Whatever the images are
playing on the screen
her thoughts soon drift away
to some sweet misery

A life born and a dozen lost
Deep in her mind she deemed gone
memories thrown around and thrust
Remembrance is a curse better undone

For hours she’d lie down
staring at what lies above
Every detail she’s memorized
every creak and crack unified

It’s time to go out
but why should she?
For behind her castle walls lie
what she most fears to see

She looks in the mirror
but sees no reflection
For the emptiness inside
carries no light affection

With the world around her
knees bent to touch her eyes
She’d sit there for hours gazing
at everyone’s incessant staging

Walking around streets for miles
with cars roaming like blinded flies
Rushing by her from all directions
probably in a hurry to get their pensions

Yet behind her glass wall she remains
while all else moves around and in place
They can chat, rant, laugh and cry
yet she hears nay save a hushed lullaby

At the end of the day she slumbers
back to her castle where all is pompous
Life as she knows can’t get better
than a night spent with no spoken letter

Welcome my friend, it has been a while
but to you I return with tearful eyes
To take in the change the light of the day
has brought upon your color of clay

I trust no one but you
no secrets to hold it’s true
For you and to only you I can
turn to without fear of a judging hand

All night she lays painting a dozen skies
with larks chanting such sweet lullabies
Stilling all the noise droning on outside
keeping all serene in the dome inside

A thought today vexes the true at heart
how we honor the strong that fight
for the truth they believe in and die
yet damn the weak, blowing in a final cry

The strong men battle with ships and planes
hiding behind walls of metal and canes
While the weak hold none but a rock in hand
hurling with no sight of a nearby land

An army marches in the lands of no man
giving up lives to the shells that ram
The bodies of the dead draped in flags
and the names engraved forever to last

A conquered sole strays in a land slipped,
to the foe it belongs and its riches ripped
In vanity he pulls the plug on this life
wishing away the fears that grave him tight

“But in vain I will not go
For I will take some evil souls
That stole what land and family I had
Claiming we were the greater bad”

This time the sole is cursed
the world in upheaval, the deed abhorred
His body lies on the ground scorned
never to be buried…the name forgone

What gave us the right to be the judge and juror
of the ones ripped of every hope and freedom
What do the brass behind mahogany desks know
of the pains endured by the wretched and poor

I speak no word of politics, nor word of religion
I speak a word of people living in a land imprisoned
Shut off from the world, they’re beyond recognition
They scream…with only a few to notice their petitions

Golden sate countries shout open boundaries
free speech and claimed democracies
They lay there snacking while the 6-o’clock news
shows mother and child bleeding in profuse

If that’s the so-called democracy
I’d fathom nothing but mutiny
Against the torment and tyranny
of  the “peace-making” hegemony

In light of the words that shine is revealed
A truth held deep, now to be unsealed
That law is spoken by those empowered
while the seized are forever deemed to be cowards

Those who think they could change the world
Will soon find there are hurdles to reform
They shall be labeled traitors, and halls
Are set up for their judgment, there bodies hauled

Though the brave at heart will not be subdued
There heads held high their voices diffuse
“Call us what you want we will not wane
We’ll go down fighting and it ain’t in vain”

Till one day a nation shall again come to rise
Denouncing all ideals in wrong held high
Quench the hunger and a false claim of peace
Human rights exposed for the fallacy it reels

Soon the hands feeding the cannons will quiver
Under the march of the masses like a raged river
Bring down the walls of anarchy and blood-thirst
Halt the second holocaust on the hands of the first

Maybe it won’t be tomorrow or the day after
Maybe we will pass into oblivion and falter
Yet the unpoled flag shall sure again rise
Unleashing hidden truths and paying what’s due

JR

Then if you look up to see a cloud of joy
shining with rays of the sun that cloy
All light reflected of the Earth yet still
the light of your eyes promise to fulfill

Every dream, every hope
every prayer to the lord
For a flicker of life
in us to grow and survive

And if a cloud of longing crossed your skies
warm it with a peck to help it rise high
Survive its journey through the lands with no cries
and come back to my doorstep to rain where I lie

And if the longing inside of me escapes
sending my sorrows to you don’t refrain
From letting me know that you as well care
and listen to my heart as its beats race

For those paces of my heart would tell
a story I would never dream foretell
Reining its veins with enchanted spells
showing it a world of chanting bells

In the hope that one day I will look up to see
a clould carrying you to the place where I kneel
In a mount up high there I hold concealed
a ring that bears all that I ever revered

No Nightingale did ever chaunt
More welcome notes to weary bands
Of travellers in some shady haunt,
Among Arabian sands:
A voice so thrilling ne’er was heard
In spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird,
Breaking the silence of the seas
Among the farthest Hebrides.

Will no one tell me what she sings?—
Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow
For old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago:
Or is it some more humble lay,
Familiar matter of to-day?
Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain,
That has been, and may be again?

Whate’er the theme, the Maiden sang
As if her song could have no ending;
I saw her singing at her work,
And o’er the sickle bending;—
I listen’d, motionless and still;
And, as I mounted up the hill,
The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more.

- William Wordsworth

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Rejoice, and men will seek you;
Grieve, and they turn and go.
They want full measure of all your pleasure,
But they do not need your woe.
Be glad, and your friends are many;
Be sad, and you lose them all.
There are none to decline your nectared wine,
But alone you must drink life’s gall.

Feast, and your halls are crowded;
Fast, and the world goes by.
Succeed and give, and it helps you live,
But no man can help you die.
There is room in the halls of pleasure
For a long and lordly train,
But one by one we must all file on
Through the narrow aisles of pain.

