In dream I woke and stood bewitched in
Before a door of oak and cedar
To hear a voice that played upon
A song of keys, part lost, part won
And tugged and pulled my heart to be there
With haunting glimpse of lifetime fixed
As though my past had been remixed
➰
Who knocks? – In truth, I had not yet
A saving grace of dream’s regret
For shame, I turned and stole away
Returning to the light of day
By darkened alleys’ coffee cake
In little houses where they bake
The whitened streets of darker Bézier
➰
And if I’d stayed to read the keys
Of life deployed in sated needs
Would piercing eyes unseen but known
Which through the cedar mocked my guile
Then chase through ever darkening streets
With courage ‘lost’ and weakening knees
This fragile soul so far from home…
➰
Come breakfast Cognac, help dispel this dream
And let me know not what it means
Content to walk this ancient place
Where death once stalked with foulest face
Albigenses, Cathars, hear my prayer
And lift my spirit’s deep despair
And with this light of morning give me grace.
➰
©Stephen Tanham 2022
Photo of Bézier door-knocker by the author.
Stephen Tanham is a Director of the Silent Eye, a journey through the forest of personality to the dawn of Being.
http://www.thesilenteye.co.uk and http://www.suningemini.blog
a disturbing dream, indeed…
Thanks, Jaye! Bezier is like that! Beautiful and dark at the same time. A real mixture of the exotic. Also the Cathedral was the site of the worst of the Cathar massacres.
Definitely dark then…
Its a beautiful city.. two sided, perhaps!
Stevem nicely done. These very human words struck me the most. This is where we must suck it up and move on summoning the words of Churchill, when walking through hell, it is best to keep walking. Keith
“With courage ‘lost’ and weakening knees
This fragile soul so far from home…”
Thank you, Keith. It was a multi-levelled piece. 😊
Pondering….