Heaven Or Hell

I ponder the clay, earth’s memory mark,

And hear the dawn chorus of linnet and lark,

And say to myself, I knew this man well,

But is his brave soul in Heaven or Hell?

When he was with us he made his own rules,

He scorned all the Clergy; “those poker-faced fools”.

He claimed that all mortals were spits in the night,

Conception considered could never be right.

No question of man could merit reply

When no one could forecast the best time to die.

He dismissed all book learning as squandering time

When monkey and parrot were able to mime.

He set his own standards of right and of wrong,

In mainstream of morals he didn’t belong.

But the light in his eyes when he felt as in dream

The time textured touch of a stone in a stream.

Or the pleasure he got that he couldn’t explain

When he dangled his toes at the edge of a drain.

And I knew that he knew the beggar man’s lot

Of rejection and scorn, and striving for what?

He shared the blue hunger of tinker and waif,

That need to be needed, that greed to be safe.

And the way that he’d smile at the game of a child,

Or the fire in his face when he preached whiskey wild

Of the hypocrites, two-faced, and liars abroad,

Who sacrificed souls to a relative God.

And all that was in him was savage and free

And pure as the earth that holds him for Thee,

And now his own service, with resonant bell,

Yet I know he’s in Heaven,

He’s a long time left Hell.




("The nights were dark and lonely, the days were lonely too,
But now they're oh so bright, cause all i see is you")