Song in a Minor Key
Oh light oh shade oh heart oh glade
Oh place where we first together laid
Oh love oh fire oh quenched desire.
Oh birth oh grief oh life’s travail
We are one another's Holy Grail
©Bernard Pearson
Endings
He’d first won her heart
When he had held her hand,
But now love fell through their fingers
Like sea side sand,
She walked through the waves,
As the acrobat tide tumbled by
And the gulls wheeled like kites
Across the salt baked sky.
They could see no one else
On that crowded beach
but a shore once made for them
That was now just out of reach.
© Bernard Pearson
Boy and Girl
They were a swarm
of two, a twin pack,
A buy one get one free,
went everywhere together.
Until one night,
At the lake,
Under the moon mother,
They found they were
No longer friends,
And out of their depth.
©Bernard Pearson
Ghost in the Valley
She heard the crows calling.
Near the white river
where it had happened.
She knew when ever
she heard their course remarks
from the dead forest,
waddling on branches like judges,
Her heart if it had still been there,
would miss a beat.
© Bernard Pearson
Night Work
Delilah cut
The mane of hair
As her man lay sleeping
Breathing in and out
Like a continent
might a season.
She let one lock
Settle in her hand
For a few moments.
Once a love charm,
Soon to be a relic.
© Bernard Pearson
Sonnet
(written about 45 years ago)
As this little world is rubbed out
The best the day can do is done
All reason runs now into doubt
The battle of light is almost run.
The stars have usurped the sun
All know that their time is at hand
Owl’s view little feet when they run
While the sky fight its last bloody stand
Her fingers fall loose from my hand
Like river water much colder than ice
I’ve lost her and don’t understand
Why it is me who must pay the price.
As our still life rots and turns black
I’m redrawn and the night takes me back.
© Bernard Pearson
Extract from ‘Steaming Light’ regarding my father’s time in North Russia during WWII
But things could be very grim here, on another occasion I had arranged an earlier morning meeting with two Russian supervisors in the dockyard. I arrived at the wooden shack that passed fot their office. As I worked in I noticed that the ramshackle stove at the end of the room had gone out, the place was freezing! the two men I was to met where present there were however a number of bottles of vodka strewn across the tressle table. At first I was annoyed how on earth were we going to win the war together as allies if this was what to expect. My mood changed utterly on discovering that both the Russians were not drunk but dead, cold and home distilled vodka had taken their toll.
Telescope
You the sun to
My planet,
The moon
To my night.
The world was nothing
Then, tis nothing now,
That I am old
but you remain
What you have always been.
So I honour the quickening
Of time, and recall
Hunting in the hunger
For each other’s breathe.
Dealing from a pack of cards
With hearts is the only suit.
© Bernard Pearson
Exchange
‘You are Godless.’ said the pupil
‘ How can I be godless? I am God.’ said the teacher.
‘Precisely.’ said the pupil.
Where the Flowers are
Seeds in the water,
Left in the salt.
Seeds in the water,
It’s not their fault.
Seeds in the water,
Left there to die.
Seeds in the water,
No one heard their cry.
Seeds in the water,
Blown from far away.
Seeds in the water,
Never more to play.
Seeds in the water.
Sorry there’s no room.
Seeds in the water,
Not allowed to bloom.
Seeds in the water,
Weeds some would say.
Seeds in the water,
Rest in peace, I pray.
Seeds in the water,
Your child or mine?
Seeds in the water,
Sinking in the brine.
Seeds in the water,
Seeking a fresh start.
Open your arms,
And For God’s sake,
Have a heart.
© Bernard Pearson