CADENCE

1. Prologue

I sit and watch as clouds are drifting by
Such beauty hurts – it almost makes me cry…
But I haven’t done this for a long, long time
Since when I learned the magic of a single rhyme.
Since then I write instead of crying
Since then I live instead of dying.

I want to look in all the shiny mirrors
I want to find no strangers there
I want to see the future getting clearer
I want to hide from danger’s care
I want to have a faith in what I think is fair
I want to know that skies will be forever there…

I look again, and clouds are gone forthwith
It comes to show how fragile beauty is
And yet it is the everlasting wonder of the world
That will save it – and all without a word
For words are spoken only to be heard.

Still let me spread along some more of them
As a trace of things long gone and yet to come
To break the silence that is murdering us all
But hearken! Soon the bells will toll
To announce the end – the final curtain fall.

But before – there is so much I wanna do
So many people I can love, so many things to learn
I wanna live these moments through and through
Until the day when all my dreams will crash and burn
Then I will know it is my turn…

2. The Beginning

It was night of all nights and I was meant to be
Far away from all the sadness and fear
But a Shadow came to me and talked to me
And it said words I thought I’d never hear
It spoke of misery and guilt and things I couldn’t see
And of worlds of pain so far and yet so near…
I felt compelled to see the land where sorrow dwelt.
Then it took me by the hand and I fell under its spell…

 

In this most memorable night of nights
Each talk I had was a desperate fight
A forlorn attempt to return to the light
Of the day.
But the dark gloomy roads still appealed to me
For I was the way
And the way was me.
Searching for a perfect world
Searching for a perfect word
To open up a mystic door
And Light to spread for evermore

But being not the perfect man
How could my world be perfect then?

In this most memorable night of nights
Each talk I had was a desperate fight
Fighting every truth I saw
Fighting hard my fear not to show.
So wrong – I guess I didn’t know
That murdering the Truth is hard and hurts you so.

3

I met a fallen girl, a prostitute
All her life she’d been a substitute
Of a lover, and a friend
So she needs not understand
That life’s the only mystery of man.

I looked at her exhausted body
And she looked at my exhausted soul
I asked “Are you like me – nobody?”
And she echoed ” ‘s getting cold”

With these words I turned to her:
“You, the sinner, tell me, where I err?
All my life I tried to do my best
And now I’ve found my Valley of Unrest”

She said “Yes, but have you ever put your soul to test?”

“You dying piece of sinful flesh!
In a perfect world you could be only trash!
How dare you speak of my immortal soul!
How dare you tell me anything at all!”

She said “I’m dying, but you’re dead
And taking each decaying breath
You drop another body dead”
“A lie!” I cried and smashed her head
Thus justifying all she’d said

“Now I lay her down to sleep
Eternal sleep…
I pray some God her soul to keep
And keep it deep…
And if she lives, and if she wakes
Someday…
I pray this God her soul to take
Away.”

This I muttered, as with bare hands I dug a hole
For her worn-out body, and my worn-out soul.

And kept on roaming – till I heard a call…

4

On a crossroad I surceased and saw a man.
He was hanging on a tree amidst the barren land.

His soul was happy to escape the carcass
And as the body uttered strange and ghastly sounds
It told me that the world was just a circus
And all men and women merely clowns.

I sensed a Truth and fury rushed into my head
“Who do you think you are? A new Shakespeare?”
Silently the dead man said:
“No, I just shake here
Is it not enough
To give me all the wisdom of the years?”

So it was – and all the tears.

5

Filled with grief, I sat down on a stone
(couldn’t think myself a name)
A crazy stranger waiting for a dawn
(that never came)
And as I watched the stars that shone
(all the same)
I felt old and terribly alone.

6. In the Crystal Palace

A. The Palace

From a dark horizon there emerged a palace
And all the roads met at its gate
It stood high above the earthly chaos
As a strange incarnation of Fate

*

B. The Flowers of Time

Inside a hall there was a lake of crystalline water
A lake of crystalline water.
And whilst I watched, a flower rose up from the lake
Bearing a Form that only perfection could take
Stood for a moment… Gone… And then another,
Looking like the first one’s long-lost brother

And another, and another, and another…

Much the same, but all so different
Their chalices so radiant and vibrant
So close to heart – to mind so distant
Carrying in a second’s life the great enigmas
Of birth and death, of night and day…

I stood enchanted, couldn’t turn my eyes away
Afraid to miss just one…

And then I heard a voice:
“You’ve touched Eternity – so die!
From now your life would be a lie
How will you judge the foul from fair?
Will you be able to compare
What you’ll see to what you’ve seen?
What will be to what has been?
From now your life would be a lie
You’ve touched Eternity – then die!”
“No…” – I sighed, and “No!” I cried
“My life’s the mystery I hide…
To live’s my only sacred right and duty!”
And crushing flowers of exquisite beauty
(Much the same – but God how different)
I fought my way out of the hall
Then it seemed I wasn’t there at all…

*

There were mirrors everywhere
But this was perfect – I could never tell
That it was me before myself

*

I fell aknee and cried:
“Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no lighthouse in this sea?
Is there no God my pain to see?”
All the mirrors laughed at me.