collab

Thursday, January 25, 2018

SITTING IN SILENCE TOGETHER






Sitting in Silence Together



Sitting in silence together
We shared our aching hearts
She with her unanswered questions
And me, knowing not how to start.

I wanted to comfort and love her
And she needed comfort and love
But I knew that what she was needing
Could only be sent from above.

I prayed to be His willing vessel
His hands and His feet on this Earth
But how do you speak to the grieving
Who'd lost what she'd found at that birth?

I searched for correct words to give her
I fumbled for just the right touch
I just needed to make her feel better
But my human words didn't help much.

And then I heard the Lord say to me:
Just be and I will do
Just let her know she's not alone
And I will work through you.

And so I sat there, silent
And let HIm speak through me
Let Him touch her like I could not
And see what she only could see.

Sometimes it's best to do nothing
Sometimes it's good to be quiet
Sometimes just to be present is loving
And shines like the sun in the night.

And so we sat in the silence
Grieving and asking our whys
And though I had no counsel to give her
She thanked me with love in her eyes.


©by Voo
  10:25 p.m.
Oct 8, 2013




Leslie, R.I.P. darling
You're with your daddy now
and whole






Dance With My Father
by Luther Vandross


NEVER SAY




Never Say


Never say that word again
The word I hate to hear
When you get bent all out of shape
And give in to your fear.

You know I’m here or you should know
By now through all of this
That I would take you in my arms
And soothe you with a kiss.

And even if I cannot be
With you when you need me
I’m still there in this heart of mine
I’d think by now you’d see.

That I would give the world to you
If only it were mine
And I would make you king of it
Beside me for all time.

This world is such a lonely place
And we all need each other
And I don’t mean to overwhelm
And I don’t mean to smother.

It’s just that in my heart of hearts
I feel too much to bear
And I know you feel too much, too
But you don’t want to share.

And how that scares me, how it hurts
To be shut out from you
When all your pain calls out my name
And I can’t comfort you.

I may not be a queen to you
And far from your ideal
But I am true and I love you
And all I am is real.

Can you not feel this hand of mine
Reaching in the dark?
That fire that blazed up long ago
Is down to just a spark.

The light has gone out of the world
Cause I can’t feel your love
And you won’t speak so I must seek
The face of God above.

On your behalf, more so on mine
Because I grieve for you
Pushing me out of your life
In all you say and do.

You said to just leave you alone
You said to go away
And all the sunshine left my skies
And became a cloudy day.

And you walked off and left me there
With nothing in my hand
And shouted as you walked away
Go find yourself a man!

Like you were not the man I love
Like you were not a man
Like you saw yourself as just a grain
In a universe of sand.

And you would never be much more
No matter what you did
No matter how tall you could grow
You’d be a little kid.

I wanted so to run after you
And show you, you were wrong
To ask you how I could sing again
When you're my only song.

But I just waited till you returned
And slipped back in the door
Knowing things were not the same
The way they were before.

You do not talk but you say so much
In your silence there’s a din
Of alibis from a heart that cries
The word I can’t hear again.

I cannot stand the word Goodbye
It tears my soul in two
You twist it in me like a knife
And make me bleed with you.

And though I bleed, I do not leave
Or run from you for cover
Because I know deep in my soul
That we could heal each other.


©by Voo




A Tender Lie by Restless Heart

Sunday, January 21, 2018

DELUGE



Deluge



It's raining here
In my heart and outside the window
Cold rain, hard rain
Slicing down the panes
And through my heart 
Like the dagger that love
Often turns out to be.

But I hardly care how much I hurt
I only care how much I miss
Your kiss, your touch
And the way your mouth turns up
In an expression that could either be
A frown or a smile.

If the sky cries then it cries with me
For it doesn't like to cry alone either
I close my eyes and pretend
That there's an angel
Standing outside in the rain
Catching everything in a bottle
And shaking his head at the fragility of man.

(Why do I play the blues when it's raining?
Isn't that like a misery overload?
Why do we compound our heartbreak
And multiply it times a thousand
When it's already too much to bear?)

