A life of fifty-two weeks another year A deck of cards including the jokers too I will contemplate truth and what makes it true On this New Year's Eve as I count fifty-two Years a deck of cards the game which keeps me here:
+ + +
To tell the truth come what may That a truer world might be I embrace the ones before We came who went before us To dance on a different day I thank them that they tried for And lived for as they died for Life discovered and love shared Love lived life loved intensely As pure possibility
As the ones before prepared Life is love which we can see Love which we cannot still more In which life and love agree To embrace the ones who dared Who by this grace restore us To embrace the ones before Who dared to come before us And remember what they cared For as possibility
Even through their darkest doubt Even doubt as dark as now It was worth caring about And still is somewhere somehow Ancient wings renewed shake free Unfold new reality I embrace the ones before Who danced on a different day Who died for what they lived for To tell the truth come what may
+ + +
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Dec 28, 2006, 4:42 pm
Ars Longa
a sonnet
Life-poets like my mother die young Her life remaining as poetry Mere mortals like me live on and on Struggling somehow to get our song sung Making a fuss and then we are gone Losing our bet with mortality
I can race against time all I want But my judgment is not up to me If fate is kind one poem might haunt Some odd book somewhere or two or three But leave legacy to what other People say long after I have died And been led into light stupefied An old man to meet my young mother
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Dec 28, 2006, 3:56 am
For Her
I remember when I saw her giving up How it made me feel like giving up to see After a lonely lifetime of living up To high ideals some others misunderstood Perfectly proper invisibility And sacrificing self to the greater good Thinking of self last but first of another Armed with only kindness against cruelty She did the best she could to be a mother Did pretty well too and she did it for me
And after a whole lifetime of living up To high ideals some others misunderstood In that place of death I saw her giving up Sacrificing herself to the greater good
For the joys which were not and the sorrows which were I do the best I can and I do it for her
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Dec 27, 2006, 8:29 pm
Through Bamboo
a sonnet for someone
I sing a song through a bone-flute of bamboo As curling upward my voice like smoke rising Emboldened sings about love and me and you A song sung through bamboo can be surprising
Some people talk too much as they come and go But you and I have talked enough now that we Know each other so well we already know Transcending what could be said we would just be
Tender feelings are projected on the clouds By the pink-and-purple setting sun below Beckoning us rise up there above the crowds Of people who will never know what we do
Curling upward our voices like smoke rising Our song sung through bamboo will be surprising
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Dec 26, 2006, 8:11 pm
The Hopeful Heart Knows
a sonnet
The sun is soaring stronger If only step by step but every day The light is leaping longer
Winter is on the walk now making way If only by a moment at a time Impatient spring is pacing in the wings
The great wheel turns from sublime to sublime To hasten the day when the robin sings Again for those who waited in the dark
The landscape changes unmistakably Each time I go outside and to the park But spring cannot come soon enough for me
Sweet secrets lie buried under the snows Wonders which only the hopeful heart knows
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Dec 25, 2006, 9:01 pm
This Mischief I Make in the Night
Why do my books have four more pages In hardcover than in soft? I would ask of bookmaking sages Who soar much higher aloft Than some lowly scrivener like me Yet somehow it all turns out right I just write the poetry This mischief I make in the night
I wonder if those pages are those Stout outer ones thick for the ages? As long as the binder knows What those four pages are for I just hope somebody reads them Takes good care of them and needs them No matter how they might I need them more Because they bear my fondest fantasy
Yet somehow it all turns out right This mischief I make in the night
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Dec 25, 2006, 3:56 am
A Set of Three on Christmas Eve
One:
Good Day and Good Night
I have decided to tell everyone That I am in bed with the flu today Till Christmas passes and the year is done I cannot bear it any other way
I would like to be a philanthropist But have no money with which to endow What I would like and am no optimist I cannot afford to buy my books now Nor coffee for Grandma's percolator There will always be good work for later If unfortunately not done by me
Everyone would be on my Christmas list But all I have is all this poetry So I will stay in bed all day and write Hibernating to return with the sun
Till Christmas passes and the year is done I wish everyone good day and good night
Two:
For My Father
My father you have so much blood on your hands You made your living killing And yet you would be the one who understands If only you were willing
From you I learned that life is not fair Kill or be killed death lives everywhere
You are old now as am I
Here on the battlefield man to man Let us make peace as we die If it is not too late if we can If you are willing
After the killing
Three:
In the Dark
Christmas Eve turned out to be Quiet and harmonious My first thought had been to flee But that proved erroneous
It turned out to be just fine Not so bad at all for me Through a twinkle a divine Spark of love and synergy
Though my heart was bleak and stark Christ was born there in the dark
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Dec 24, 2006, 6:21 pm
War Sonnet
Blessed are the dead who feel no more pain We were trusting and easily misled Lied to we went chasing falsified goals Along with thousands and daily more dead By little antichrists who sold their souls A long time ago but how could we know Our leaders had been leading us astray?
