Poems by Larry Tilander

Pride | Atlantis | The Quest | From Out of the Deeps | The Folly of Pony Man Dan | Daddy's Eyes | A Ballad of Friends from the Stable | Moses' Story

Pride

A truth that's told is a blessing stowed in a coffer up above
A man has died who's lost his pride for money, fame, or love
My money's spent, I've not a cent, but still I feel rich
Now listen well, I've things to tell before your dying twitch

You've stalked me to the glacier blue, you've trailed me in the snow
Kept me in sight from dawn's first light into the sunset's glow
My name's run down from town to town, my reputation's shot
You say I took from Linda Lou..... a thing I never got

I only got, and it's a lot, from her just her respect
You don't believe, and now you'll leave this life from sore neglect
The other, guess she offered, yes, the wine had laid her low
The urge was rough, but not enough, my pride just wouldn't go

Don't die just yet you ragged mutt, my story isn't through
Before I turn, you must yet learn I've one thing more to do
You've left behind a girl so kind with no one left to care
'Tis to her side this path I'll ride, I'll marry her I swear

A truth that's told's a blessing stowed in a coffer up above
A man has died who's lost his pride for money, fame, or love
And now you die, look world as I walk proud away, erect
With all I need, I thrive and feed upon my self respect




Atlantis


They say Atlantis lies beneath the balmy tropic seas
Some egghead dreamed that up one day, and everyone agrees
Now I say different, I should know, I tell you it ain't so
Atlantis lies much further North, beneath the shining snow

'Twas new years eve, I had to leave my cabin for to go
Down into town, my grub was down, 'twas twenty eight below
There lay old Red, the dog was dead, the leader of my pack
So in my need, hitched up in lead, I put that scoundrel, Black

Into the white and silent night we mushed, those dogs and I
The wind did howl, the blizzard foul kept stars out of the sky
I trusted Black to lead us back to town, he'd led before
But damned and dazed, confused, and crazed, he played a different score

The storm died down, no sight of town, such queerly odd terrain
Strange broken ground, lay all around, like God had gone insane
Deep cracks that glowed, and water flowed there in that frozen Hell
All veiled in mist from steam that hissed out with a sulphurous smell

My dogs were done, they couldn't run, their paws were split and chewed
From rocks like knives, and so their lives were forfeit now, for food
I could not tell how long that Hell I wandered, many weeks
A cave man there, with shaggy hair, and then somebody speaks

From deep below, so soft and low I heard that voice again
Aha my friend, this is the end, I told myself, insane
I had no choice, that distant voice it drew my onward, down
Then through a crack, out of the black, a light, a street, a town

The man who spoke, his sentence  broke, to see me wandering there
So pale, thin, in husky skin, long, greasy, stringy hair
They nursed me then, and strong again I wandered streets of gold
Electric light shone strong and bright on pyramids of old

In science rare, with art so fair they dwell beneath your ken
Advances in their medicine make them much better men
Philosophies teach them to please the senses every way
The life so sweet, the easy street, they promised if I'd stay

Now here's the truth, eternal youth is what they offered me
'Twas tempting, sure, but evermore I longed for Tennessee
And from that land to where I stand, the route I do not know
For sound asleep, in tunnels deep, they whisked me 'neath the snow

But settle down, I'll buy a round, a man must have some fun
Let's wrestle here, just for a beer, come on, I'm ninety one
There ain't no one that's any fun left here in Tennessee
Think I'll go forth, back to the North, Lord, I miss Sam McGee

I'll build a team, go live that dream, Atlantis under snow
I'll eat that treat, that apple sweet, so old I do not grow
I'll take a wife to share the life of waiting 'neath the cold
'Til things capsize and she will rise, Atlantis as of old

They say Atlantis lies beneath the balmy tropic seas
Some egghead dreamed that up one day, and everyone agrees
Now I say different, I should know, I tell you it ain't so
Atlantis lies much further North, beneath the shining snow