Angels can only witness
They cannot participate
They cannot feel the pain and stupidity of the human
For God has blessed them with that inability
And cursed us with feeling too much.

Listen. Hear that? The thunder?
The sky is screaming and so am I
Building up in intensity, it roars
Like a marching band beating drums
Made of human hearts.

Then silence
Then lightning
God's way of revealing
Who He is and who we are not
We are terrified of it, yet fascinated
How often have I stood in it's terror
And dared it to strike me.

But only after I had fallen in love
The greatest form of terror there is
The thing that has both heaven and hell
In it's hands
And continually rolls the dice to determine
Which one you get at any given time.

I love the rain
I love the lightning and the thunder
But most of all
I love you
And everything that you can give me
And take away.

But tonight.....tonight....
My heart is flooded
With rain and pain and longing
More so than usual, more so than ever
Because tonight
I saw you walking outside my window,
Your arm around another girl.

With your lover's smile lighting up her world
The rain hit your face
And your eye caught my eye
Beyond the lace curtain
And the heavens opened up 
With the rage of a deluge
That could not even compare
 To what poured from my eyes.



©by Voo
Jan 21, 2018
5:43 a.m.





Raining In My Heart by Al Green

Thursday, January 18, 2018

CRAVING




Craving


Craving love or something close to it
We ran laughing to the forest
Away from chiding eyes

Blending ourselves into tall grasses
Underneath friendly trees
We fell hard as stone into an embrace

Nothing mattered once we were entwined
Nothing could pull us apart or make us afraid
Not even angry elders

The grass feels cold and damp
But we revel in it's touch
On our fevered fingers

We throw off our buckskins
And cover one another
With the blankets of our love

How beautiful you are, I think
How young and strong and bronzed
Like the deer that scampers past us

You put a flower behind my ear
And caress my face with a gentle hand
Your eyes beckoning me to fall inside

I am so hungry but not for food
I am so thirsty but not for water
I am almost mad with the wildness

I always knew you were mine
Even as a little girl, I knew
No other warrior could ever turn my head

I followed you like your shadow
And we took chances
That only fools would ponder

Your father would look at me
And then at you and shake his head
Then smile behind his hand, chuckling

My father would only shake his head
And sigh and let out angry groans
While my mother scolded me and kept the peace

So many times we almost went too far
But we held back and prayed for strength
And went there in our hearts

Then came the day we wedded
And we were joined with many blessings
And sighs of sweet relief

We were like young wolves chasing prey then
We had caught one another at last
And didn't know what we should do in the catching

But soon we knew exactly what to do
In the absence of prying eyes and teasing smiles
We knew. We knew.

And when the craving came looking
We did not hide from it nor deny it's pull
We let it take us to the forest

And we wild'd away the thunder
And the lightning of each storm
And lay besotted in arms that belonged to only us

You smile at me and raise an eyebrow
And I smile back and pull you again, near
Near this heaven that your love has made here

Craving you in the whisper of the wind
The mystery of the full moon
The sweetness of a summer rain

We love until we are emptied of hunger
And filled up again with rapture
We lie down in desperation and rise up in joy

But always craving.............
                   ...............always craving

And that is good.







©by Voo

Jan 18, 2018
5:02 a.m.




Raptor by John Trudell


Tuesday, January 16, 2018

COULDN'T HAVE





Couldn't Have



Perched on the edge of the sea cliff like a
Bird contemplating flight I stood stock still
And let the wind caress my face and blow
Back my hair in long black streams.

Down below and out in the distance 
The raging sea beckoned to me 
With it's little white hands of salt and foam
It was a gray day full of clouds and fog
A perfect day to leave the world on 
Does anybody care? I asked out loud
More a plea than a question, more a prayer
Than a plea. Is anybody there? I asked the sky
I waited for an answer that I never expected to come
And felt my heart drop to my stomach and my stomach
Rise up into my chest
Just then a sea gull flew by and I thought I heard it say
Don't do it.

