The Call

The Call Inside Us All Resides;

(for dad who sailed from the hospital)

What is it that twists me so?

That calls to me across the unending waves

Until my feet itch to be on their way

Without even knowing where they go?

I once dreamt of unicorns;

Of shining horns that pierced the night sky.

I dreamt of crescent smiles

And the gentle shade under a sacred oak.

Now I feel the grass, hear the wind in the leaves,

The whisper of things past and that yet to happen,

And even as I try to stir, the sun steals my passion.

The West calls! The West calls!  

The Land of Grey, the Land of Change

The Land to fear

Yet whose discovery bestows peace.

We are the river that always finds its true path.

We are the wolf that howls proudly to its mother.

We are the antlered King who runs before the pack.

We are strings of the harp; we cry the sweetest tunes

Across the blossoming meadows of all the realms.

We are them all and much, much more.

We are them all and none exactly.

The moon is red

The moon is white

The sable moon burns bright tonight.

We are the acorn. 

We are the oak.

We are the hunter. 

We are the hunted.

We are them all 

And much, much more

We are them all and none exactly.

For the journey never ends.

It twists and curls,

Touching back upon itself before proceeding on.

Eagles screech above me as they circle the sun,

Reflecting its golden warmth in their outstretched wings.

My thoughts yearn to fly also, to spread their wings

And carry me to the Island beyond the Western Lands.

Let us flee ! Let us flee !

Let me set my dreams free

Upon the verdant ocean of possibility

While above the gentlest clouds of gossamer gold

Shows that the morning light is rising.

I will reach another day,

I will land this craft

on the shore and stand again

on the sand, feeling my feet sink

even as my thoughts soar.

I am the Viking with helmet and shield,

I am the Celt using the secret Ogham alphabet

I am the Roman, straight like a road,

I am the Shaman dressed in the raven’s guise.

The night brings doubts, brings ripples

small concentric rings that draw me inwards

to the centre of the lake, there to meet

the Lady I once knew but left behind

when the genes and their designs forced an answer

I surrendered to time and time again

regardless of the consequence or the issue.

We all abandon, all flee

And are chosen. All fight

And are defeated, yet in the ashes

Rise up and strive again to answer

The call that lingers within, that fades

But will never cease

Until we feel the earth upon our face,

Until the worms burrow into the flesh

And the breath we used so cheaply

Falls still upon the hearth.

My hands have held the oar, have waved the wand

Have proved time and again the pen is no more mightier

Than the sword for in the end

We all sail upon that final sea, the memories

Filling our sail, the waves singing our journey

And behind us, always, those we love

Or wished we might have,

Stand and watch and know for certain

They, too, will answer this ultimate call.