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Poems by Larry Tilander
Page Eight
A Few Good Deeds | A Soldier's Request | Body, Mind, And Soul | Conquest's Loss | Deep Purple Dreams | Euchre | Fortune's Wheel | The Glad Hand Shuffle | I Dare To Feel... | Leap Of Faith | Love's Sweet Will | My companion | Within |
A Few Good Deeds Before you leave here, someday man you're gonna stop and wonder
If maybe all that preaching wasn't right
Sometime in the dead of night you'll jolt awake to rolling thunder
And think about that endless stormy night
So why not take the chance and do a few good deeds 'fore then
At least you'll feel good about your self
Who knows, you might just write your self a passport into Heaven
When God pulls your old records off the shelf
A Soldier's Request Never mind your flags and polished wood and fancy brass
Just lay me in plain pine in Potters Field
No bugles, just the crowing of the roosters every morn'
It's not for baubles did I fight, not yield
Just sprinke plain old hay seed on my grave, no fancy lawn
And maybe plant a primrose at my head
No big to do, the word will reach the ones I love, I'm gone
Don't write it on some far off wall I'm dead
I did not sacrifice for papers, politicians, popes
I gave my life life for plain folks to live free
That children of my children could live plain, achieve their hopes
That's all I need for peace, please hear my plea
Body, Mind, And Soul "My body is a burden now to me
My mind already walks a better land
My soul would go there too, please understand
Please smile now, and gladly set me free."
Those same sharp claws tore Margaret Laurence too
And so she mixed a cocktail, sped the end
No longer could she call her body friend
She left it here behind for what is new
The body, what's a body? Dust and wet
The soul, the mind, the memory goes on
Now who knows what day sometime soon may dawn
With love, with loving hearts that won't forget
Where body mind and and soul again are one
Where hand in hand we walk in endless sun
Conquest's Loss His horned helmet firmly on his brow
His beard a-rustle in the salty breeze
He held the tiller tightly, faced the bow
He changed his tack to port a few degrees
Soon Greenland, Iceland left he far behind
He ran before the wind and found this shore
The friendly red men pleased his roving mind
He vowed that he would stay here evermore
The Vikings and First Peoples loved this land
They lived their lives in perfect harmony
Became one race and prospered hand in hand
With everybody living happily
The French and English came and tore apart
This marriage of the races they did start
Now everyone hates everyone, it seems
With hatreds brought from Europe to this shore
First Peoples' and the Vikings' ways just dreams
As children turn aside from ancient lore
Intruders said they spoke with candid words
While spinning webs of money-grubbing lies
They settled on this land like black crow birds
Pretending they were very, very wise
Their greed to tear a profit from this land
Trod undiscovered wealth into the ground
So much that they could never understand
The real value in this land they'd found
In conquest the invaders lost it all
Learned nothing from this land, so they will fall
One cold day with his fuel running low
The conqueror from darkened walls will flee
Implore the savages that he laid low
To help him in his time of misery
Now who will want to teach the starving fools
To shelter them beneath their lodge's roof
Not those recalling residential schools
Who now will stand self righteously aloof
Go pray your silly god you old black crows
Go fumble beads and eat your stolen gold
Go plant your families in your stony rows
The seedling of your greed has taken hold
Lay down upon this poisoned soil you stole
And with your flesh then once more make it whole
Perhaps one day when all the oil's gone
A long boat from this shore will start to sail
To lands where up the fjords one summer's dawn
They'll find a race of people, bearded, pale
Together they will raid the southern shores
And slay the sons of those who once were proud
That carried Jesus and the smallpox sores
That left the Indian and Viking bowed
It wasn't wit that brought down to their knees
The ones that stood to fight with those black crows
Nor strength, it was just the vile disease
They carried in their unwashed smelly clothes
One day, one day the world will take a turn
Once more will sacred fires freely burn
Deep Purple Dreams I used to live idyllic days and spin fantastic schemes
Waking to a purple haze from my deep purple dreams
I used to smoke a joint and laze write epics by the reams
But they were just a passing phase, my old deep purple dreams
I sometimes seek to find the ways but man it really seems
There's no way to relive those days, they're gone like old sun beams
And maybe it was just a craze but if good one deems
I'll spend eternity in phase with my deep purple dreams
Euchre In passion I say, I've not a good hand