Didn't it? No, couldn't have. Gulls don't talk
I thought of all of the loves I had lost and all
Of the loves that never had been and all of the anguish
I had passed through in ever growing depth and length
Enough was enough.
Just then a ship out on the ocean passed by and I
Thought I heard it's deep bass horn say
Don't do it.

Didn't it? No, couldn't have. Horns don't talk
Nobody will miss me, I thought. Nobody gives a thought
To me. Nobody. Better to do it now and get it over with
Just then a plane flew over my head just below the clouds
And I thought I heard it's engines say
Don't do it

Didn't it? No, couldn't have. Engines don't talk
I'm crazy, I thought, I'm insane
I'm grasping at straws and trying to find reasons
When there aren't any. Why wait? Just do it
Just then a voice behind me in the mist
 Startling and sudden, spoke out loud
In a tone I'd never heard before
And I thought I heard it say in foreign tongues
Don't do it.

Didn't it? No, couldn't have. There was no one there
Nobody cares! I screamed to the winds and the winds
Carried the sound of my cries out into the sea
Echoing off the cliffs and joining with the throng
Of strange white birds that suddenly appeared
Out of nowhere, that hovered there below me
And above the craggy rocks with broken peaks
I'm doing this! I shouted, I'm getting this over with
And nobody can stop me! Nobody on earth!

Then positioning my body like a precision
Olympic diver and letting the icy tears spill down
My determined face, I gave one last look around the
Awful world that had forsaken me and said, Goodbye
Then with courage and despair filling me like helium
I stepped off the cliff into weightless air and waiting death 
And anticipated peace............ 
And I jumped.

I don't know how long I fell
My eyes were closed and my senses resolved to feeling 
Pain unspeakable for the last time but only for a moment
I just wanted it to be over
I prepared to hit the ground with a velocity that took 
My breath and the wind of my falling dried the tears
That still clung to my eyes and twisted my hair 
Into long snake like dreadlocks wet with the mist of the ocean
Now! I thought and braced myself in anticipation. Now, it ends!

Just then, two strong but strangely tender arms broke my fall
And caught me before the moment of impact on the rocks
Swept me up into the sky like a space ship at warp speed
And I opened my eyes and saw that I was surrounded 
By the throng of strange white birds that were no birds at all
But shining beings with wings and shields and swords.

I looked at them in awe, dozens and dozens of them, hovering there
And back to the one who held me in his arms like a broken doll
I looked into his eyes and tried to fathom what I beheld there
But I could not. It might have been love. I don't know, never
Having known it but it felt like love. We told you not to do it
He said without opening his mouth. You are greatly loved whether
You know it or not. Greatly loved.

 And then like an eagle he flew
With me and all the others back to the safety of the cliff top
And set me down in a place I had not noticed before
Green with flowers growing and soft breezes touching me
Like whispers. Live! he said and bounded to the sky with his friends
Forming a V formation and flew into the West like a 
Silent white cloud and was gone before I could blink
I fell to the ground and lay there for hours and slept.

I must have slept. I must have! It must have been a dream
Towards evening time, I picked myself up and started towards
Home, feeling strangely alive and refreshed and renewed
What have I done? I asked myself in amazement. Am I dead or alive?
I did not know. I had never felt alive before

Just then a cloud of white, white birds flew over me without a sound
And for some strange reason I thought the cloud spoke to me
And rained compassion down on me and kindness
No, couldn't have, I thought, Clouds don't talk
Couldn't have. Couldn't have. Couldn't have.

Then my eyes picked up a speck that fell in my direction, falling fast
I watched as it drew near me quiet as snowflakes, white as snow
It fell into my outstretched hands like a longed for gift 
A present to a child on Christmas Day. I caught it in my hands 
And clutched it to my heart.

And I have it still......and it still speaks to me........
It speaks of love and life and I no longer want to die....
I cannot prove what I have told. I cannot convince a soul
I barely convinced myself! But there it lies in it's silver case
Under lock and key, more precious to me than gold:
The white feather that spoke
And you say, It couldn't have
But it did and it does.





©by Voo
Jan 13, 2005
 9:30 p.m.



Across the Bridge Where Angels Dwell
 by Van Morrison