WORD SYMPHONY
A Collection of Poetic Expressions
WADE C. LONG
Smashwords Edition
©2011 by Wade Chandler Long
Cover Design by N. Reginald Long
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
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For Thom Long… Dad
A Prayer for Grandmother
B4
Battle Scars
Beautiful
Blessings
Fertile
Fire
Foolish Things
Freedom’s Song
Gone
Mother Earth
No Substitutions
Once Again
Sweet Serenity
The Molding
Today
Touch
Triumph Over Tyranny
Venom
Wanted
Acknowledgements
Thanks and Love to N. Reginald for capturing the image of Word Symphony so very brilliantly, to Roger, Brandon, and Jonathan for your brain trust, and to Monique, Shonda, and Val for your inspiration. Gratitude to AA and Bill for helping to get me in gear again. D.P. Monroe, The world has no idea what it’s in store for, with you. Bless! I John 3:6
A PRAYER FOR GRANDMOTHER
In silence I bowed my head,
And prayed that God would give you strength
In times you feel you can't go on.
In darkness I gave thanks to the Lord,
For memories
And present enjoyment.
You - are a supernatural part of me;
A driving force of endurance.
Your wings spread wide, like any bird that soars!
I've never taken you for granted.
You mean the world to me.
And NEVER forget these words:
This is my prayer;
That God will watch over you always!
B4
She haunts me like a lover past
With nail prints in my skin
As voices filled with yesteryear
And remnant former sin
My eyes spring forth to future days
Marina and its water blue
A cocoa-honey light brown face
And curvy shaped at half past two
I wipe away tormented times
And saddened nights of yore
I brush away and kiss goodbye
A season called b4.
BATTLE SCARS
Doctor, patch me up!
I done been hurt for the last time.
Hook me up to the respirator
Let me breathe some new air
Into this damaged soul of mine.
Keep me under watch for awhile.
You know how scar tissue over
Open-heart surgery can be.
Only tender loving care
Can repair the pain inside of me.
Family, friend and foe look for hand-outs.
Strangers stand with arms wide open.
When's somebody gonna look out for me?
Not too long from now, I'm hopin'.
Intimate acquaintances search for understanding.
But how can I comprehend -
How you take so much and give so little,
And look inside my eyes
And still call yourself - friend?!
Abuse may not be their intention
Hostility - not my shrink.
Hurt is not my confidant.
Although you don't hurt me
(Or so you think.)
Heart monitor, do your rhythm keep.
Don't fall off beat with your beep... beep... beep.
I need your continuity; a new source of inspiration.
A breast-fed life spring!
To me, a cause for celebration!!
Doctor, get me out of here.
Break me away from this solitude.
Unlink the chains of my rejection.
Promote my progression to latitude.
The sun just rose in my life again.
Opportunity's calling my name.
Battle scars, a part of life.
No harm, no foul, no one’s to blame.
Beautiful
Beautiful you are - like the sunset sky
-Like a thousand days away from pain
-Like the myriad of melodies I hear with just one glance upon your face
-Like this dream I have of you and me, lost inside this place called forever.
You’re my sunshine to this world of thunderclouds I live in.
You’re my escape from the foul stench of tragedy.
You romance away my miseries; and in the midst of their heartaches and confusions,
You make me want to live again, to love again, to dream again, to be again.
It’s the soul I see inside your smile, The lifespring in your eyes
It’s the warmth within your whisper
That leaves me both unconscious and choiceless to arrive at this declarative and decorative conclusion:
You are helplessly, hopelessly, unmistakably and with simplicity, undeniably, and entirely, with sincerity
-Beautiful.
Blessings
Like the freshness of the morning dew-
Another brand new mercy, many more than just a few
Songs of Zion from on high and the beauty of my mother’s love-
True graces from God – I sneak a peak to that which waits for us above;
Like my brother’s laughter on one of his “good days”
The clear of the night sky, stars twinkle; a thousand milky ways
The pleasures and treasures of shapely hips on a small frame
Infantile cries for Daddy return my mind from whence it came;
Exposure to the S-O-N in the middle of life’s rains
Persecution to my prosecution, deliverance from disdain;
Cool as conversion from confusion discombobulated
Perfect pleasant peace exemplified, exonerated
I am taken by storm like December’s weather warm,
Placed plumb in the faces of unmistakable graces.
I ‘m dismissed from dismay, suspended from stressing,
Surrendered to serenity, its backlash is blessings.
FERTILE
The fetus and her womb -
My fragile representation of expectancy.
Living artistry not yet born to the outside world
Swollen like pregnancy in the 99th trimester
Ordinary people pointing and poking:
The transparency of new life before their beady little eyes.
Fierce crying as the receptor of a thousand lashes-
GOD - GET THIS THING OUT OF ME!
A man with a fattened belly; not just in nature,
The precursor to youth, yet planted before the ages.
