Val's birthday

 

Birthday

A word in your ear

as you join another year

and meet a new one

vulnerable to time.

Not a year older,

but a day older,

seems gentler that way.

And what would the word be

that flows to you from me:

uncluttered whisper,

untroubled rhyme.

From a lover

to another

constant love

and

just

another day.

kw

 

Valentine 2026

 

 

Valentine

As if a time,

a day, a date,

could in any way

dictate

the tides and times

of love.

It never has

it never will,

nor seasons

fulfil,

some primal age

of love.

And Valentines

again comes round.

Some things lost,

some things found,

and yet the sound

and it is a sound

of love

retains a voice

and melody

that starts and ends

with you and me.

 

kw 2026 

 

Standing on the threshold of the season

 

Standing on the threshold of the season,
waiting for the darkness to clear,
waiting for the travellers on their journey,
waiting for the new star to appear.
Standing midst the songs of celebration,
waiting for the dawn of that day
when the tide of time begins returning
to keep the dark of night at bay.

Standing at an inn or border crossing
waiting, always waiting, for relief
shunned or hounded by oppression,
bowed beneath the heavy load of grief.
But still we’re on the doorstep of tomorrow
still a hope, still a reason why,
still a light beyond our darkness
an answer to the prayers we cry.

Standing on the threshold of this season,
singing songs of angels and of kings
singing, always singing, for a future,
singing for the joy that singing brings.
And the song began way, way back, in glory
before the world and all created things
when the spirit sang above the waters
and the tune, like feathers, formed his wings.

 

weighed

 A poem for Armistice Day