The Quest


He walked with ramrod straightness, he moved with striding gait
He hurried as with purpose, as though he might be late
His boots were worn and dusty, his brow all creased and brown
He didn't stop to talk, no, he strode straight through the town

I followed 'long behind him, I traveled in his wake
He never asked directions, he knew what steps to take
He walked o're hill and valley, he never changed his stride
And when he stopped at sunset I sat down by his side

"Oh sir" I asked the old man, "Why do you hurry so
Do you flee law and order, or do you quest for gold"?
"Of law I have no fear son, for gold I have no need
I've harmed no man nor woman by thought, or word, or deed

And as for old I am not", he raised his shaking hand,
"Just thirty times have seen the spring come to the land
Though I seem beat and harried gold dust is not my prod
I care not for the worldly. My quest is for my God

I've looked in deepest jungles, the streets of Rome I've trod
I've crossed the endless oceans, I've still to see my God
My feet are raw, and blistered, my pockets full of dust
To sit and talk is pleasant, but move on now I must".

I took his arm, and held him. I said, "Oh man don't go
To find your God look inward, he dwells within your soul".
Then as he thought I told him, "You'll wander all the Earth
In search of God, and lose him, although he's your's from birth".

He sat and pondered on it, his eyes were full of tears
He smiled a soft, sad smile, and spoke of his long years
"My life is wasted", said he, "My friends I left behind
They scorned, and feared the madman who said that God he'd find".

I said, "Your life's not wasted, your soul is strong and good
Your heart is full of kindness, you've helped where e're you could
You've travelled long with hardship, the years have taken toll
They've served to make you ready to realize your goal".

He said, "I guess you're right son, my life's been for today
My feet have worn and blistered to bring me here, I'll stay".
He lives down by the mill in a house of stone, and sod
He goes through life so happy, the old man with his God




From Out of the Deeps


The sky was clear and quiet lads, that cold November night
The moon a ghostly silver disc, the stars a twinkle bright
Five hundred miles from nowhere and the crew in restless sleep
Then half a league below us came a stirring in the deep

A small vibration hit us first, a scraping 'neath our feet
Then harder came the shaking mates, to lift the ship complete
We struck a reef yelled Johnnie Kirk, a floating wreck said Kjell
Old Bob just stood a screaming there, he'd seen the living Hell

Alas, too soon we saw it too, the foul and slimy thing
We knew as soon we saw it of the death that it would bring
Flying o're the railing aft an arm big as your chest
Like stinking death, all putrid mate, and then up came the rest

Those piercing, shiny, saucer eyes, the body, ugly, brown
A gaping, wheezing, blood red throat, with blackened beak, turned down
It let a howling banshee shriek when we were in it's grip
Then started on it's Hellish task, to crush our mighty ship

With harpoon, and with cutlass sharp we fought that ghastly thing
We hacked it, cursed, we cut, and stabbed, at last it felt our sting
With cries of joy, and victory we watched it slink below
To seek the murky ocean bed, to nurse it's self and grow

With morning's glow we crept on deck, so happy to survive
Then with a growing horror saw each piece, it was alive
Each slimy, stinking, gory chunk we'd hacked off in the night
Had in it's parent's frightening shape raised up again to fight

Large ones, bigger than a man, and ones small as your fist
Teeny, weeny button ones that slithered through the mist
Each one we chopped down on that deck just reformed in the dawn
No matter what we did to them they just kept coming on

All right me bucks the first mate yelled as we began to tire
The beggars seem to thrive on steel, let's see how they like fire
We dropped the boats, and loaded them, we set the ship ablaze
Then bent our backs as best we could to sneak off in the haze

I can't say how the beasts came out, or if they all were fried
But us, we drifted on for weeks, until we almost died
Then finally with our water low, and no food to be found
Upon this tropic island's shore we gently washed aground

I'm old, and grey as I sit here and give this warning grave
If you should meet this loathsome beast it's no good to be brave
Don't try to fight it's fiendish strength, keep body one with soul
Tie tight the Hell hound to your deck, cremate the devil whole




