Dear friends. The spring is here and it is helping my ould soul to smile and i hope it offers you the same. Looking through the poems i've written over the years, i decided i would share a few. Mostly they were written in the forests, or beside the sea. I think the oxygen helps the brain :D. Some are about thoughts, some are about Ireland, and the last one is about my thoughts on seeing America for the first time.
Spirit of the Land
Since the long years of my birth
You have been at the front of my mind
The sea wind, the deep forest
The solitude in the darkness
My lifeblood, my heart
Amongst anyone else I'm only half of who I am
But with you, I become myself
Your waves that crash
Your trees that sway
The carpets of leaves
The blankets of snow
I couldn't forsake any of these
Every leaf precious
Every stone a part of it all
And when I understood this
I understood the importance of being myself
The trees have yet to judge me
The waves caress the rocks
Here since creation, the only ones I can relate to
When with you, I don't need to fight or be on guard
With you I can be me
In your presence I feel protected
From this technological world
Ireland Loveth her chains
I saw what you could be
What heights you could reach
If only the shackles
around your ankles were loosed
I wish I was the one to do it
But I am led to believe
You don't feel like a prisoner
You polished those shackles
Thanking your captor for the anklets
I wish I could say I didn't care
But I love you
It's not easy to forsake these feelings
As I watch your captor, crush your heart
He beats you, he rapes you
But you say it's all under control
yet I cannot see it
You say it's not that bad
Yet I say you deserve better
And I fear your beauty will fade
I see your green will turn to grey
Scared you'll give your life away
For so long I've watched in sadness
So many enemies surrounding us
And look at us
How long have we fought amongst ourselves
With unfettered tenacity?
I wanted to love you
I wanted to serve you
To embrace you
There are no southlands
Without a north
No northlands
Without a South
And I am nothing I want to be
If I am expected to hate you
Those feelings remain devoid in me
For i see beyond the now
Land that I love
When I look upon the land it makes me glad
Of all the various shades of green though
It is your eyes that I favour most
And the forests I have come to assume will always be there
Perhaps will fade away as brick and mortar take their place
And the coasts and the green fields will become cities
For a siege has come to my land
The age of greed
The carelessness of men
The young and old alike no longer care-
For the ways of our ancestors
There was beauty to be had in simplicity
But that no longer pleases them
But still I find comfort on the seashore
And in the mist air is where I find a comfort
And the smell of whiskey brewing from o'er the fields
Reminds me there is still some things that stay the same
For though I change year by year
The land still calls to me, to keep me near
Happiness is a sunset hiding slowly beyond the sea
And beauty is a woman who still practices grace and hope
In a world turning it's back on all that was once good and pure.
19th December 2005
some day i'll fade away
With me i'll carry the thought of you
Along this path of thorns
Over the hills and winding roads
Upon seashore I'll burden them no more
But you are such a one I cannot ignore
The doom is impending, and Ireland, she is dying
The wind is cold, now no warmth is with me
I have done the thing I knew I should
I left Vinland and never returned
A native she was, she offered me love
But my heart was not to be found
I could not give her what she wanted
And now I hear the cave in the darkness
It echoes my name down the ancient halls
Carved by time, carved by waves
It echoes my name down it's halls
A resting place for the ghoul whose heart is cold dead
Except that even I have feelings,
even I want now and again to belong
and still you are in my mind
as the mountains behind me turn to faded blue
I should give up the ghost of you
But you are in my dreams
And I am reminded more everyday
How life is a double edged sword
The bitterness of hate
And the bitterness of what love unreturned can bring
The sea is calling me to a place
Where most would call a last resort
It doesn't seem such a terrible thing anymore
Or to lose myself in the hills, to find out
What it means to be alive and what it is
To be a man
J Battersby December 06
The forest is my love
I know now without a doubt
The wounds in my heart
Wounds that have bled without sword or spear
Are healed by the smell of weeping pines
Away from everyone and everything I am myself
No one to explain myself to.
Nothing to defend myself over
the forest accepts all those who fail
all those who make mistakes, but society cannot.
The trees fail to gossip
They fail to judge and imprison
There is still a place for you
There is still a place for you
green valleys, and mountains of faded blue
still a place for you
where laughter follows your every footstep
as the seawind calls your name
it is not a dream my beloved
no not a dream
below your feet lies a living heart
barefooted it can only be felt
she bleeds the way we do
her heart is the coal, her blood is the oil
we condemn her a little more each day
to a life of agony
the birthpains of the world
cause insanity to the nations
but when she gives birth
she'll be refreshed and happy
and she is beautiful
the seawinds call your name
the valleys close in to embrace you
the leaves fall as a carpet to carry you home
J.A.Battersby copyright 2006The New land
This new land I have experienced
The new England it was once called
Now she is seen as the beacon of light
In the land of Ohio, near the great river,
I've seen a part of her beauty
Where Autumn it seems, is so much more colourful
shades of brown and red, orange and yellow
the locals are even friendly to the foreign fellow
It is a beautiful land, I understand their pride
Sweet potato and yams,
And pumpkins grow in their fields
Wild turkeys, skunk, groundhog , deer and eagle
They all run wild
There is a beauty in this land
And an atmosphere that is quite unique
Perhaps it is the heat of the summer nights
As the fireflies dance amongst the trees
Or perhaps the community spirit
Where decent folk will stop to help if they can
They enjoy a few drinks, they love their families
And stand by their wife and kids
Good old boys they called themselves
The kind o guys that don't look down on the poor
And don't much look up to the rich
They find contentment in the simple things
They made this new land their own
And built her from the ground up
Now she stands on her own
Like an independent woman
Like lady liberty herself
She is America.
19th December 2005
James Battersby
Written upon seeing American for the first time as a young pilgrim a few years ago
feeling like i was Leif Ericson or Christopher Columbus :D.
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