Borrowed

'Borrowed plumes' Harrison Weir's illustration of The Vain Jackdaw, 1881

Everything I have is borrowed

nothing tangible is really mine

from the air I breathe

to the body I wear

all has come from elsewhere in time.

*

I may live my life 'til I'm ninety

lesser or longer maybe

but whatever I touch

and whatever I gain

has been borrowed for my moment in time.

*

At birth I borrowed my parents

to give me the body you see

from the earth around

with its vast abounds

I still borrow the food that I eat.

*

The place where I live

and the tools I use

all borrowed from some other place

and the questions I ask

as I come to this view

is from whom have I borrowed my soul?

*

Dennis Crompton © 1995

Now I see

The doctor shone the light into each eye of mine,

seeming to enjoy his searching,

with murmurs of wonder and obvious delight.

Then he sat back and looked at me,

‘There are wonderful things to see there…’

his face and whole demeanour

supplementing what he’d said.

 *

And then he looked again, took his time,

‘Beautiful colours, your eye is a picture

of how things are, inside you…’

*

I sat patiently as he explained this to me, thinking —

All these years I’d seen,

with eyes my window on the world,

two orbs that so much helped to make me…me,

yet I’d been blind to those inner wonders

which only then had been revealed to me.

 *

Of course there was much more;

he had but seen physical,

with his penetrating little light up close,

illuminating my illuminators...

He could not infiltrate the intangible,

see the abstract thought processes of my brain,

make the invisible recognisable…

 *

I know there is much more to me

than daily ordinary visible me,

pleasing or displeasing as the case may be,

to those in charge of supervising,

manipulating, enjoying, or enchanting,

all other forms of observing me.

 *

Now if he’d had a light to penetrate my soul,

to explain my true self to me,

I wonder, what would he have told me then?

*

Dennis Crompton © 1995

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

Have you...?

Henri Matisse
1869 - 1954
Le bonheur de vivre” (“The joy of life”)

Have you grasped the greatness of your being,

discerned somehow there’s a purpose in your life,

a miracle beyond present comprehension,

been reassured by glimmers of inner light?

*

Have you midst your everyday occupation,

or solitary, on some quiet evening stroll,

been overwhelmed on hearing strains of music

in harmony with a soul-song of your own?

*

Have you been present at birth’s miracle,

heard, as she heard with her Mum, a babe’s first cry;

then later, wondered at her first simple sentence,

new life communicate with her waiting world?

*

Have you experienced the truest joys of friendship,

somewhere on your life’s journeyings,

breaking bread in the company of some stranger,

departing more complete for such time spent?

*

Have you thought on those circumstances manipulated

in this world’s prisons with greater flaws than yours;

seen the world through their dehumanizing barriers,

as cruelly restrained as bars or cold stone walls?

*

Have you had the privilege to be present,

hearing last thoughts of another’s whispered words,

holding their hand, caring and farewelling,

knowing you were a comfort at their end?

*

Have you felt the true worth of your being,

that magic ‘something’ deep within your soul;

that come what may and though your very world

did tremble round you … all would be well?

*

Should this have been your fortunate experience,

then blessed are you, a thousand times I say;

and I pray that now this privileged possession

you’ll somehow share with us of lesser clay.

*

Dennis Crompton © 1997

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