{"id":75,"date":"2020-05-02T06:15:43","date_gmt":"2020-05-02T06:15:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.jamesbaugh.com\/?page_id=75"},"modified":"2021-05-03T02:25:51","modified_gmt":"2021-05-03T02:25:51","slug":"poetry","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blog.jamesbaugh.com\/index.php\/poetry\/","title":{"rendered":"Poetry"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>(A selection of some of my favorites that I&#8217;ve written over the years.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Promise  (also The Oath)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p> Upon the hill, his sweet wife weeps on this their wedding day. <br>  The oath to King her husband keeps must take him far away.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>  As they embraced for one last time to his dear wife he swore, <br>  that though the very fates be damned he&#8217;d come back safe from war.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>   And she to him a promise made that though the heavens burn, <br>  waiting on this hill she&#8217;d be the day of his return.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br> For three long years of war, he served his noble king until, <br> on this, his day of homecoming he sought her on their hill.   <br><br>Upon the hill, his sweet wife sleeps where she had sworn to wait,<br>  as by her grave, her husband weeps returned from war too late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Leap  <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>When at last we cannot bear<br> that lonely place upon the cliff,<br> we seek the means to cast off fear<br> and push the doubt from out our breast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> When neither mind nor sense consoles us,<br> then at last we come to faith,<br> and with it we must find the courage<br> to step up to the precipice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Courage is an act of will<br> And we become its purest form.<br> We wrap these fears within blind hope<br> and cast ourselves into the storm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As we tumble in the maelstrom<br> ask and you shall hear us say<br> &#8220;<em>For good or ill<br> this I have chosen,<br> Come what may,<br> Come what may!&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><br>A Kind of Poison<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We taste these little sips of death<br> that numbs the soul and steal our breath.<br>and whisper to our anxious ear<br><em>&#8220;wait &#8217;till a safer choice is near.<\/em>&#8220;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;<em>Not yet, not yet,<\/em>&#8221; the poison sighs, <br>and with each dream that falls and dies<br>&nbsp; &nbsp;we strive the less for life&#8217;s high reaches, <br>take the safer paths fear teaches,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;so when this lesson too well learned,<br>&nbsp;so deeply in our soul is burned<br>&nbsp;the seeds of dreams which might be known <br>land in our grasp and rot ungrown,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8217;till as life ends we can but weep &#8220;Too late! Too late!&#8221;<br>then dreamless sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><br>The Quest (Songs of Avalon)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p> There sailed a young captain who awoke from a dream <br>wherein he a great vision was shown<br>of mist-covered isle, and in dreaming he dwelt <br>in a glorious land, Avalon<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> On awaking, he wept with the longing he felt <br>for that mystical place he&#8217;d been shown,<br> and he swore that one day he&#8217;d somehow find the way <br>to this land of his dreams, Avalon<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On warm nights he would sing to the crew of his dream <br>and in moonlight, his tears softly shone<br>as he told of&nbsp;a land wherein right must command <br>in a kingdom of light, Avalon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though some crewmen would laugh at their mad captain\u2019s dream, <br>yet were others who\u2019d listen and long<br>just to see such a place pledged to virtue and grace <br>as his mystical isle, Avalon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And the captain, he swore, to be true to his dream<br>he&#8217;d embrace its ideals as his own<br>always treating his crew with those virtues he\u2019d found <br>in that land from his dream, Avalon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over many long years, he continued his quest <br>every asking and then moving on<br>but wherever he went never word nor a hint <br>could he find of his fair Avalon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As men left his crew to sail on different seas<br>they would tell of this captain they&#8217;d known. <br>And at night some would sing of their mad captain\u2019s dream<br>as in moonlight their tears softly shone,<br>for he&#8217;d taught them that grace lived in deeds, not a place<br>as they\u2019d sailed his good ship, <em><strong>Avalon<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(A selection of some of my favorites that I&#8217;ve written over the years.) The Promise (also The Oath) Upon the hill, his sweet wife weeps on this their wedding day. The oath to King her husband keeps must take him far away. As they embraced for one last time to his dear wife he swore, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[23,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-75","1":"page","2":"type-page","3":"status-publish","5":"category-creativity","6":"tag-poems","7":"tag-poetry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jamesbaugh.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/75","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jamesbaugh.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jamesbaugh.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jamesbaugh.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jamesbaugh.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jamesbaugh.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/75\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jamesbaugh.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/75\/revisions\/128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jamesbaugh.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jamesbaugh.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jamesbaugh.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}