Friday 13 June 2014

Mermaid


I hear the music of your soul
My distant mermaid on your shoal
Singing sweet in solitude
Siren sounding your prelude
  I call to you across the sky
  To evoke your endless sigh!

Like a sailor in the night
Seeking beckons of the light
I pass into regions of you
Tossed where windy weather blew
  Open wide your velvet door
  Let me shipwreck on your shore!

Three Witches


Synopsis

In an ancient Irish forest, three witches live in an hoary cottage, guarding an underground temple to their evil god Pan.  Occasionally, they abduct residents of the nearby town of Dunsmir, to offer their victims soul in exchange for forbidden knowledge.  This is accomplished through the use of a dream-drug, which allows them to contact their sleeping victim, and cause him/her to sleep-walk into the forest, where they are captured and taken to the cottage.
  The scenario begins with an investigator beginning to experience terrible nightmares involving a horrible witch appearing in their dreams.  Over the course of three months, these nightmares increase in intensity, until, one night, the victim awakens to find that the horrible witch is actually in their bedroom, leaning over them.  She takes them by the hand, and slowly leads them down the stairs, through the deserted streets, and into the forest.
  When they reach the cottage, the three witches lead them, through a trap-door in the floor, down 555 glowing red steps, into the Temple of Pan, where he is sacrificed to the dreadful deity.  All this, unless the investigators can stop it.

Dream One

From the midst of ordinary but unsettling dreams, the investigator feels the intrusion of a probing foreign consciousness, which calls their name from a distance, beckoning them with the promise of forbidden knowledge.
  Suddenly, the dreamer finds himself by a stonework gate on the edge of a forest at night, looking into the face of the hideous witch, while squawking crows circle around.  The witch takes the dreamer by the hand, and, when they enter through the gate, the dreamer awakes, terrified.  He is aware that the dream really happened.

The Wilted Rose


In shadow of the rose I stand
Where garden turns to drifting sand
And sunlight on the flowered vale
Leaves the blossom soon and pale

The wedding bloom whose petals wrecked
By your own hand in white gown decked
Behold, my friend, the wilted rose
Behold her soon, for thus she goes

The Wedding Feast


Evening fell upon the wedding feast
The guests were blessed by the priest
They toasted as the banquet spread
And drank deep to the newlywed

Then dancing on the dewy lawn
She trembled like a newborn fawn
While the twinkling stars bespoke
Their solitude ’fore dawn awoke

She said my Christ I choose thy cross
My souls ruin is Ishtar’s loss
She mixed a poison in her wine
A crown of thorns from tangled vine

A dream where paper lanterns hang
Between the trees when midnight rang
To lead her to the wedding-bed
And bid her soul lost to the dead

Solo

When dawn arose her tender breath
Did not awake the bride from death
Her spirit wanders through the deep
And dreams in the abyss of sleep              

_________________________
Copyright Jeffrey S. Merk 2013

The Moonlight and the Flowers


We sat together on wooden bench
Roundabout leaned encircling trees
I drank immortal stream to quench                
With deeper thirst from deeper seas
    My parching lips
    On rocking lees!

Could we live our days in this garden
In our solitude and hand in hand
Wildly dancing on some poets’ pen
With no whisper of another land
    To mark this
    Garden grand?

Solo

I love the flutter of all you do
Your soft and supra normal powers
Please do not begrudge my loving you
Through the tender-petalled showers -
    It was the moonlight
    And the flowers!

____________________________
Copyright (c) Jeffrey S. Merk 2013

Pick your Flowers in the Cemetery


Remember when as little child
You gathered flowers in the wild?
What has been lost from by-gone days?
How did the light depart your gaze?

A rusty train rolls down the track
With little flags the union jack
Flies free, and in the crowded cars
They stare out through the metal bars

A war is raging in your mind
Will you be good, or feigned kind?
Look out upon this broken world
Where thoughts like trash in sharp wind whirled

You stand between two concrete towers
Looking for forgotten flowers
You saw the sign then closed your eyes
Believing all their dreadful lies:
    Pick your flowers in the cemetery!

