Fare thee well now
One midnight horn calls
So I shall travel after
Following the smoke on the tracks
Down dark’s ribcage
Into the starglow

Remember me when the mist burns
When heat of day afloat goes
Trembling over the wild hay

I too passed along this way
Embraced and embracing
I roamed in the wind’s kiss
In day’s dews bathed

I was young when grief came
Too when love I claimed
My share of the fruit partook
Returned to me was all of this
I gave away, not craved

To bed of wheat
To silk of dream my weave
I got to the moonwash spilled
Plucking tears so to be filled
My hands of nectars soothed and stilled

Goodbye, goodbye
I will know you by your eyes
My luring breeze now flies
So to sleep bow I my sighs

Written November 15, 1995
(desmond)

Image source

About Desmond and Poems Unrequited.

Copyright © 2013 Mani O'Brien. All rights reserved.

Warbling birds
In the trees near the Mosque
Under a grey dawn sky
Beholding rise of day
For a gentle phrase to say
I look into the songs of the birds
But there, there are no words
Untinged by the sorrow that is mine,
Dark, even as the world
Will soon be shine

Written on February 28, 1996
(desmond)

About Desmond and Poems Unrequited.
Image source

Copyright © 2013 Mani O'Brien. All rights reserved.

A grey day and Joni Mitchell morning
Ladies of the Canyon
And you always come to mind
With your tresses in the wind
And your hash pipes puffing
How long ago it all seems
But like yesterday too,
Me and you
Down by the creekbed
Under the full moon
Before you left for Boulder
And I went on to other gardens

I’d like to bring it all back
Fool that I am
Rearrange karma and the sunlight
Wipe up the tears and rewind the years
And it would only be you and I
Heads together, on our backs in Autumn
Our long hair tangled together
Stoned, dreamily staring at the sky

Written January 22, 1996
For Sue
(desmond)

About Desmond and Poems Unrequited.
Image source

Copyright © 2013 Mani O'Brien. All rights reserved.

The Valentine silent and unseen
The one long-lived with me
I take it now out of its gilded box
Built by time with tears for locks
Handmade with skill and polished by heart
Seamless and sturdy my craftsman’s art
Fashioned by love to hold a spark
Of the blaze of her I keep apart
Treasure that is mine alone
Carried deep where I have roamed
A gift she gave long ago
Her love in my blood aglow
Kept in my simple chest of bark
Her light to light my life made dark

Written February 14, 1997
(desmond)

A beautiful piece by my Dad. Not sure who the subject of this poem was. I can usually recognize the tones he used when he was writing about my Mom, either honeyed or hostile. Sometimes he would say that the voices of his writing moved through him, translating the story of another. I just love images this poem conjures up – a treasured love buried deep in a gilded box. So touching.

Image: Aleksandra Zaborowska
About Desmond and Poems Unrequited.

Copyright © 2013 Mani O'Brien. All rights reserved.

I wrote a poem
And then
I don’t believe
I cried

O this is not a good way
To begin a cloudy day

I will look for distraction
Some hard labor to do
To get my goddamned, silly mind
Off of you

Written January 22, 1996
(desmond)

Images: Stefan Gifthhaler Photography
About Desmond and Poems Unrequited.

Copyright © 2013 Mani O'Brien. All rights reserved.

All useless
Puffs of dust thrown
From a flick of the hand
The straying of wild wind
A crush of smothering flowers
Every effort
Drowned at the start
A matchtip flare in the dark
All the dreaming and the toil
A spattering of rain on dried soil
All the words worth a dog’s bark
Plundered now the richest part
Left but the splinters
Carved in the rotten bark

Written January 20, 1996
(desmond)

Unfortunately a lot of the poems I’ve been posting written by my late father are a bit… er, depressing. This one I think is pretty relatable. A nice one for expressing those moments when your’re feeling especially discouraged. I feel like this sometimes with my career. Like all of these teeny, tiny steps don’t get me much closer to where I’d like to be. But, unlike Dad, I feel pretty confident that I’m meant to be right where I am in this moment. Gotta just keep on keepin’ on, as they say.

Image

Copyright © 2013 Mani O'Brien. All rights reserved.

Let’s go drink some cloud wine
Stirred by sunset, ripe by time
Take this eager hand of mine
And we’ll get high on juice of life
Elixers made of dark and shine
Lets go
Into riptides of the moon
Swallowing until we swoon
Each to each in each own’s heart
Pretending death not us will part
Let’s get loaded with the drug
The Wizard made from secret stuff
Let’s get drunk on love sweet love

Written on Ides of March, 1997
(desmond)

Images: 1, 2

About Desmond and Poems Unrequited.

Copyright © 2013 Mani O'Brien. All rights reserved.

Bless the children
My fruits of life
The darling ones
Made in my image
And of her love
They are the treasures
Held palm to palm
The delight I take
From bounty spread
My flesh, my soul
These have grown
In the circling
The years flown
They the sparks
To light the vastness
Of my dark

Written January 27, 1996
(desmond)

Image Source.

About Desmond and Poems Unrequited.

Copyright © 2013 Mani O'Brien. All rights reserved.

To the empty bed go now, love,
To the shadow left
Where the crushed scent fled
The broken stalks were strewn
The torn deaf petals flew
Hearing not the singing from the moon,
Take your place now, love,
In the dust the minutes grow
For the ivory of the bones
The rust is shown, the stains
Where the wines were spilled
In the candlelights of dusk glow
To the lone dream bend low, love,
To the pillow lush in murmering spent
Entangling sleep where joys went
Lay your heart down now, love,
Where sighs alone go

Written January 19, 1996
(desmond)

Images:  1 Gary Tonge, 2 David Pinzer, 3 Gary Tonge

About Desmond and Poems Unrequited.

Copyright © 2013 Mani O'Brien. All rights reserved.

Let the last page float off
Into the dark fingers the moon kisses
To gleam like a jewel may it be
Polished by the breath I gave
Back to the world from sky of day,
The last page
I’ll hold it for the moment it is mine
Then let the heart twirl it away
From the blood and tears and pulse
That made it
The scrap that it is
Of the scent of you

Written January 28, 1996
(desmond)

Image: Elizabeth Messina

About Desmond and Poems Unrequited.

Copyright © 2013 Mani O'Brien. All rights reserved.