The Folly of Pony Man Dan



There are people who ought to be spit on, some are such that you don't want to know
There are men who are faceless and common, there are chaps who are shallow, and slow
There are guys who are one in a million, they will make you say, there walks a man
And if ever one walked in creation, 'twas a trucker called Pony Man Dan

If he was right here he would tell you he wasn't no kind of a saint
But sit down while I tell you a story, then you can say whether he ain't
It started on seventeen highway, the truckers up there will remember
The sixty-three humdinger blizzard, the twnty fourth day of December

The snow it was blowing like crazy, it seemed like four hours per mile
So Danny pulled off on eleven, to visit The Bay for a while
He parked at a boarded up factory, and bedded his Betsy Lou down
Examined her tires and hoses, then hopped in a cab for downtown

It was twenty four hours to Christmas, many miles to mother and home
In a bar with strange faces around him he could feel what is meant by alone
It was not the alone of the highway, no he knew that and loved it quite well
"Twas a feeling that tore at his vitals like a blast from the fires of Hell

She was back in a dusty dark corner, a dancer the waiter said, worse
Her only concern, he said, dollars, to add to the roll in her purse
But our Dan, he was drawn to her table, and at seven they walked out the door
The bartender winked at the waiter, 'twas nothing they'd not seen before

And it could be she'd spoke of her family, of Christmases that she had known
The loves that she'd lost by the wayside, the husband that left her alone
Or maybe she spoke of the future, the plans that she had for her kid
But her story must somehow have touched him, or he wouldn't have done what he did

He was thinking no thought for his tractor, he had not a care for his load
His one thought, now how can I help her, while skidding right off of the road
The river was raging and icy, and he knew where it was he would go
As he opened his door bound for glory, through a glistening curtain of snow

They found her at dawn in the sleeper, all shivering, blue from the cold
A bag full of presents and candy clutched tight like a misers last gold
And she told how he said it weren't proper for them both to sleep there in the truck
Then he took his Saint Christopher's statue, when he went to find help, just for luck

With the truck to the floorboards in water, they all said that there wasn't a prayer
In that weather a man would be frozen before he could get anywhere
They say that she went a bit crazy, that she stood in her shoes in the snow
That she kissed him right there on the roadside, in a snowbank, at twenty below

On the back of an old bill of lading, they found written out Danny's last will
If you say that you do not believe me, I can show you, I have it here still
There's a cross by the church near the highway, I go there whenever I can
And it's always surrounded by flowers, the inscription reads, Here lies a man

In the winter at night when I'm driving, and Betsy Lou's pumping the heat
I can feel his presence beside me on that old leather air cushion seat
Now mom has the motel and diner, I help out whenever I can
And the rooms are all free in the blizzards, right here at The Pony Man Dan




Daddy's Eyes


On the day we brought her home there was lightning in the skies
The first thing that her grandma said's, she's got her daddy's eyes
I wrote him late that very night, and told him what was said
About the eyes so blue and bright, the hair, my copper red

I told him this last month apart would be eternity
Until his tour was over and he came back home to me
I sent a polaroid to him of our new baby girl
I wrote on it the number one best daddy in the world

She's got her daddy's eyes, I know he'll recognise
Her smile when she laughs with him, her pout each time she cries
She's got her daddy's eyes, the blue of endless skies
That sparkle when they say hello, and cloud up when she cries

As the days went dragging by our sweet babe lost her glow
I asked the doctor what was wrong, he said he didn't know
Then he told me there's a chance there's something deeply wrong
Her daddy should come see his baby girl before long

Now my sweet little girl's gone, dad never made it back
The air force says a hero went to glory in attack
The truth is plain for me to see, he had to leave this world
Heaven needs a perfect daddy for a perfect girl

She's got her daddy's eyes, I know he'll recognise
The sparkle when she says hello, away beyond the skies
She's got her daddy's eyes, and my soft copper hair
And Heaven has a home for me with family waiting there