I just cannot take enough tricks
But partner, my friend, you look pretty bored
So how about something for kicks
A point either way, the game will be won
Consider the place, and the hour
For something to do, to stimulate you
I pick up, and throw down the bower
You smiled for real, your interest is caught
Your boredom just went by the way
So what can I say, a minute of life
A euchre's not too much to pay
Just playing the game, I guess it's ok
It passes the time for a bit
Let's take a small chance 'cause winning is best
If our two hands make up a fit
Fortune's Wheel This karmic wheel turns too fast for me
Mad twirlings to a future that's unknown
Sometimes I wish that I could just kick free
Go study fruits of seeds that I have sown
I'd like to talk to me in later times
To see where I went right, and what was wrong
To see if all alone I droned my rhymes
Or if the world joined me for a song
If only with at birth we could be blessed
With hindsight like we have in elder years
Then everything would not be second-guessed
This life would not be such a vale of tears
Still to this fortune's wheel I am bound
No wonder that I'm dizzy, spinning 'round
The Glad Hand Shuffle Reachin' out for the glad hand
Get a dollar from the man
Then your runnin' to the club son
Well you think you got a plan
Gonna take the seed money
Get a winnin' poker hand
Soon it ain't so very funny
Throw you out there on your can
The you're feelin' pretty low down
Hardly got it and it's spend
Like a smoke ring from a chimney
Who can say just where it went
It's the glad hand shuffle
Oh you're never gonna win
Economic scuffle
So you stammer and you grin
Reachin' for the glad hand
Do a show now for the man
Gotta feed them hungry babies
Some beans from a can
So you go out to go shoppin'
Gonna get a little grub
There's the corner supermarket
Right there there's the club
It's the glad hand shuffle
Oh you're never gonna win
Economic scuffle
So you stammer and you grin
It's the glad hand shuffle
Buddy can you spare a dime
Oh, I really feel awful
I'll be good this time
I Dare To Feel... I dare to feel everything I can
Can one do less and call ones self a man?
The tastes that sting, the sounds that ring
The scars that linger proudly sing
I feel that everything is in my plan
Experiences sum is what I am
When chores are through then I don't give a damn
I live hard, play hard, love when I'm allowed
I feel no shame for action, standing proud
The seeds I sow, the loves I know
All teach me, through my life I grow
When necessary then my head I've bowed
From reverence, but not because I'm cowed
I won't be broken, though sometimes I've bowed
Leap Of Faith She said, "Each human life declines from birth.
And wrinkles are our only certainty
Our inward beauty is suffused by age
At least that's how this world seems to me.
Our passing is a blessing when it comes
To minds and bodies weakened and abused
The only good thing is it also numbs
And leaves us all forgetful and confused
I don't want to get old, and so I shan't
I'll keep my beauty through eternity."
So saying she gave me a little kiss
And went to stand there on the balcony
She took that leap of faith with youthful grace
I'll follow soon, a smile on my face
Love's Sweet Will My love it is upon thee that I wait
Wait no more, return my love I pray
Pray tell me sweet one why you hesitate
Hesitate no more, be mine today
Today begins a future oh so bright
Bright new days and nights much brighter still
Still you hold back from this love so right
Right demands you echo love's sweet will
My companion My companion is a king without a crown
His hammer can knock any mountain down
His smile can raise a dead man from his tomb
His warning is of everlasting gloom
Do you know him
He loves me, he loves everyone it's true
Reject him and he goes on loving you
Condemning him it's yourself that you hurt
Reject him and you'll get your just dessert
Do you know him
My friend he holds the key to many doors
He cries, he cries at cruelty of of wars
He says that we should learn the ways of of love
That hate is something we can rise above
You do know him
He watches over everyone the same
It's sad if you refuse to speak his name
He grieves when you do something causing pain
But still goes back to loving you again
For he knows you
Within What know we mortal beasts of heaven? Hell?
We know so little of this life we live
Who needs someone to punish or forgive
In afterlife? It's all here where we dwell
The Heaven of a lover's sweaty grasp
The Hell of unforgiving icy stares
The bliss of having one who always shares
The pit we fall in at their dying gasp
It is inside you Hades or bliss you'll find
Just take the time and take a look within
If you have hurt no one, are lacking sin
Then you will find your Heaven in your mind
No Hell or Heaven follows your last breath
You bear it 'til the nothingness of death
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