We never would have enabled their lies If we had known then what we know today But now as you read this one of us dies
None with a pure heart ever dies in vain Leaving our dreams behind us as we go Now we will never be misled again Blessed are the dead who feel no more pain
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI + Semper Fi
Dec 23, 2006, 8:47 pm
Christmas 2006: Absolute Aloneness
a sonnet
I am going to hide in my room this year For Christmas as for my New Year's Eve birthday Overwhelmed by anxiety filled with fear I will wait it out until it goes away
I love the Christ of Christmas but for the rest It is simply unbearable for me now As I taste the worst remembering the best It all seems a bitter mockery somehow
Strangers attempt to make it better but they Cannot see that which is broken inside me "My soul is weary of my life" as Job said
May Christ have mercy at his Nativity On me as I excuse myself to my bed And not to sleep there but to weep instead
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Dec 22, 2006, 7:43 pm
Of Higher Choice
We come we go And all too fast Before we know Our time has passed Unseemly haste Drives on and on Till life is waste And we are gone
We come we go But in the rush Before we know Forget the hush
Of higher choice
And all too fast That inward voice Of angels near Is drowned and killed
Or is it we Who fail to hear And lose the light Who once were free But threw away Our own birthright To fully be Ourselves today?
Unseemly haste It seems somehow Brings future past And steals the now As higher choice Goes unchosen Freedom frozen Stifled and stilled
Unseemly haste Drives on and on Till life is waste And we are gone
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Dec 22, 2006, 5:02 am
Delighted to be Invited
As another good day ends And a new good night begins The lovers pass with a kiss Sun and moon as tender friends In this game anyone wins Who gives the world half a chance And the only game is this
The world has been good to me Taught what I needed to know (Usually the hard way) And the possibility Of life and how far we go Would appear essentially Left open for each to say
I am delighted To be invited To join in the dance
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Dec 20, 2006, 8:46 pm
Two by Two
How does it help the cause of another To destroy me? Having grown up as brother and brother Can we not see That when one hurts the other one hurts too?
You are one with me as I am with you
There will never be peace I know Until injustice cease And so Brokenness seems to go on forever Even though nothing can ever sever The bond of the blood of humanity
In pieces now we grieve Yet secretly believe That one hope remains for me as for you Burning behind these clouds we see above Rising in you as it rises in me
That the blood of humanity run true Two hearts at a time two by two through love
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Dec 19, 2006, 8:18 pm
Soil and Sky
Small planet of a fading star I know how it feels to be small To feel like a fading star too Or planet smaller than you are
You two and I know after all That "might makes right" was never true That greed is rotten at its root And that the proud someday must fall
My world! My day! This right-sized earth And sun which bring the field to fruit Are synthesis of death and birth
I hear the singing duststorm call When air and land go hand in hand And wonder sadly vainly why Men cannot live like soil and sky
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Dec 19, 2006, 1:17 pm
What She Meant After All
last things last
Excuse me for leaving such a mess May those I have trespassed forgive me May they remember the best of me But may not my follies outlive me
Save my books and burn the rest of me
Better save all that music I wrote I suppose as I think about it Having poured myself into each note Perhaps some choir could sing (or shout) it
Nothing exceeded quite like excess Always "colorful" (if not frugal) I was quite a character I guess Just spare me the bagpipes and bugle
I recall how Grandma said "the less Said the better" and now I can see What she meant after all (and agree)
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Dec 18, 2006, 11:21 pm
Embraced by the Moon
So crisp and crystalline this day has been And now the sun hands over to the night Such clarity as is but seldom seen While the stars reveal blue diamond light Out one by one through their blue velvet screen
The moon hangs ripe and heavy like a pearl I only wish I could give it to you Right here on your breast it would shine so bright Worn cool round the neck of a pretty girl
But it follows you whatever you do Sparkles in your eyes and haloes your hair Your radiant shoulders bear witness too Embraced by the moon my soul and the air
Some light some magic some December dew And I remember how it feels to love Within my heart again but as never Before tonight for this is forever Looking at you: as below so above
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Dec 18, 2006, 5:56 am
The Constancy of Change
Trained to inhibition Brought up by repression Drained to inanition Brought down by depression
I have never understood life at all But when I take a walk Or when we have a talk I find that I can rise just as I fall
And then no one can see What the matter might be
With me
Brought down by depression Drained to inanition Brought up by repression Trained to inhibition
I have never understood life at all The constancy of change Makes each turn blind and strange And yet I rise however hard I fall
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Dec 17, 2006, 6:37 pm
Sonnet at the Winter Solstice
This solstice is the return of the light At which the sun stands still then to decide That each succeeding day be made more bright Although it takes until the other one A moment at a time and day by day The summer solstice greets winter's work done And pauses then to turn the other way
