DANCES WITH BIRDS

Dances With Birds




Standing in the kitchen this afternoon
Wearing nothing but a white cotton T shirt
That barely covered the imagination
(It's 116 in the shade, dammit!)


I was making a chef salad
And pouring myself a tall glass of lemonade
When, from outside my window
I heard the scream of a bird
So loud and startling I almost said a bad word
What on earth was that? I thought
And finished the slicing and dicing,
Wiped my hands and pulled back the curtain.


The bird stood there on the driveway
It's wings held up in the air
In a kind of ecstasy
It's head raised up to the sky
It's little feet doing an impromptu
Crazy birdfolk dance
Paying no attention to anyone or any thing
It screamed again, not a bird sound
(Definitely not a bird sound.)


But then I noticed that all around the critter
Fell big fat liquid drops of rain
Rain! 
Real ThankGodAlmightyLetItRain rain!
Like we haven't seen in weeks
That we've needed here more than gold.


And I realized
That the bird was screaming in joy
Pure unadulterated joy
No one will believe this, I said out loud
But who cares? 
I dropped the curtain,
Took a big long drink of lemonade,
Looked around to see if the neighbors
Were watching......stepped outside....
And joined him in the dance.

Too Hot by Kool and the Gang


©By Voo
Aug 20, 07
4:30
based on a true event

AND THERE WAS ONLY



And There Was Only

The mist was gray and wet as dew

And there was only me and you

Walking there so close to dawn

With all the ink of midnight gone.

The champagne drained,

We laughed, wide-eyed

And dropped the bottle

Off the side.

We heard it splash

Into the water

And watched a gull

Go diving after.

All night, we'd talked

And sang and marched

Enlisted soldiers

With new-born hearts.

You quoted Rumi

From memory

And showed me things

The eye can't see.

And I, in turn

Like dervish, twirled

In ecstasy,

An entranced girl.

Until the bridge, 

Rose from the mist

And set the scene

For our first kiss.

The bells of London

Called to the day

And ran the ghosts

Of night away.

And still we stood,

Like statues there

Upon the bridge,

We didn't care.

For love is careless

When it is new

And "we" is born

From "me and you".

Like little children

That played a game

We had no worries,

We had no shame.

Tomorrow's worries

Tomorrow's shames

Could wait to find us

And learn our names.

(And oh, they would

And oh, we'd cry

And fight

Though love refused to die.

Through many years 

Of toil and pain

We'd yearn to be

Like that again.)

But this, our night,

And this our dawn,

Will live when all our lives

Are gone.

In memory and faded rose

In poems on pages faded blue

The bridge, the mist, the sacred kiss

And there was only me and you.

and there was only me and you.....

©by Voo

March 7, 2011

11:49 p.m.

THE GAME OF CHANCE

Play song with poem, it adds so much
Song to the Siren by George Michael originally

The Game of Chance

I was falling off the the mountain top

I was splashing in the sea

When there came a tiny nightingale

Who sang her song to me

I was drifting like a piece of wood

I was drowning in the deep

When there came a mermaid siren's call

That lulled me down to sleep

I was plunging to a watery grave

I was descending down to hell

When there came a fish that made a wish

And said he wished me well

I was fighting death with every breath

I was longing so to breathe

When there came a cup that raised me up

But the cup was like a sieve

I was clinging to the sides of hope

I was ascending to the sun

When there came a voice that gave a choice

And I quickly made the one

I was dying when I met her

I was living when she left

When there came the day she went away

And I plunged broken and bereft 

And I don't know how to say this

How to tell you how I felt

When she won my  heart in her game of chance

As I played the cards she dealt

I have been a weary traveler

I have been a tortured man

When my mountains crumbled at her feet

And I was buried in the sand

I have walked the lonely desert

I have swum the cold black sea

When the voices whispered to my soul

That love never wanted me

But off, now, I hear the nightingale

And I hear it call my name

And when the siren sings, I know that I

Will play her games again.

For what is life without taking chances

And what is love but breath?

When she reaches her hand to this man

I'll choose that living death

I have seen the other side of love

I have known what few will know 

When love smiles at me with sunlit eyes

To it's embrace I will go

Even if it starts to die

And the world goes dark again

When all is gone and I'm alone

I'll reach out to love again

I'll be falling off the mountaintop

I'll be splashing in the sea

And when the nightingale sings her lonely song

I will know she sings for me.

©By Voo

June 24, 2017

6:45 p.m.

inspired by the poetry

of the great Leonard Cohen