I Followed The Moon

The Heart Within
by Peter Gundry

I Followed The Moon

I followed the moon to find you

For the moon knew where you did abide

In a forest of green that was hidden, unseen

With no door to let me come inside.

Your feet left no tracks on the soft grass

I could not follow you on the trail

I could not discern for I had not yet learned

All the secrets that you kept so well.

You came to me in shadow one bright night

When I was there weeping alone

Lying in a field of moon flowers

With a young heart that felt made out of stone.

All of my life I'd felt lonely

And thought that I always would be

Except for the man in the moon, my one friend

(For I thought that the moon followed me.)

And you sang to me while I did sleep

Lying on that ground

You caressed my face with tender grace

And then left without a sound.

I looked for you long after that

And called for you to hear

But though I could not see your form

I felt that you were near.

Sometimes I heard you singing softly

In the whispers of the leaves

Sometimes I saw you clear as day

In the branches of the trees.

At night I dreamed of your bright eyes

Watching in my room

But when I opened up my own,

Saw nothing but the moon.

Sometimes I felt you touching me

Kneeling by my bed

Raising my face for your kiss

Your hand upon my head.

Sometimes you did much more than touch

Sometimes you deemed to linger

And wrapped me in your arms so tight

And round your little finger.

And I began to crave that touch

And hunger for that bliss

And I became a woman, lost

With each beguiling kiss.

For many nights you did not come

Not even in a dream

And I went mad with wanting you

And holding back my scream.

And then one night with second sight

I knew where you might be found

I slipped out of my window

While the moonlight lit the ground.

And I followed the moon as it hurried ahead

In the sky toward the forest so dark

Ignoring the danger, the beast and the stranger

As the hunger led me by the heart.

I followed the moon to find you

Not knowing if man or a ghost

Awaited me there in the green forest lair

Nor if you'd be a welcoming host.

And when the moon had come to rest

I stopped underneath it's glow

Wondering if I'd lost my mind

Because I didn't know.

If you were real or phantom

If you were myth or man

And I cried and cried there in the dark

Until you took my hand.

'You came to me!" you softly breathed

"Your love has set me free!

The curse is reversed and broken

Because you came to me!"

And you covered my face in kisses

And looked into my eyes so deep

"Until tonight I could only touch you

There in the world of sleep."

"Your love has given me flesh and form!"

You cried with human tears

"You do not know how long I've waited

For all these lonely years."

"I followed the moon to find you." I said

"With my heart full of doubt and of doom 

But is this tale of yours true, my love, who are you?"

And you smiled, "I was the man in the moon."

©By Voo

October 2, 2019

2:38 p.m.

Breathe On Me

Breathe On Me

Breathe on me
In me,
For me,
Because of me,
In spite of me,
Despiting me,
For love of me
Or like of me,
Just breathe on me
Give life to me.

For I am crushed
Like trampled roses
Like tangled moss
And battered moths
Descending to 
Discarded gardens
Like rain
That has no where to fall.

Breathe on me
This broken bird,
This haunted flower,
This dying sun
I am but yours
As stars, the sky
As moon, the magic
As life, the death.

Breathe on me
Resuscitate me,
For I have plunged
To darkest depths
To deepest dark
From highest heights
Breathe on me
For I have crept
Where heartache slept
And despair lives.

In your eyes,
Your darkened eyes
My life and light
Lie hidden there
And yet you wait
And yet you sigh
And watch me die
In hesitation
Do you not know?
Can you not see?
The we inside
The you and me?

Reach forth your hand
And teach my hand
Teach my soul
To fly again
Teach my mind 
To think past pain
My heart to blossom
There in your rain
Teach my mouth
To smile in storm
To pull the coldness
From the warm.

Dance with me
To this, my song,
For night is long
And dawn has fled
Feel the lightning
In my touch
The sweetness sleeping
In my bed
Taste with me
The wine and wonder
And all the treasures
That love bestows.

Walk with me
And run with me
Out in the meadows,
Upon the sea
Touch the clouds
The silver sky,
All that's tarnished, 
Purify
Lift your face
And look at me
Let your eyes see
What I see.

I need your breath
I need your voice
I need your hunger
I have no choice
I need your arms
I need your kiss
I need your shadow
In morning mist
I need to burn
In midnight's flame
The way your lips
Caress my name.

Breathe on me
Above, beside me,
Without, within me,
Instead, inside me
Breathe on me
Breathe for me,
Breathe, breathe,
My love with me
For love of me
For love of me
My love, my breath,
For love of me.