Rich with grieving the possibilities of death before birth
Spiritual abortion to the seed planted within.
Waddling side to side like the penguin's dance.
Water breaks a promise of conception's passing into lifetime.
Breath - like the typhoon's rage; a whirlwind plays the soundtrack.
The head of my creation widens the birth canal.
I push forth from the zone of comfort within.
Pressing my way into a season called "NOW" (JM:).
Weeping and wailing in shock of the things I see-
Cut from the cord of the womb that nourished.
Lying alone again, in a crib framed for destiny's explorations.
And life - for me - has only just begun!
Fire
I burn for you.
- Passion past the simple realms of romance.
- Beyond a place that lovers dare to tread.
Your tears are the fuel that turns my anger crimson.
Your voice warms the coldest places my heart knows.
Your pain cuts the center of my soul.
I love you in a place words dare not define.
I would call you my "friend" but that would cheapen this moment.
I would call you my "sister" but that, too simple a default for love voiding sexual dynamics.
I could call you my "soul mate" but I cherish you in a place too bold for matrimony's strange nature.
You're a light that burns in the midst of my darkened nightmares.
Yours is a heat that melts my coarseness easy again.
You ignite my ambitions like none other.
Your touch consumes the seclusion that keeps the real me in silence.
You are my fire!
FOOLISH THINGS
I believe in foolish things,
Like reaching goals and living dreams;
Like God, and family meeting times,
Iambic patterned meter rhymes,
And marriage first and children later,
Like friends who don’t turn into traitors,
Like men who make their mothers smile
And love their children all the while.
Like women who are ladylike,
And church folk who are Christian like,
And children who still ride their bikes
Until the sun goes down at night.
And you believe in silly things
Like wives whose gentleness they bring
Into the most compelling things
And treat their men like homeland’s king.
And I believe in chivalry
And far beyond soliloquy
Pull out her chair and open doors
And take her coat because she’s yours.
And yes, I still dream of romance
And men and women holding hands
Uniting for their fearless chance
To conquer any circumstance.
And we believe in funny things
Like messages in songs we sing.
And don’t you wish the world could be
A silly fool like you and me?
FREEDOM’S SONG
So this is how freedom feels;
Like a hug from my niece after war,
Like my mother’s sweet smile, after gone for awhile,
Like food from the hand of the rich to the poor!
So this is liberation’s sweet song;
And I’m dancing the notes that she plays,
And I’m crying from joys inspiration employs,
And love is the wages she pays!
So this is where destiny lies;
In the depth of the dreamer’s sound snore,
Disappointments behind, in a new state of mind,
And I find myself reaching for more!
So this is the sound of success;
And I am the fruit of his loins,
I reach for tomorrow, releasing the sorrow,
Where pastime and future adjoins!
GONE (A ballad for Preston)
They say you're gone, my lifelong friend
Yet our bond ties, so deep within
Your laugh and all your fearless ways
Walks that would last - it seemed - for days
Escapes to places underground
Where artists void of judgment found
A unity with ones whose space
Had long since passed, yet had their place
They say you're gone, and yet you're here
Inside each memory, each tear
And little things I say and do
‘Til now concealed, they came from you
And so I now must carry on
Not in the sadness that you're gone
But in the joy this moment gives
To know, true friendship always lives.
MOTHER EARTH
Mother Earth -
She shakes like Father's anger.
Violently -
Like harsh words from a stranger.
Sum of all my fears -
She once might lose control.
And destroy everything -
Except my shielded soul.
NO SUBSTITUTIONS
There are no substitutions for the one I call my own.
No fleeting romance to take up spare time
Or part-time affairs to fulfill my sensual desires.
No secret escape to someone who brings her to mind
By the way she smiles, or the colour in her eyes
Or the fragrance she wears or the way she walks.
No one can forge her brush across my face
Or the sweet taste of her lips,
Or the way she steals the thoughts out of my mind
And speaks their words before I’ve had the chance to.
The warmth of her breath
Is a gentle wind’s whisper deep inside my soul.
The touch of her hand is a thousand angels
Surrounding my bedside at night.
Our bodies dance as one - shadowing a symphony of grace.
Our minds flow in concert - harmonizing a melody of destiny!
She is my other half, and of me the better part.
And as for her, there are no substitutions.
ONCE AGAIN
Another broken promise-
The aspirations of pureness defiled.
A loathsome desire constructed fulfillment
Of betrayal with a smile.
I gazed into the eyes of ungodliness-
And it lured me into its darksome path.
I succumbed to its foolishness
And drowned inside the devil's laugh.
I meditate on pity - a deja vu's etcetera.
I touch the feet of the clouds,
Failing to rise above my continuous sin.
I rage toward repentance:
Forgive me, Father, once again.
SWEET SERENITY
Sweet serenity! Like the morning breeze.
