another december day

the sky today's a watery pale blue
not the bold colour it had yesterday
when warm sun brought us out to play
but a restrained and wintry hue
the season will it's clear have its due
and none the cold winds can gainsay
it's time to set aside our projects to lay
our offerings at each other's feet
in hope that this time we'll get it right
and love will win out as it truly should
the day to come is one that we must greet
as bringing the renewed sun's strong light
with joy as we walk through the piny wood

1807

 

the year to come will in its normal course
bring recollections in most great variety
including some that in strictest propriety
should be proclaimed by rider on swift horse
the names of clarkson and of wilberforce
will be repeated with all due sobriety
but they are not all not indeed the moiety
of those who used their eloquence with force
to end the trade in humans to do the work
that others deemed too hard or mean to do
and suffer that some others could have light
not to commemorate them would be to shirk
our obligations we have to get through
to where our thanks will just reflect our right

a prison of the heart

in shape or form the art's all in the eye
to make the sight deceive or apprehend
in ways that although we can comprehend
make common sense amount to a plain lie
the reason's that we want the mind to fly
beyond what would be the normal trend
the boundaries of thought it must transcend
and make our hearts in purest rapture cry
those who won't hear must learn to feel
the blind must be brought at last to see
what we can make is better that we are
to bring the senses all at once to heel
we'll need the truest maker to decree
and bring to us what once was kept afar

for gail at yuletide

in demanding that we answer those who ask are not being kind
for the journey that we've taken requires first that we unwind
over all the the high and lowlands we have come to talk and eat
this is now the proper season all our friends and kin to greet
in the days when we were younger all our journeys ended well
now that we are somewhat wiser it's become quite hard to tell
all the days of our long travel we regret the choice to roam
but the evening lights are calling soon we'll see our little home
days and nights of work and thinking give us pains this we agree
but the season is the right one to pile gifts beneath the tree
all the days that we've been granted by the mistress we call life
are the better when we've taken time to be just man and wife
all the days that we've been working we've not made a giant pile
still we have got some good reason for content this little while
rhymes and such i've got quite good at this at least can't be denied
for such things make life the happier and are a true source of pride
but the thing that really matters really makes this life so sweet
is the fact that i have known you that at last we got to meet
long the time we have together this the hope this my desire
for the times are growing colder and i seek your love's sweet fire