poems

Aimless

That earth beneath my feet again,
Wandering aimless along paths long worn,

Shadows of memory flicker in the shafts of autumn sun,

They break my heart, yet drive me on.

Our garden, that Eden, 

It has lost the romance that was once redolent in its scent,

When adventure filled my lungs with every cedar breath.

And I thought we would conquer the globe, footprints impressed in lands of dreams,

Lands we never got to share.

And yet, you were there today, a shadow of your laugh carried in the whispering murmurs of retreating ash, 

Your voice the gentle rustle spilling over the top of the hill.

(c) S. Duffy 2015

Tip the Can

The children play hide and seek on my street,

I look down from my window.

Cigarette pursed between my lips

My father’s music filling the room behind me.

I smile, glad for their innocence.

Happy that they are out and about

Where only patches of cobble peep out from

Beneath the gaudy tarmac that smothers our crumbling street.

Phones, consoles, TV, not needed now.

Their lungs are filled with the cold air

Of a spring night as they run and whoop and scream and shout.

Lost in the importance of play.

Yesterday is a memory, tomorrow is a dream.

I give a hint to the seeker while the hiders hold breath,

Squeezed behind lampposts, cars, the kerb.

The outcome of the game is all that matters to them.

Here. Now.  There is no concern for what lies below the horizon.

Happiness wrestles envy.

Eternal, constant battle.

Play on while I dream.  Play on.

Indulge me my memories of youth.

Inconceivable Immensity

Claw at the air as I might,

There is no tearing that fabric,

No stepping back into yesterday.

A sun like an old penny in rusty water

Faintly illuminates those fading times.

Autumn leaves blow by

Scattering across the pavement

Like the tattered confetti of summer.

At night a moon beam falls on me,

My umbilical to the cosmos

To where the past still lives, somewhere,

Lost in inconceivable immensity.

© S. Duffy 2015

Summertime Trilogy – Part Three

Outside the Atlantic tosses her keening woes

Upon the cracking shale.

Overhead, the forbidden view of stars

Twinkle silent, fickle and pale.

On the hearth the glowing amber warmth

Of smouldering peat.

Wisps of smoke whittle upwards

Into darkened night, the cold air to meet.

In my arms she stirs unknowing

And still the hearth is warm within.

It glows like roaring sunrise

Shinning golden on her spectacle rims.

I whispered gentle, a vow,

Which for always I will keep,

Though she in my arms never heard it,

Her eyes shut tight,

Her mind drowned deep in sleep.

© Copyright Stephen Duffy 1995

Looking Out At Christmas From Dunphy’s Bar

 

Christmas has descended with frost and winter cheer,

We peep furtively from our cosy cocoon,

To watch the writhing of a dying year.

White floats on black,

A cool warmth in the glass.

As winters’ cold minutes

They silently pass.

Constellations drip from the lampposts,

Forests now hang from the walls.

The crimson sun is swallowed whole,

As winters’ dark night, it falls.

© S. Duffy 2002

 

Warm Winter Days

Far off stars twinkle in the blue black expanse.

Caught in frigid streams of air, fickle snowflakes dance.

They dance the fiery fling of winter, held silent in the air.

Falling on the children, filling each with festive cheer.

Christmas all around us, immersed in rainbow glow,

Rich, yet subtle colours reflecting in the snow.

The pastel incandescence  and tinsel sparkling bright

Are shadowed by your splendour, which fills this special night.

For December’s all around us, delved deep in icy freeze,

Huddled on the hill again, our laughter plumes in icy breeze.

Resting in my arms, so warm to have you near,

This season is so special, for now I have you here.

I say to you eternity, forever and a day,

I promise not to break that vow, I swear with you I’ll stay.

You have filled the lonely void at the centre of my being,

Making Christmas magic, making magic real.

Tonight the carols mingle with the alpine scent of spruce,

Releasing grieving tensions, turning inhibitions loose.

To hold you tender, dearly, and speak of future years.

To dream the dreams that sparkled in the crystal of your tears.

While into ghostly echoes, the fear it slowly fades.

The loneliness subsided, it left because you stayed.

You are my sole desire, you are the only one

I pray you’ll be beside me for Christmases to come.

Though tonight on our first Christmas

The greatest gift could be,

for you to stay yourself and continue loving me.

I wrote this a long time ago when myself and my wife were only dating.

© Stephen Duffy 1998

Small Talk

We rambled aimless among hidden tracks,

Amid the bracken, standing shoulder high.

We talked, small talk, but touched on deeper things.

Talking, walking, beneath boughs of oak and ash

Branches burdened with the weight of an emerald sun,

Festooned with dappled light that dances soft on hidden ways

Their whispered rustling rumor the approach of Autumn

To this lost world, all but forgotten,

Perched on the edge of the bay as if by design.

The air, scented soft  with salt, decay and damp

Is redolent with the sense of an impending adventure.

As we press on, our boots leaving prints

Where never before and never after.

One Faithful Eve

When time slows down one faithful eve,

When we share love in a final embrace.

Loves rosy glow shall be warm on my face,

As the blessings of stars we receive.

 

With the rising of passions, our hearts in the sky,

I will whisper soft words in your ear.

Of how I shall hold you so desperately near,

Until the lost eons sail by.

 

With tender caress and cotton soft kiss,

I shall seal our one love to all ends.

To last an eternity until all Heaven descends,

And the seas quench the stars with a hiss.

 

I could hold you forever, though time is too short,

For now you are bound in my heart.

An eternal bonfire to scatter the dark,

The beautiful Queen of my court.

© S. Duffy 1998