I’ve longed for your touch like my bride in the night.
Take hold of my being and let me go never!
Be the retribution for all my tears in unsettled times;
The reaped reward for mercy manifested,
The pot of gold at my day’s journey ending.
Your peaceful presence is what I adore.
I kiss this moment - a keepsake for tomorrow,
Ever cherishing the quiet inside.
With open arms in fields of lilies I run to you,
Eagerly waiting the moment of our embrace
- A gentle touch of heaven.
- Pieces of paradise to the prisoner within.
One gaze into your eyes gives me power for battle.
I lock into your grasp with passion personified!
Let your arms be the strength that carries me to my destination.
Be the chariot between my castle and I,
- My closest confidant.
- My ace-boon-coon.
Hold me close as I lie in death’s shadow,
And greet me - like the sun - in the backdrop of the dawn.
THE MOLDING
The potter in omniscient omnipresence molds His clay.
The clay upon the wheel, spinning, becomes dazed,
Embraced by the fire, becomes burnt,
And lastly sits - still, cooling... Confused.
Overcome by his emotions, he longs to fall apart.
Yet - he is no longer wet, slimy, or easily broken.
Rather, he is one with his maker.
Submitted to the potter is the clay.
- A transition lens, waiting for the Son;
That his colour now may flourish!
TODAY
Whispers in my pastime's distance
Follow me with mass persistence.
They flood my heart as could-have-beens
Haunt me with their throwback winds.
Wasted years, with force pursue
My present tense of things to do.
And promises from way back when
Fell short of their expected ends.
I run, though almost out of air.
I give my last, with none to spare.
For joys to come, I forward race.
For future wins, I onward chase.
With desperation, I draw near
When adoration's gleeful tears
Return me from my get away
To glories found inside today.
TOUCH
Hold me once more!
Wrap me in your arms like I AM SOMEBODY
Make me feel alive anew.
Be the embodiment of a million I love yous.
Connect with me on uncharted levels of physicality.
Speak to me thru your embrace.
Let your limbs whisper words your lips could never utter.
Nothing defines us better!
Nothing calms this raging sea inside my soul.
Nothing patches back together all the fragments of my wounded heart.
Breaking forth - like rushing water - the silence held within;
A gesture of resuscitation from the deepest part of you.
Nothing feeds my appetite for oneness.
Nothing satisfies my craving for your arms wrapped around me,
Or the gentle nudge of your chin upon my chest.
Nothing makes my world feel right again;
Nothing - but your TOUCH.
TRIUMPH OVER TYRANNY
With desperate dispensation let my dissertation be
A calming and colliding course in calculated clarity.
Fountains of frustration fit for fiction's facts fulfilled,
Symptomatic signs of sadness simply sharply sealed.
Loneliness - the leach that lingers - lifting life and love,
Abandonment - the antonym to amity above.
Craves and cries for counterparts, cast to confrontation,
Vagrant vigilantes vie in valiant variations.
Seeking simple suffrages for self serenity,
Built and bonded brawny, bare of break-ability.
Unified and undisputed, unequivocally,
Tested, tried, and true they triumph, over tyranny.
VENOM
Was that the serpent’s bite,
Or the touch of your betrayal?
Your illusions disgruntle me.
Your confusion destroys my cool.
The lies you speak without reason
Separate the man of the cloth and his collar
And reawaken the buried beast within.
You make me out to be someone I’m not.
My heartache transforms into rage
-A thousand hungry lions!
You make a mockery of my love
And send my soul to places I thought no longer existed.
You’ve made me a monster I can’t control.
I wrap my hands around the throat
Of this misery you’ve created.
-The animal I’ve become!
Your hand is like the serpent’s bite -
And your words are its venom.
WANTED
WANTED.
Not allowed or given into, or grown on, or grown into.
Wanted.
Not the last resort or consolation prize, nor captured by the wiles of fiercest persuasion.
Wanted.
Not will-do-for-now or all that remained, nor an eventual summation for pity's pleasure.
Wanted.
Not the epitome of toleration, not a selection for safety's sake,
Or the stand-in stunt double until the real star takes his place.
Wanted.
Cherished, and not by chance.
Not "allowed", but adored.
Coveted, and not covered up.
Deliberately prized, and not permitted by happenstance.
Celebrated on, and not defecated on.
Adulated and adored,
Top-treated and Treasured,
Regarded. Esteemed. Required.
WANTED.
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About Wade C. Long
Wade C. Long is a novelist, a poet, and a songwriter currently residing in Los Angeles, California, USA. Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, his first published work was an essay in a school magazine at age 7. A supporter of several social justice causes, Wade is most passionate about fighting illiteracy. His future projects include several screenplays and teleplays, and additionally, the follow up to LEGEND OF THE STONE: City of Hamlets, LEGEND OF THE STONE: The Unity Chain.