Day two, as sleep evades me this night
her image all but leaves my mind
I dreamed awake of her with fright
that my heart will never feel her sight

Day three, walking down the street
I thought i caught a glimpse of my dream
But quickly passed away in a fleet
left me standing holding my tears in a stream

Love it’s been so long yet you still elude
my soul and deny me the pleasure you seclude
Love how many appeals would it take from me
to bring you knocking on my doors and speak

Day four, and this time the sight is real
and my breathe slips away as my heart reels
From my dream there’s a truth I can feel
as I hold her hand in mine and her eyes smile

Day five, sitting across her pretty face
her brown skin shines in the morning glaze
As we sip our coffees and a breeze caress
her hair flowing with divine finess

I’ve always thought love was lost on me
that for no soul alive my heart would leap
What miracle I was blessed with to grasp
this feeling I eternally revere and clasp

For if I could hear the heavens speak
No doubt I’d be eternally freed
A rose planted in my heart grows
with every day passing by glows

JR

Born Free

Born free from the human spree
from the ebbing of the tides
With a soul set free
and to nothing it abides

Born free fom the ticking of the clock
from watching its hands go buy tick, tock
Set me free of this wind and grind
let me set the pace of my raging mind

Born free from the touch of love
from the heartless fall of a broken dove
Drink to a heart that bends but never breaks
with nothing less than a glass of champagne

Born free from the need of all the praise
from those who got us here in the first place
The ones who brag and spank, cheat, lie and try
to buy us off with their sweet-wise talk, my oh my!

Born free from the loss of belief
from the loneliness of disbelief
To look to the skies and wonder
If there’s a grander deity and ponder

Born free from the treacheries of fate
from all the strains of life’s restraints
Feel again the wind revive your soul
as you take this bungee jump and soar

Born free from the cuffs of culture
from the dominance of those who plunder
That tell us what and when to speak our minds
and silence us when our thoughts collide

Born free from the need of a comrade
from the pain of a backstabbing boomerang
Trust none but your heart and soul
to get you to the road’s end, safe and unspent

Born free from everything that’s human
from the hauntings of the spirits of the souls lost
That rave this land in fear of the next frost
and lay down to die dreaming, they had it all

Born Free

For many long years I’ve stayed
beside you and never refrained
from giving up all that I can
but i can no longer fake

This pain inside of me stays
everytime i see you look away
grows and grows every minute
i can no longer twist and spin it

To make your image whole
clear from all the faults
But today a life in me blast
taking away all tears of the past

When it ever got cold
watching the fire burn out
I would shed my skin
cover you up in a sprout

If the life in you dried
and your heart refused to beat
I would’ve torn mine out
and laid it at your feet

If the blood in your veins
refused to run and drained
I would give every drop of mine
to you without refrain

When you cry
I’d give the world to see you smile
and when you smile
In joy i’ll fly

But all what I said and did was not enough to keep
you here beside me and away from all the pain
your weary soul could’ve held in strain,
out in the world and at the hand of fate

So tonight i will not see you go away
and feel my heart break as your ship sets sail
But never forget that i will always be there
for you, if the world doesn’t hold you…dear

JR

Last new year’s eve I sat by my window sill,
watching the clouds outside so cold and still
Listening to the glass shattering and the sparklings of fire,
that marked the beginning of a new year and so inspired

And so came January and I took a solemn oath,
not to let this year pass without a change sought
To shake my being and let go of all the ropes,
that bind me to this fearful race and slacken my pace

I wake up in the morning and all outside is grey,
and I should really get going and start but nay
For outside it’s cold and the rain drops are forming,
while my covers are warm and my head’s yet swarming…

Oh dear March with your half clear skies,
your roads painted bright through the many many miles
Miles of hope, of love, of a winter past gone,
and a spring to come and a life again won

Bang Bang!! You’re dead..got you..April fools!
what a way to start spring and dance with the soul
Feel the waters flood your eyes and give you life,
as a water grace surges past you in full stride

Dark evil May with all your work and essays,
a child’s fate is dealt in a wicked card game
Where the failures of yesterday put out their flush,
and pull of a win in a sneaky swift rush

Woohoo! It’s June again and a scent of summer,
rides on a morning breeze to cheer up the bummers
And carry off all pains and fears planted inside,
the bat and stick holders in line of fire side by side

Beloved July and August with their sweet sunny roses,
no more empty vases and weary looking faces
Dazzling lovers walk hand in hand down sandy beaches,
a kiss of love, and the ocean’s yet out of the sun’s reaches

And again comes September and a fear to dismember,
all the joys and laughs of the days and weeks past
All these back to school signs, send chills down my spine,
and the sour kids’ faces, as they pick their pens and erasers

But all the time passes by, and the joys remain fine,
carved in our memories, with no pictures or signs
For there ain’t a pain that can break the spine,
of the arched back lovers, yet will always pine

So if December shall again come and all the rest look so bummed,
that yet another year has passed while they thought it would last
I will choose only to look back on the times I was lucky to have,
revive them at every given chance, and let their memory forever last

So what if my vows were not held, my dreams not fulfilled
For I’ve got a year full of pain, joy, and a monsoon rain…
Of ideas and hopes, dreams and thoughts,
enough to build me, a whole new world…

So let my star shine bright tonight, for all the world to see,
that if another year shall come on me, this time I’ll take a vow
To sing this song over and over again, until it echoes and blend,
with the calling of the wind, the gushing of the gale, the sound of the rain

JR