Dan Tindall: Poetry

High on Olympus
Though long-forgotten
The brooding gods
Do not forget

And
Looking down
They see your face
Familiar from a recent trip
And wonder what
Your filthy heart
Is pumping through your veins.

Such treachery
And careful lies
Hypocrisy
Self-righteous pride

- A monster! cry these sleeping giants

(and they should know, they've seen a few)

- A human, comes the slow reply
from deep below the clouded peak
where only devils and their consorts speak

- A human?

- A bad one, but a human, yes!
(And we enjoy such mortal flesh)

- What horror!

- Nonsense! The humans made us all - they made this life!

(And so silence, for a while)

(...)

A thought
Fast as light
Travels like a speeding bullet
And penetrates your brain
With a pain
Unknown outside
This wretched place
And your face
Contorts
And twists
And the more you resist
The more it hurts
The gods are not cruel
Nor are they kind
They will not leave you blind
Just lost and unloved

They know tragedy
But they do not
Know
A Good
Ending.

What now?

This unseen hand
Pushes you
Into black broken earth

You cannot see
You are blind

Where now?

The all-seeing eye
Has got you taped
And will not let go
Of the master copy

Each falling star
Is less bizarre
With each hour
And only when
The last ounce
Of burnt rock
Has struck the ground
Shall you find rest

This is hell

Or so you say.

Through lightening strike
And freezing hail, we emerge
To find sanctuary

Below broken teeth
And joyful scree. We shelter
Together and serene

In this place we cannot fail
Within this life we are one

Be calm sweetheart and
Remember high ground rising
From delicate low hills

Breathe clean mountain air
And sing out with all your heart
Sweet meadow lark

The close clinging heat
Hangs below the cool high cloud -
Too warm for mere sleep

From afar
the sky
swirling black and
tortured grey -

teeth bared with icy menace
sudden rushing blast
Hail and Snow at deadly speed

Behind the only shelter
We hold together
Awaiting the coloured light
Bright with new life
And sweet respite.

You and I will be
As one until darkness falls -
Our journey never ends

Over mountain head
And through deep forgotten valleys
Cool air descends

Only to rise with the sun
Heavenward and without pain.

1

The first summer light
Has melted down the cold shroud
And brings us home

To the green paths
And the scented yellow whins
Harsh but beautiful

Overlooked by God's castles
From where we see ourselves alone

2

The blue metal sky
Hangs below the clean white sun
And bleaches the earth

Up and over rock
And earthen mountain floor -
Behold the high king!

Climb now, as to the world's end
Climb now, this is your true home.