Wishing all of you the very best of health, happiness, and sharing joy with those you love this Mother’s Day. – gfs
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Tag Archives: Relationship
The Path Forward
How do we heal our hearts
Wondering where we stand
In a forest lamenting
the rise and the fall
Of greatness and simple endeavors
This too shall pass
as pages written into history
For the ages of time on earth
Still we remain
With our works and our ways
Seeking hands to guide
Our path through the trees
and shadows
No time to cry
Time is all I have to keep
And all now you’ve given up
Faded leaves are washed away
In snow melt seen turning to clay
Rivers run cold as the hills unfold
Letting down in their winter dreams
Maples will fill up-rushing again
For the sweetness of life to become
Was it hard to go with no hand to hold
at the crossroads when waking to dreams
I’ll wonder at this and a thousand things
In the days that are mine still ahead
For today you see I’ve no time to cry
No way to find all the tears
I’ll keep them for you to come when they’re due
In a place and a time left to find
Casablanca – (We’ll always have Paris)
I kissed you in the morning rain
Dreaming there along the Seine
The city seemed to melt beneath
Our ray of love unending
Walked hand in hand together there
Elysian fields remembered
the Champs-Élysées’ parade of life
filled the daylight with forever
Montmartre’s steps took away our breath
and wrapped in purple twilight
Watched sunset shadows wash the streets
and paint a starry night …
While raising a Chardonnay’s soft bouquet
We toasted the City of Lights
The ages past, to all of France
Her romance, and her sights
Yes, we’ll always have Paris –
like the Seine our mem’ries will flow
Love isn’t always all that we dream
yet always more than we know …
A fair wind
standing
at a precipice
we felt
the earth move
and there
among the clouds
we dreamed
things that mortals
seldom dare
unearthly visions
sank beneath the haze
sand slipping
into an ocean
of memories
lost in time
light filtering
to a seabed
waves (of emotion)
still flowing
even as the storm
has passed
and sails billow
again (reaching)
before a fair wind
Love is a garden
Flowers bloom
springtime yearning
Golden rays
of sun
turn the good earth’s
gardens into love
Hearts believe
thoughts deceive
and wonder
at the ways
Relations turning
ever after
all the times
we cried
Tears became
the sacred rain
to fill the streams
of life
Ever flowing
toward their oceans
where waves
roll ceaseless
still
Robins nest
as cherry blossoms
fill the seasons scents
Rising ever
life’s desires
long to feel
our joy
Photo – Hawaiian Gardens by gfs
The best of me
a feathered dream will oft return
reaching back into life
times of ancient aging elms
and willows weeping in the rain
thoughts unfold as linen yearns
to know the hand that held its lace
once left waiting at the gate
behind a heaven still remained
beyond the moment fading shades
of flowered sunbeam colors curled
where memories still circle seeking
far from home a world to roam
and always turning daylight still
will rise and set again where love
knows the place forever found
as lost horizons fade from view
Image: http://www.dorsetcamera.co.uk/html/wraxall.html
Sandpipers
Standing in a tidal pool
In sea shells and foam
Golden sunlight
Seabirds call overhead
And Sandpipers
Dances in the ebb
And flow
Of hearts come here
To wander
Some alone
Or hand in hand
Every one a shadow
On shifting sand
Dunes flowing
Sea grass swirling
Behind fences
And sandcastles
Built in a dream
Left to the wind
And the waves
To the flowing
Of time
That lives
Beyond the sea
Beneath horizons
Becoming some tomorrow
Waves wash in
And wave goodbye
Like driftwood
Never standing still
Present tense
And past time spent
Are memories of love
Life fulfilled
Forgotten till
Clouds drift into blue
As thoughts of sometime
Meant to be
An ever after dream
Photo by gfs – Myrtle Beach, SC
The Patriarch
This is the transcript of the eulogy I gave at the funeral service for my wife’s father who passed four years ago today.
