the irrational hatred of non-Muslims by some Muslims.
Like all hate it has to be challenged and confronted and not appeased.
Sadly many leaders just do not think that way, until too late.
(And no, I do not hate the religions of others)

Fights ahead

Now who can debate with irrational hate
Discuss with old books from the past?
Alas, now too late it seems a dark fate,
So, we’re left here all sad and aghast.

We may feel lost, our fate, storm tossed
As we cope with the hatred and bile.
Through all the cost, we may seem, star-crossed;
The brave they stay true all the while.

While none may debate with irrational hate
Where madness possesses each mind.
Fate ever late will bring forth the Great,
Where life here had seemed so unkind.

We’ll turn and we’ll stand and face all at hand,
And drive back the hallowers of hate.
For we know that here, this is Our land,
Let the bigots of bile face their fate.

© Trevor Morgan, 28/5/2018

Laura’s Starlight

The vile scandal of child rapes in Rotherham is a horror story.
One of the survivors has written a book about this and the murder of her sister, Laura, in a so-called, honour killing.
This song lyric was inspired by one paragraph in Sarah’s book.

Laura’s Starlight

There’s a star in the night
High above all the spite
But the cause of great loss still remains.
The sun’s in the sky
And the song birds fly high
But a whole town is riven with pains.

Dark waters had hid
The dark deeds demons did
The day that dear Laura was slain.
Searchers had found
Some blood on the ground
And a shoe that bore a red stain.

Now Hope won’t elope
In the arms of despair,
There will be no surrender to fear.
The starlight so bright
Shines down its sweet light,
An Angel seems now with us here.

With strength, we shall share,
Here and everywhere,
The burdens of what must be done.
Till we set to flight
All lewd lust and spite
And justice and truth will have won.

 

© Trevor Morgan, June 2016