Wandering Watcher

By: Gus Victoria

Wandering watcher,

Dissatisfied with life once,

You began to walk

And never stopped,

Through dark forested hills,

Over wind carved mountains,

In valleys and caves,

There you were most content,

A calmness bestowed

By Nature granted

As you observed

Life’s rhythms.

A purity of thought

Filtered through the sieve

Of rationality;

A mystic distillation.

You departed one day

From that sacred path,

To share, to show,

Seeking wisdom

With others to learn,

To grow.

Wandering watcher,

When you spoke

Of life and existence,

Of wonder and awe,

Of death and disease,

In that moment,

Did they listen?

Wandering watcher,

You found by observation

The deep depths

Penetrated by deeper reflection,

In humility you became great,

In love you sought to share,

In arrogance we failed to care.

Never the Same (The Fool)

By: Gus Victoria

Made once in heaven,

Two souls bound there in love,

Bid to walk the earth

Together facing the trials of life,

True that tears may mark the way,

Truer that laughter wins the day,

Darkness never lingers

When hearts are afire,

A moment gone

Is three too long,

In mind and in soul,

Two distinct united to one,

Absence is painful,

Forgetting impossible.

Sometimes the loss occurs

Before you know,

Sometimes the emptiness

Is the first proof you feel,

What is no more

Was heaven’s gift rejected,

Memory becomes an enemy,

Joy remembered

Is grief now,

Demons of guilt

Shred the present

That now is ever questioned.

What fool life to live

That the fool chose,

Himself to blame,

Never as before,

Never the same.

Wanderer by the Shore

By: Gus Victoria

The eddies of time

Swirl irreverent,

Ripples of chance

Break the plane

Crafted by a Creator

Beyond mortal ken,

Understood by none

That still draw breath,

On the shore of reason,

The lake of storms

Beckons, a lover, so sweetly,

Confusion clothed in passion

To make sense of diffusion,

No craft to sail,

No home to defend,

The wanderer by the shore

Marches on forever more.

A Bouquet

By: Gus Victoria

A flower plucked is a dead thing,

Its beauty wilts as Death commands,

Severed from the stem;

The essence of life,

The flower is a shadow,

Colorful and alone,

Let us play a dirge

As in ironic cruelty,

Beneath the sun we trim and arrange,

A  ghastly bouquet,

To give to a tender love,

Death for a life,

An end for a moment,

A terrible exchange,

A subtle prophecy,

We fade as the flower fades,

We die as the flower dies.

Enjoy then this my love,

Death’s beautiful promise!

Refuge of Night

By: Gus Victoria

Elegant and serene

She waits for me,

The sun oppressive in its light

Is gone in the night,

She in her silvery dress

Of moonlight fair,

Gives to me

Dreams I dare,

Flight away on a ship of name,

Or hidden treasure

I would claim,

She whispers it so

That perhaps it might be,

She whispers to me,

That I might see

A limitless journey

On her inky clouds,

That with the dawn is stolen away

To wither in the sun’s rays,

I, without fail, await

Her return;

My muse,

My refuge,

My love,

She comforts what day torments,

She gives what day takes,

Night, mistress, love

Rise again that I might dine

Under your gentle light,

That I find that refuge you give,

In day I die,

By night I live.