Victor surrounded by Family 2007
Admiral “Bull” Halsey said after the Battle for Midway Island that “…there are no great men, only ordinary men, forced by circumstances to do great things”
Some warriors never see the battle field, but instead they are given life, and all the ordinary circumstances that will make them extraordinary people… That will make them heroes to families who sit in places like this today – recalling all the times they spent together. Times with their husbands, fathers, grandfathers, friends and neighbors. Memories, that in their minds will always be larger than life.
I think then that heroes are ordinary men who accept the circumstances of their own lives and do great things …
the Seasons of Life
There are so many things we’ll still see
steely eyes, compassion and anger
Hallowed hands that shaped our lives
Sunny days of youth, bus stops and beaches
life, in all the places where we grew ~
The birthdays, marriages, and christenings
Learning, laughing and crying out loud.
All the ways we were family,
And times we wondered if we were friends?
There’s a voice we’ll still hear in many words:
The war is over, you’re going home –
to Roses, to children dancing
and Maggie’s back in town.
Beaches where oceans will whisper – just float!
And telephones ringing
waking with sarcasm stinging
Lennon sisters swinging
Miller’s band
and Mets games on TV.
And the scents of the seasons will linger
Christmas evergreens and sugar cookies
Thanksgiving turkeys, apple pies
lilacs, lilies, roses red ~
and new mowed summer lawns.
The smell of sweat
that burns the eyes
as sawdust flies
building our lives
and our families
Yet, most of all our hearts will keep
each day and every way we felt
Our pride, returned with pride
Each hurting from a fall
The comfort of the arms and hands
The jester and the smile
All of this was his to give
The Patriarch
Who kept us all within his heart
Who now, forever, and always
will live within our souls
In the film “Eat, Pray, Love” – they talk about the Italian word ‘Atraverssiamo’, meaning “let’s cross over”
Today, we all cross over into a new place, one where we follow the way Vic lead for us, the way an ordinary man does extraordinary things. Rises at 5 AM to take a train to NYC, to drive a bus, walk a beat, working split shifts, to raise a family. Spends scores of years doing the ordinary things that when I look around me here, I see have turned to into extraordinary achievements.
And, I know that when I listen in the quiet of my mind, I will hear the sounds of seabirds, carried on the wind, where he rests along the shore, of an ocean we call – Eternity …
May the Almighty grant his soul eternal rest,
and may this family always be blessed with
his strength, his peace, and his love
Thank you Victor, for all you have given to this world,
Peace be with you always,
Amen.
Star Crossed eBook
Star Crossed
Is an eBook release in Jan 2015 of a collection of poems nearly all published on WordPress, now available on Lulu.com and coming soon to Amazon and Barnes and Noble
Introduction –
The term Star Crossed must be as old as literature itself. It occurred to me that so many of the poems I’ve written over the years were expressions of just such times and places – People who meet and because of the alignment or misalignment of the stars, some twist of fate, or long forgotten destiny, they are swept together and then apart by the tides of life, leaving them to wonder what it meant, does it have a meaning, and wondering at life; often setting them on another journey of discovery, one that may never end, or lead to more questions.
To this poet everything has meaning, and in these words it is my sincere desire that the reader will find solace in knowing he or she is not alone in feeling that the universe moves in ways we may never understand, and find re-assurance that in moments like these we touch the soul of life and that those feelings which words can barely express, remain, a truth, forever. Yes, at night I often wonder …
At night I often wonder
in bed before I sleep
the sound of distant thunder
reflecting dark and deep
of songs I heard in places
so far removed from here
resembling all the traces
of things I hold so dear
for the thoughts we come to keep
sacred in our heart
become the tears we know we weep
when dreams from us depart
yet only in our dreams we will
forever hold those times
always in the shadows still
the voice of hope still chimes
and as my sleep enfolds me
I cling to what I’ve known
yet longing always to be free
from what day’s light has shown
journeys in the night enfold
and often I embrace
the gifts of love in life I hold
brought to me through grace
grandfathersky 