©by Voo
July 18, 2012
11:06 p.m.

Two Strange Cats

Two Strange Cats

Two strange cats

Walked silently along the docks

Sniffing salty sea air and the odor of fish

Careful not to touch or invade the space of the other

Not only out of respect but of fear tinged with love

Two strange cats

They had always been together

As long as their minds could remember

From childhood until now, the golden years

The twilight years of arthritis and aches

Retirement from chasing and scrambling

To fill their bellies with hard sought food

Two strange cats

One blond, one black

Hard attitudes, each, but both soft inside as kittens

Hard because the life required it

Soft, because they couldn't help it

Like hard boiled eggs, you might say

Through the dusk of the day

They sauntered softly down the planks

Down the steps, down the streets, to home

Two strange cats

At the end of the day

And upon arriving at their respective homes

Side by side apartments in ramshackle city borroughs

They slipped inside, greeted their mates

Sat down in easy chairs by the fire

Picked up their sleek, fat cats waiting there

Held them on their laps and stroked them dreamily

While waiting for their suppers.

Two strange cats

Fishermen, each

Waiting for suppers fried up with onions and love.

©by Voo 

May 1, 2004

 2:23 p.m.

Nothing Rhymed Today

  Nothing Rhymed Today

Nothing rhymed today

There was no meter or melody

No singing lyric or verse of song

Just jangled nerves and unspoken fears

Left dangling on my keychain.

Cars passed me

In the pouring rain

And never acknowledged the girl

With the gas can and the thumb

And mascara running down my face.

I could have shown some leg

I suppose

But my clothes were plastered to me

Like I had been poured into them

And everything I had was exposed already.

If it had been yesterday

I would have laughed at my mishap

Run down the highway

Danced in the rain and stopped traffic

With the glow on my shining face.

Everything rhymed yesterday

Every word that issued from my mouth

Was finely tuned, in perfect key

Poetry sprang from my fingertips

And car horns sounded like sonnets.

But I have no music left in me

It walked out in your suitcase last night

Winked it's dark eye and said goodbye

And I heard it laughing

All the way down the staircase to the street.

Poetry is a traitor

It makes you write when you don't want to

From places you don't want to revisit

Sing songs so sad they break the heart

And make rhymes of things that will never rhyme again.

©by Voo

August 8, 07

Eyes Of Night

Eyes of Night


Fallen one
With eyes of night
You came to earth
To steal the light.

Fallen one
With heart of ice
You heed no warning
Take no advice.

Your wants are many
Your needs are few
That man might bow
And worship you.

But I'm a warrior
And this is war
And though I'm wounded
I'll bear my scars.

For you are evil
Personified
And every word
You speak's a lie.

I've felt your shadow
Upon my dreams
I've felt your touch
Like icy streams.

You tease and taunt me
And promise love
But you don't know
What I'm made of.

My soul is mine
You'll never win
Your wage is death
And your job is sin.

I can't be bought
I can't be sold
Your heart is wormwood
And mine is gold.

So take your whispers
And your treasures all
To the depths of Hades
For I'll never fall.



©by Voo
Feb 28. 2010
8:32 p.m.

The Giving and the Taking of the Heart

The Giving and the

                          Taking of the Heart

I gave him my heart, not thinking

About what the man might do

I only knew I had to do it

Not if he was faithful and true.

I handed him all that I had

I put it in his hand

I didn't think of danger

Didn't have a plan.

I only knew I loved him

Only knew I cared

Didn't know if he loved me back

Or if he'd stay right there.

I took a chance I'd never taken

I gambled with my fate

I ran headlong into his arms

I couldn't seem to wait.

Because he seemed so special

So wonderful and good

I didn't want to walk away

I didn't think I could.

So I put my heart at great risk

Not knowing what he'd do

I held my breath and waited

To see if my dreams came true.

Then he smiled a smile big as the world 

Which gave me quite a start

And he said I have something for you, too

And he handed me his heart.

And I stood there in the sunlight

As love mended my wounded soul

While he cradled my heart like a diamond

And I held his like the purest of gold.

I guess sometimes you must take a chance

Like I did that fateful day

For why have a heart all full of love

If you can't give that love away?

Only the love of another

Be it woman, child or man

Can fill your heart and empty it

And fill it once again.

For love must be replenished

By a source that's not your own

As you fill up another's heart

Before all their love is gone.

Supply and demand is the way that it is

And that lesson you learn at life's start

You  must give out your love if you want some love back

For that's the way that the Lord made the heart.

©by Voo

Oct 9, 2019

7:07 p.m.