Creek and Shadows

I’m walking in the shadows

While my feet splash through the shallows

Of the creek that trickles through my memories

I listen to the soft, warm breeze

Whispering through the autumn leaves

Gilded gold, yet valueless to thieves

The leaves keep drifting down

Obscuring the direction I came from

Until I recognize the hum

Slithering into my remembrance

That noisy, cold New York embrace

Where only buildings in the sky

Throw shadows outside my mind’s eye

I came there following a man

Who didn’t really give a damn

And through my broken-hearted hell

Decided, the best revenge was living well

Here where he thought he was king

By outdoing him, I’d reverse the sting

In New York, New York I stayed

Accepting all the accolades

Accorded me as I rose on and up

Drinking from successes’ cup

Until I forgot that I stayed here

Just to prove a point, then disappear

When people asked me what I planned

I’d say that there would come a time

For land with a creek, wild and wide

With Andalusian horses for me ride

Copses of different types of trees

Green grass growing past my knees
 

So, I think it's time that I moved on

It no longer matters what I’ve won

For I have nothing left to prove

It’s time to pack my car and move

Off the asphalt and concrete

To a place with soft earth beneath my feet

I Climb the Hills

I moved west to the very edge

The ocean pulled me with the tide

And I feel at home and sheltered here

With the mountains rising on one side

Yet there is still a space within

As wide as that flat prairie

So I go back from time to time

But not from fall to February

When I miss the snow, I climb the hills

Past the treeline to the sky

And as I’m sliding down again

I feel like I could fly

I once thought everyone felt the same

That they envied me for moving here

You disabused my misconceptions

The things I love, you don’t hold dear

You left , believing I would follow

I just laughed and shook my head

Still, I wished and dreamed
That you'd stayed here with me instead

When I miss you, I climb the hills

Past the treeline to the sky

And as I’m sliding down again

No one can see me if I cry

Like everyone out there

I miss what I have loved and lost

But I’ve learned not to dwell

On my grief, my pain, my loss

Instead I count my blessings

Abundant as the autumn leaves

Though I don’t go to church on Sunday

That message is still what I believe

When I want to pray, I climb the hills

Past the treeline to the sky

And as I’m sliding down again

I feel like I could fly

Long Way from Hone

 

I thought I was prepared

But I didn’t factor in

the bitter, wicked wind

Blowing me off course

Away from my roots of rocks and gorse

To a turbulent river

And a cold that made me shake and shiver

Still I didn’t realize, until I had capsized

That I was a long, long way from home

My limbs, frozen like cement, fought the elements

Trying to find a way, to get through night and day

While my twisted, addled mind

Fought the nightmares it would find

Trying to justify all the reasons why

I followed blind ambition

Which led to this lonely condition

And a long, long way from home

What did I think I’d find

By leaving loved ones far behind?

Setting aside belief; causing so much grief

Now all I want is to apologize
For the foolish things I’d fantasied

What I had to gain--

So small, compared to all the pain

And I’m still, a long, long way from home