A Ballad of Friends from the Stable


There's a horse in the stall by the tack room, who walks with a stumbling gait
On the three legs she has left remaining, and one of them isn't too straight
There's a silent dark beauty who tends her, and who sees that she never gets cold
What with all of the care and attention Lindy never does seem to get old

She was hailed as a high school princess, the love in her life was to ride
So naturally right in the saddle she would sit brimming over with pride
Every morning she walked to the stable, and evenings, and weekends of course
Well liked by the patrons who rode there, and Lindy was her favorite horse

'Twas a bitter cold December midnight as she struck off 'cross country alone
Now we know that she should have been patient, but Allie just had to get home
She had stayed for a ride in the moonlight, it was poetry walking to see
By the time she had bedded the horse down there was no one to know where she'd be

Now she knew that she had to rise early, so it's straight through the fields she ran
Then a skate, and a plunge in cold waater, which wasn't a part of her plan
Still there she was cold in the cow pond, with her back like a blasphemer's dream
Too hurt, and too numb to go onward, and with not enough breath left to scream

Lindy, she cried in her torment, Lindy, she sobbed in the night
Lindy, her mind's consolation, Lindy, her bright ray of light
Now there's no human ear could have heard as she called out her dappled friend's name
But a horse can hear just that much clearer, a whicker of answer soon came

Then bang, bang, and a scream from the stable, as Lindy kicked right through the wall
She could tell that her friend was in trouble, she hastened to answer the call
Close behind came a groom, and the owner, they saw Lindy plunge through the ice
By the time they had skirted the water the scene that they found wasn't nice

They were huddled up freezing together, it was thought neither one could survive
But the sun lifted over the oak trees to find them both barely alive
Snowed in where the weather had kept them, the sweet hay of Lindy's own stall
With a circle of silent attendants, and a hastily boarded up wall

Doctors said Allie'd always be crippled, the vet, let that mangled horse die
But there's power that's known as friendship, the power to soar, and defy
Now Lindy's not fit to be ridden, and Allie, it hurts her to ride
When they walk in the night through the paddock, I can see how they canter, inside




Moses' Story


'Twere mornin' and Moses was sittin' and fooling around with his staff
The neighbours was shuckin and jivin', and prayin' to yon golden calf
Sweet Sarah was lookin' a picture, her robe ridin' high on her thigh
He thought that he'd maybe sneak over and rip off a piece of her pie

The roses were comin' fantastic above where the bodies were hid
Oh pooh on the sabbath said Moses, there is too much of work to be did
With mom and pop off to the rest home Mos' had to do work for himself
God damn how he hated the dustin', them idols way up on the shelf

His eyes kept on strayin' to Sarah, ah she were such lovely, fun sport
Old Aaron, the doddering fool, he'd soon have him tied up in court
The charges he'd trumped up was airtight, the future was clear as a glass
The house that he'd have for his own soon, and Sarah, that gorgeous young lass

Then Moishe, for that's what they called him, Moishe, he heard from the sky
Moishe, like loud claps of thunder, report to the Lord up on high
So Moses starts off up the mountain just growlin' away like a pup
If God wants him up on the mountain, then why don't God just pick him up

Old Jacob gets nice escalator, Ezechiel rides in the wheel
But Moses gets stuck climbing mountains, near time that he cut a new deal
Now look says old Lord when he gets there, no, sit down, no, what do you think
You've screwed up my whole operation, the profits are down in the drink

I've got here a list of ten charges, and every one of them true
But rather than stick you in slammer this here's what I'm goin to do
I've chiseled them down on this boulder, the heaviest one that I found
A week it will stick to your body, you're sentenced to carry it 'round

Old Moses he thought like a demon as down that old mountain he went
Then as he got near to the village, he shouted, Oh sinners repent
He started to bustin' the idols and yellin' out, hey all you fools
I just had a talk with the big one, he sent you this new list of rules