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childhood
November 2009 
A Poem and Two Songs
I-P
Old crazy two-fold self-deluding fool
to listen (... to believe!)
this April Apples' offerings; tendertiny
pinkpale promises, bright leaves,
the brash and balmy strength
of innocence sans toughness thoughtless
of its own caprice
Salesman of Light at my hearts door,
keeping up the cheerful patter of the breeze,
displaying on a dozen eager arms
these lovely pseudo-bargains of delight;
"One-time offer"
"Guaranteed!"
"A steal at any price!"
But some lessons it would be too sad to learn,
Some suffering rank cowardice to shun;
We both know that this April pitch has run
on far to long to end in failure; indeed
this year I've lingered longer on the front porch
of my pleasure than the last year
and they say that wisdom comes with getting old!
Well better friend to heart than master
come; the deal is in the bag Sir;
you have won again;
I'm sold...
Brightness
waves of reflection dazzle me
floating in a volume black as mystery
rich loam of perception
I follow you and you chase me
but between us now the distance doesn’t change;
distance is just a name…
Chorus:
How we forget our oldest friends
green leaf and water light and wind
stare up at the clouds until your mother calls you in to dinner
now past future smile at me
beads on the string eternity
pearls for the wedding night of kind experience
and lavish innocence
Brightness...
Body grandmother to the man
Child the father, and the Soul their piety
rocks cradles of laughter
asks grown up childishness to end
and let the child and adult meet again as friends
and our true life begin
Still we forget our oldest friends;
Rest, wonder, walking, breath and skin…
Lie on the grass until your mother calls you in to dinner
past present future smile at me
beads on the string eternity
pearls for the wedding day of kind experience
and hopeful innocence…
Brightness...
Bridge:
prismed sight
contracepted light
cutting outer sky
from the dark womb of our eyes,
wake from single
visions sleep
and blind reasons blight
to the rose of delight
the loud geese in their flight
Brightness...
Sad and conniving arrogance
prideful, pleading innocence of helplessness
of shame of confusion,
even you adding to the mood
just ornament enough to make the gift
the size of the gratitude
and I won’t forget my oldest friends
Bugs, smells and laughter, rocks and wrens
I’ll Stretch out in my life ‘til Mother calls me in to dinner
Then I’ll go on inside and see
all of my friends come back to me
Past, Present, Future, Mother
Time, eternity,
The grass, the Sun, the Sea…
Brightness…
Float
Dance around the Tree of Life
and Levity will come to you;
pull your own weight and strife
will give you that much more to pull
its nothing that you plan or do
give up self-righteousness
and it will find its way to you
Give up this senseless war
with gravity and grace
holding yourself in store
or upright in some precious place
and float...
You say you'll lose control
and probably that is quite true
but only if your soul
is not what you consider you..
How can we live in peace
when we coerce ourselves each day;
holding ourselves aloof
from what supports us anyway?
Pride comes between the fall
and the forgiving earth
delaying for one and all
the day we find our second birth
and float...
Bridge:
So anchors of
self righteousness
away
here comes the adventure
that you and the world have conspired to enter;
the storm that you cannot stay
let yourself go
and not know
the way;
the needle must float in the water to show
were you are where your going
and when you stop holding you'll find where you were
always
see how the lovely moon
floats high above the inland sea
Poised in its gracious love
'twixt levity and gravity?
that is the way things are
the way that we must learn to be
getting out of our own way
we come to set each other free
so may all of us stiff-necked fools
find grace and love some day;
fall from our pedestals
into the sea
of every day
and float....
By I-P Kerren Odori
Access: Public
