Time to return?

Is it too soon to say that I am ready now,

fold me back into the great mother womb

from which I was expelled,

a human time traveller, not consulted,

on planet earth dwell?

 *

Have I run the gamut,

passed the required tests?

Experienced to the fullest,

all conditions set?

 *

It's true and freely I admit...

I've been so afraid at times

of making just the same mistakes

I've seen on every side.

 *

Some were members of a team,

played each game as it came...

I was drawn to other things,

and so they called me names.

 *

It made me weep each time I saw

my fellow humans suffer...

Others laughed and jeered again,

how could they be so blind?

 *

In many ways I quickly found

I wasn't hard enough...

Men were to be as hard as nails,

and made of better stuff.

 *

Yet I have learned and know it’s true

for each person I have met,

beneath each tough exterior

there's a human heart to touch.

 *

Am I ready now to close the door

on all I think I've been through...?

For now I ask, 'If it's the end,

where will I return to?’

 *

Dennis Crompton © 2013

(first published www.denniscrompton.wordpress.com 2013)

Will the way ahead be clear?

When the tombstones of the warlords

have crumbled into dust;

when the armouries and assembly lines

cease manufacturing the guns;

when servicemen and women

refuse to hear the call;

and the ordinary citizen

universally says, No!

Then, when the dogs of war are leashed

will the way ahead be clear?

 *

When the common and the everyday

are seen as part of our creation;

when the eye of every human

looks on his neighbour as companion;

when all the hurt that ever was

has lost its bitterness;

when, I’m sorry, and, I love you,

contain no other meaning.

Then, when we’ve learned to think of others 

will the way ahead be clear?

 *

When shouting for our rights

balances with our responsibilities;

when those who do the manual work

are recognised for what they’re worth;

when elected representatives

seek honestly to govern;

when mankind learns to live with nature

and stops poisoning the planet.

Then, with standards all acknowledge

will the way ahead be clear?

 *

When we join the great departed

and time for us has ceased;

will we leave some good behind us,

folks be grateful that we’d lived;

how will the personal record look

as the score is totalled up;

will the watchers hide their faces

as our book of life is shut?

Will everything be clear at last

as to the reason we have lived?

 *

Dennis Crompton © 1994

(first published www.denniscrompton.wordpress.com 2013)

Things unspoken...

Long ago in distant past

Big Bang theory or some Divine plan,

‘midst swirling dust plus cosmic radiation

began the continuum of exploration.

*

Male and female came to be

dwellers outside eternity,

naked learned to cover up

hide the erotic bits of fluff.

*

A given time to live a life,

man sets forth to seek a wife,

time to raise their progeny

then launch them their destiny.

*

Learning, I find on looking back

depends on background and on stock,

these and other abstract things

partly interact on me;

shaped my thoughts and actions so

but must not rock the blasted boat.

*

I’m a man but must not show

when my feelings are hurting so…

Set out to find the real me

why my true feelings I disguise;

how to be father and husband too

provide and protect all that is mine;

be a man and not a child

pretend I’m brave when I want to cry.

*

At last I discover my human clay

holds basic rights to have my say…

so I make my personal plea

since I’ve not sought to make me, thee;

for God’s sake leave me, let me be…

all that I was meant to be!

*

Dennis Crompton © 1995

(first published www.denniscrompton.wordpress.com 2013)

What then?

Tired…I cannot sleep…but think…

mind-centred on the stretch of time measuring that which is my life,

or will be soon.

*

My body tells my mind that this is so

and Nature also sings the self-same tune, one every hand,

I see the rising of the new amidst the stately-aged, inevitably decaying too.

*

Inside this house that I have known so long,

feeling at times trapped or hindered in some way;

this form even so gifted to me, many facets of our humanity to see.

*

The bitter and the sweet have passed this way

which I with all my faculties have keenly felt,

those things which made me human,

passed on at birth by mother and the Great Design,

make me think were all the steps I’ve trod part of some plan?

For if they were then I am rich indeed …

*

I’ve seen the depth of colours range in Nature’s glorious hues;

heard, felt the rapturous thrill of music’s harmonies fill my heart,

lifting me to heights of ecstasy or helping me to weep with therapeutic tears,

refreshing and uplifting me.

*

I’ve felt that inner joy and tenderness

of comradeship in humanities’ warm embrace,

walked, talked and shared with others

like myself who’ve felt the wonder of our

mysterious birth, and thought…

*

If then this probationary walk of mine,

short-spanned on planet earth’s terrain encased in time

has yielded so much wealth to my earth’s dust, life-given by the Spark Divine…

what then of that which is to come, which calls me as each day’s setting sun?

*

Dennis Crompton © 1994

(first published www.denniscrompton.wordpress.com 2013)