Our Future
A
Poems Collection
by
Charles Elford
Our Future
Copyright © 2009 by Charles Elford
All Rights Reserved
Smashwords Edition 1.1 November 2009
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OUR FUTURE
Have you ever on a starry night,
Gazed deep and high into the sky,
Stirred yourself and felt you might
Dare yourself to dream to try,
To fling yourself into those heights
On weightless wings, to stars to fly
To feel no burden in serene flight
To feel a calm which cannot die?
It is natural for Space to yearn,
For distant lights and globes to long
For souls desire and passions burn
To know those vast and countless throngs
On hopes we may someday discern
Another’s sweet and joyous songs
And grow ourselves enough to earn
Those endless realms where we belong.
END
FOUR SEASONS OF A FOREST
FOREST SPRING
In the deepness
Of the Forest
Midst the winter’s
Final chorus
And the sighs
Of waning fury
Comes a gentle
Waking flurry
Fog swirls ‘tween
The tall fir trees,
Needles rustle
In the breeze
Waves of damp air
Fog’s cool breath
Infuse new Life
All through the Depth
Winter’s past
But can’t decide
Another storm
And then subsides
Buds push out
To turn to flowers
Sun comes through
Then gentle showers
Scratch of squirrels
In search of food,
Crunch of leaves
Throughout the Wood
Cries of birds
In search of mates
With a Rush
The Forest awakes.
END
Forest Summer
The Spring rains are over
And now all around
Summer’s dry hills
Are dusty and brown
Dried pods and flowers
Crops from the Spring
Waiting
for next rains
new life to bring,
Now faded and brittle
Covering the ground
Calm and enduring
Life swings around
Little things scurry
Anxious with haste
Gathering their fill up
No time to waste
Knowing their season
Ends with first cold
Knowing they must find
All they can hold
Chattering playfully
While hiding their keep
Preparing themselves
For their long Winter’s sleep
Dust drifting dreamily
Through the hot air
All of life seemingly
Calm with no care
But stifling calmness
Belies the dead Still
As the Forest prepares
For Fall’s inrushing chill.
END
Forest Fall
Now the days shorten,
A light chill’s in the air.
Something is warning
All Life to beware.
Throngs of birds chattering,
Hawk screeching on high
Sounds piercing anxiously
Through deep blue sky.
Down below animals
Race through the trees,
Desperately foraging,
Last bits to seize,
Sallying warily forth
From their nests,
Grabbing their last fills
Before their long rests.
Patches of cold fog
Steal through the trees,
Blustery winds break
Dry limbs in the breeze.
‘Tween dry heat and damp cold
The skirmishes rage,
To win their dominion
O’er Fall’s flighty days.
The year has been good,
The growth healthy and long,
A good harvest made animals
Plenty and strong.
As they turn to their nests,
For sleep winter will bring,
All Life bid their farewells
To meet newly in Spring.
END
Forest Winter
A thundering icy
Front blowing forth
The frigid dry air,
Invades from the North,
Smashing through trees and brush
To test what will fail
Crashing all weak branches
Down in the gale.
Then wind retreats and pulls
Back whence it came
Drawing the foggy dark
Clouds and the rain.
Into the forest
They creep quiet and still
Clasping all Life with
Their coating of chill,
Till wet with the damp
And stiff with the cold
The forest is clenched
In a tight icy hold.
And the arctic night breath
Returns more to blow
Changing the rain and the
Fog to thick snow.
The forest turns quiet and
Soft and dead still
While the snow gently blankets
Trees, valleys and hills,
Erasing the forms and the
Holes as it deepens
Making all sleeping things
Equal and even.
Then the storm fades
To blue sky and bright light
O’er a thick soft cover
Of dazzling white.
The forest will rest
Under fleecy robe deep
Till the warm breath of Spring
Stirs her up from her sleep.
END
Fog Flight
This morn’ I feel
A chilling damp
A fog swept high
From distant shore
Encircling round
Each roof and lamp
Invading, piercing
Life’s inner core
Though shivery cold
It wakes the senses
Clears the thoughts
Removes defenses
Lets the mind
Float through skies blue,
Restore the Kind,
And see the True
As though the load
Of earthly weight
No longer binds
Nor can dictate
The mind’s free float
From earth unfazed
The Soul’s glad flight
Through joyous days.
END
ON THE BUTTING OF A RAM
My Child, with Sorrow I did hear
Of that which spoiled thy mirth and cheer
How thou canst scarce sit, move, or stand
Since an unkind meeting with a Ram,
Who calmly in his stall did lie,
But watched until thou turned thy eye,
And quickly to his feet did jump
And bashed his head against thy Rump.
To save thyself and prevent that
Thou shouldst procure thyself a bat
And if young Ram this once more tries,
Then whack him good between the eyes.
END
DESERT SONG
Furious winds ‘gainst slumbering stone
Over the eons molding
Shaping sculptured towers tall
Or canyons deep with painted walls
A unique creation unfolding
Home to the eagle and buffalo
To coyotes howling nightly
Barbed cactus blooming
And setting sun looming
O’er desert rocks so brightly
Gods of the Earth and Fathers of Men
who created here for so long
Such inspiring scenes,
Come to listen and dream
When the desert lands burst into song.
END
Promise in the Wind
The wind which whispers through the hills,
Breathing new breath into all Life
Calms the Spirit and soothes all ills.
The wind which roars through canyons deep,
Bringing the power to mold the Earth
Cries to all Men to awake from sleep.
The wind which soars to Heaven’s door,
And brings back peace to yearning hearts
says, “Freedom comes, the fast is o’er”.
The Souls of men who long for mirth,
Who strive for wisdom, truth and laughter,
May cross this time into reborn Earth,
And live free Beings forever after.
END