_______________________
Copyright Jeffrey Merk 2014

Sonnet for Candice No. 1


Did you see me gazing across the room
With admiration?  Did you like my stare?
While the crowd rejoiced, did I presume
Too much, to think of betraying my care?
Did you hear the word my tongue couldn’t say -
Unborn in the womb of tomorrows dream?
Did we touch, virtue on virtue, that day?
Did I spy your Soul in your eye agleam?
Or did I live an hour in fantasy
And fly on magic wings insubstantial
To the skies high and blissful apogee?
Let it be so!  Let my dreams substantial
  Be!  Let my languid eye declare your praise;
  And wander with me through the dreamy days!

__________________

      By Jeffrey S. Merk

I’m a Fucking Zombie


Teach me the pledge of allegiance
Trade my freedom for your demons
I want to be just like my father
A walking suicide bomber

I’m a fucking Zombie
I’m a fucking Zombie
I’m a fucking Zombie
Leave me the fuck alone!

I want to be a movie star
And grow to go so high and far
Wandering through this horror-show
I paid my dues so now I know

I’m a fucking Zombie
I’m a fucking Zombie
I’m a fucking Zombie
Leave me the fuck alone!

Solo

You put me on your Clozapine
I stare out of the T.V. screen
Staggering through my empty head
You brought me up so now I’m dead

I’m a fucking Zombie
I’m a fucking Zombie
I’m a fucking Zombie
Leave me the fuck alone!

I’m a fucking Zombie
I’m a fucking Zombie
I’m a fucking Zombie
Leave me the fuck alone!

The walking dead cannot go home…

_______________________
Copyright Jeffrey Merk 2014

Fairy-fire


You were a child so long ago
You've walked so far through drifting snow
The winter winds are blowing cold
But I never want to see you old

Turn away from the cold light of day
Though all the world wants you to stay

Fly my love into the Fairy-fire
Back into the dreams of your desire
Fly my love into the Fairy-fire
Back into the dreams of your desire

I saw you falter at the door
You sat you down upon the floor
A tear dropped upon your cheek
And I knew you couldn't speak

Turn away from the cold light of day
Though all the world wants you to stay

Fly my love into the Fairy-fire
Back into the dreams of your desire
Fly my love into the Fairy-fire
Back into the dreams of your desire

Solo

The teachers want you old and wise
The lonely one who never cries
You’re mom and dad want you to grow
But in your secret heart you know

Turn away from the cold light of day
Though all the world wants you to stay

Fly my love into the Fairy-fire
Back into the dreams of your desire
Fly my love into the Fairy-fire
Back into the dreams of your desire

_______________________
Copyright Jeffrey Merk 2013

Fly, Fly, Brilliant Star in the Sky


Fly, fly, brilliant star in the sky
Made to be worshipped by twinkling eye
Soon, soon, outshine the full moon
High, high, like a star do you fly!

Cry, cry, pretty maid with a sigh
Locked in your ivory tower so high
Fall, fall, door, hall window and all
Try, try, you shall rise as you cry!

Solo

Fly, fly, brilliant star in the sky
Made to be worshipped by twinkling eye
Soon, soon, outshine the full moon
High, high, like a star do you fly!


Copyright Jeffrey S. Merk 2013

Broken Souls


    Bb                      F
Immortal stars that kindly gaze
      Eb                          Bb
On nighted earth with tender rays
C                               F
Witnessed when our fingers met
       C                        Bb     F
She sighed her secret sobriquet *                           * a familiar version of a name

In gardens where the moon presides
Over wedding feasts and brides
We wandered over scented path
And took our midnight hour pool-bath

We whispered on secluded bench
Exchanging glances not to quench
Bur rather provoke hunger more
That divine bread at heavens door

          *          *          *

In shadow of my rose I stand
Whose wilted petals left my hand
I pushed too hard wrecking all
She disappeared down my hall

I pray forbear my owlish sight
That failed to see you through this night
Your forgiveness alone paroles
Our living death of broken souls!

_______________________
Copyright Jeffrey Merk 2014

Sung to the transposed tune of Leonard Cohen's, 'Joan of Arc'.