Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Welcome!

Hello, hello and welcome. The name's Brendan, and this is my foray into the world of blogging. I hope you'll enjoy the content I post here. Should you make return trips to this page, you should expect to find a menagerie of poetry, photography, and prose, new and old, by yours truly. Please feel free to share any thoughts you may have, I'd love some feedback.

I'll kick things off with my most recent poem. It's about aspirations, and how they comfort a person while they're making the long trek to their "promised land", whatever and wherever that may be.

The Way There

To trod through unforgiving ages,
Winding, treacherous,
Not a robin or a rainbow.
Nothing to soothe us with images of where we started;
Nothing to appease the thirst with images of where it seeks to take us.
To venture down a crooked path,
Where nothing, good-natured or ill, could stand to call home;
Under a night sky without the comfort of stars.
Led only by the scent, the promise,
And the majesty of the kingdoms we seek to build.

To seek greatness,
For it is not when we are strong to spite weakness,
But when we are strong to defend it.
To raise walls with open gates,
And doors without bolt-locks.
For beyond any horizon,
Where the road stretches from the tips of our boots
And above the dust kicked up by the toil of years,
Is a cradle of dreams,
To make a home out of any corner,
To hang stars where there are none.

-

This next piece is a rewrite of a poem I wrote years ago, and it's somewhat similar in theme to The Way There, but it's coming from a different direction. This one's about a man (an astronaut), dissatisfied with the road he chose to take.

Return Flight From The Moon.

People study for years to be what I am,
To see the earth surrounded by black.
It hurts, but I just don't give a damn
If I ever go back.
I'd streth out in the grass, feel the comfort of land,
And forsake shuttle jets and tarmac.

I watched the world, lonely in space,
I watched it silent, darkness all around.
Not a thing could be heard from the whole human race,
So many lives, but not a single sound.

As we enter the day below night,
And as gravity and direction take hold,
I'd thank the lord if this were my last flight,
Last take-off, last station, last node.

In the orbit I can sense the wind,
Earth again, as the shuttle sets in.
A natural breath as the fresh air gets in,
And on the landing site waits my next of kin.

They're beaming and cheering
Waiting for me to come down,
And I'm tired and fearing
That I'll always feel this run down.
They see me nearing,
Cheering like I'll bring the sun down...

To hover before humanity,
To tell it's universal truth,
And it seems like insanity
That ever since my youth...

That's all i've wanted to do.

-

Thanks for reading! Come back within the net few days and there's bound to be something new up.

1 comment:

  1. "To raise walls with open gates"

    That's very beautiful, keep it up Brendan. I'm subscribing.

    ReplyDelete