Last Liked Ballad Poems (503)

the air did move in silent sing
as linnets sung on warble wing
and truth did shine upon it's clock
as two moored souls depart the dock

time bent around the sides of trees
as grass made love to naked knees
and dappled light found darkened shade
as hearts defied what time obeyed

a blanket framed the dry formed soil
and used as seat the fruits of toil
and I saw magic in her stare
that told me truth resided there

rustic bread in champagne flute
stepping stones back to my youth
noise fell away in lieu of guile
I bivouac inside her smile

heaven knows
and heaven tries
unpick the wrongs you've done
unpick the lies

cos you don't know
how it feels
trudging through a day
in a sea of Atlantic keels

if I had an aeroplane
if I had things
Id fly to the Arctic
just to cool my wings

I'd go to your house
just for the day
and I build me hammock
in your hair and sway..

If I had an aeroplane


well heaven knows
and heaven lies
there's an undiscovered
shade of brown
in your Hazel eyes

but you don't know
how that goes
how the earth.. changes pitch
when it feels your toes

If I had an aeroplane
if I had wings
Id fly past every weaknesses
to a place of Kings

I'd fly down to Mexico
just to surf the truth
and my board would be the promises
that I made in youth

but my boat is older
and my dreams ain't new
so I dive in the bitter swell
and I dream of you

Pop, it's that time of year
when Christmas is nearby
the earth has made
its trip again
around the velvet sky

we fought like tigers
all the time
we both could not back down
and once I grew
beyond your frame
I stood and beat you down

but I'd trade pride
and everything
to have you here.. you see
when you went too early
to your rest
you took a part of me

It took me 40 years to learn
that you were flawed
and great
you loved this time
you loved us all
but you were hard by fate

so as the snow
taps morse to me
about how I miss my dad
I think about
his face up there
and the qualities he had

you laughed and worked
upon the earth
you defended cub and den
you did your best
with the cards you got
and you raised a few good men

forgive me dad.. I'm headstrong
I should have never raised my hands
but I guess I'm just my father's son
your footsteps are my strand

I met her in the winter
in a bar upon the hill
when the dark
was carved by starlight
and the moon
had paid the bill

I stepped in from the wilderness
from the howling wind and rain
I was weary from my journey's
around other people's pain

"you are bearded broad and ugly"
said the prairie girl in fright
not one for moralising
we shared our bones that night

I told her of my story
from the famine ships I came
in a world of madness hunger
where I killed men to my shame

corruption took our homelands
our humanity and our dead
I hated a world that priced our lives
in the currency of bread

I left her at the dawning
as a coyote fought the moon
one night was our forever
she'd be over me by noon

my journey is a lonesome one
thrown far by the devil's hurl
so I bellow out two fires
for the prairie and the girl

the cafe was closing
and the air was darker
than age
Mary was fixing
her order
and her world
had become
like a cage


will you still see me
on Sunday?
will you wear that dress
and look nice..?
but you know
that a question
ain't a question
when you
got to ask it twice..

and the sparrows
still play
in the cornfields
where we used
to make love
and you'd sing..

ain't it funny
how something
is nothing
when nothing
was once everything?

I drove down there
around midnight
past farms
that seemed
to be free

but I knew
one day
that I'd buy one
and that
would be the end
of me

talk of music
and college
of dance halls
lawyers and gown
but it's hard
to dance with a roughneck
when a banker's hand
owns town


she was getting tired
of me
my work, my car
and my dark
and I looked to the heavens
for answers
and saw nothing but stars
and a lark

"I heard she married a doctor"
my friend Dave
did say
later on

and I smiled
like it meant
nothing to me
and got sick
when I knew
he was gone

now the sparrows still sing
in the cornfields
neath the mountains
where she
used to sing

aint it funny
how something
is nothing
when nothing
was once everything

and her car, her car
is a dream.

say it in a sequence
of silent lullabies
say it in the echoed
phrases of goodbye

say it a way
that one day makes me care
say it so I kayak
through the rapids of your hair

say it without speaking
without thought or conscious guile
say it in a fraction
of the whole that makes you smile

say it loud in quiet halls
without worry or concern
say it in a foreign tongue
the one I'd never learn

say it by the way you walk
by the way your hips block light
say it by a waking kiss
in the middle of the night

say it as a tidal surge
impossible to curb
say it by actions only..
we both know love's a verb

I'm rough hewn Lil
you picked me still
to your North star
I'm the black

trace elements fly
to fill the sky..
you bring the things
I lack

I'm running Lil
I'm running still..
from the law
and from my sound

the man who fell
can lodge in hell
he tried to put me
in the ground

I found the Earth's rhythm
it bonded in my core
I get to trace a human face
each year at the General Store

when I tamed rage
and tried anew
a road emerged
that led to you

when I quit work
and made a career
I fed with tune
my starving ear

when darkness fell
about my boot
I shed the cloak
that hid the truth

when I buried hate
and then forgave
a poem grew
around the grave

I could've had religion
but I loved God too much
I could've fought for a living
in boxing rings and such

but I guess we are who we are
and we can't outrun ourselves
and the traits that make us rounded
are often stored in others shelves

I could've been kinder
to the girls that shared my bed
I couldve talked and listened
and let some inside in my head

but the world's an inverted question mark
pointing to the east
and the sum of every good I've done
is balanced on a beast

the more dangerous the obstacle
the more determined I am in tone
see I've always been a protector
to every soul I've known

for work I mind for money
the wealthy and great
the affluent and healthy
beneath the cloak of fate

at home i shroud my family
by planning and device
a shield of hard experience
deep roots untouched by ice

I couldve had a different life
I couldve been carefree
I couldve swam in lukewarm ways
but I chose the Atlantic sea

as cold as knives each morning
as salt it licks my scars
I see the dawn's reflection
in a billion floating stars

I see you everyday
its not important you see me
I'm the the man who moors his boat
near your house upon the quay

your son is older than me
learning issues, t'would appear
he follows you like gravity
like a worry follows fear

you never appear angry
in the face of nature's mirth
everyday he walks beside you
every day a brand new shirt

"who looks after you?" I think
as the ocean soaks the sands
you hold your son so tightly
an umbilical cord of hands

you always seem to have a smile
as you fumble for your key
I'm humbled by your kindness
you must be north of sixty - three

I worry for your future
but there's steel around your home
a dignity past this modern place
a swan a'swim in chrome