The yin and the yang of the year elide And I am reminded of you somehow Written in my heart and the sky above As both winter and summer solstice now Become two eyes in the face of my love
Another year the sun has smiled its way Two eyes in the face of my love dawn day
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Dec 16, 2006, 10:58 pm
Making Homemade Poetry
When you make a thing yourself you care more Than if you hire someone else to do it
For me making things is what I live for To have an idea and get down to it Enjoying the ride as much as the pride Of doing it myself and showing you On a rainy night snug and warm inside Just what it really is all day I do
I enjoy making homemade poetry
I try to speak clearly and concisely And I find it satisfying to be Able to say a thing rather nicely If occasionally in any case In competition with no one but me Doing it wearing a smile on my face
I know who I am and what I came for When you make a thing yourself you care more
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Dec 16, 2006, 5:32 pm
HumanKIND
You are right for you: I am right for me One side for me and another for you Therefore let us agree to disagree And save ourselves the trouble to argue
I look back over life and I can see It never seems to help when people do If others must then let them fight and fuss But all ideas are free to everyone
We ourselves are satisfied to be us Content still when all arguments have done Their worst to divide and conquer us all The truth remains that humankind is one
So let us lift each other when we fall Since having disagreed we can agree The truth remains that humankind is one You are right for you: I am right for me
Though humankind seems to have lost its mind Falling sadly short of its name We humans--even now--can still be kind And we two remain just the same
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Dec 15, 2006, 9:17 pm
"Love"
Coming up fifty-two Enjoying it daresay I have a lot to do And this seems like a day As good as any to Celebrate existence Despite the resistance Of life-resistant souls Who grumble from dark holes Where lives lie locked away Entombed alive by choice
I hear a brighter voice Because this is a day As good as any to Celebrate existence Especially my own If by sheer persistence To some summit unknown By most by some dreamed of Which I have heard called "Love"
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Dec 15, 2006, 1:57 am
Never Been the Burying Kind
The family plot proved a faulty scheme I have never been the burying kind My waking life no more real than my dream A butterfly chased with an open mind
I am just starting and starting to know That I mean to write if it takes all night To see how much I can possibly grow As long as it takes till I get it right
Some people say now I can take it slow They mean well they just fail to understand There is no certain milestone of success Along the long road to the promised land
So I will just keep wandering I guess Writing down things of interest I see Most of it very strange some of it true Of interest in any case to me
May it too be of interest to you This word water world I swim in and thrive At least we have something useful to do Since nobody gets out of here alive
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Dec 13, 2006, 5:37 pm
Without Me
Where I was to be laid there lies another A stranger in my grave next to my mother I had to sell it to give what they gave me To a rich liar who promised to save me And now some unknown lies at my Grandpa's feet
The man I trusted to help me was a cheat Some soulless conscienceless attorney And he helped himself to what was left of me So I travel light on this journey The family plot filled up where I should be
Restless unburied rambler alive or dead With an explanation why I never had before A good excuse not to die But put to sea once more
I suppose it is I who am strange instead Or so I feel today And never mind eternity Now as I turn away May they rest in peace: without me
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Dec 12, 2006, 4:15 am
Tragicomedy
Tragedy is easy comedy is hard Everyone knows a broken heart or rumor Of some great misfortune in one's own backyard One has to search to find a sense of humor And then it might be veiled within tragedy At least this is the way it has been for me If you can find a laugh then people love you As they seek relief from their grim day-to-day
Ignore the sword of Damocles above you Perhaps we can find something funny to say Laugh and the world laughs at you and cry alone This is what I do but you have always known
So I will try to say something funny now Finding the risible in the invective Of angry wet hens or a flatulent cow Squawking and farting are still quite effective Or a pink poodle who knows the difference Between tragedy and comedy is how We view the world a matter of perspective It just depends on where we fall off the fence
Since much of our suffering seems elective Let comedy be tragedy's recompense
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Dec 11, 2006, 4:12 pm
Wrong Turn Eternity
I took it to be for eternity But eternity disappointed me Taking a very wrong turn for the worse Decreasing the size of my universe
Eternity might have been a few years Some love some laughter and quite a few tears Some unforgettable memories too I lost you but did I ever have you?
Nobody has anybody ever Eternity it turns out is never
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Dec 11, 2006, 1:50 am
Where Old Sailors Go to Die
I made a fool of myself for love But better for that than for hate Better than sinking to rise above The roaring tide early than late
Now late I want to do it again From what I can remember Having forgotten about the pain Here in this mid-December If only to keep warm In safe harbor from the storm Until the spring returns when I Sail to return no more
There where old sailors go to die Love beckons from the shore
