The New Robert Brault Reader: Just Outside Our Door

Friday, May 3, 2024

Just Outside Our Door

How oft nostalgia conjures up

Some happiness of yore,

Or fancy paints some wistful dream

Of happiness in store,

Whilst all the while the happiness

Our heart so hungers for

Sits scarcely to our left or right

Or just outside our door.

A Bit of Verse

I love to go down

To the open sea

For the solitude --

And the company.

~~~~~

The greatest joy

In a goal achieved

Is sharing the moment

With one who believed.

~~~~~

'Tis a bold ballet

And a daring dance,

Dodging your destiny

And chasing your chance.

~~~~~

Listen to reason

And grow wise in season,

Or heed your heart

And get a head start.

~~~~~

The present oft repeats the past,

Same old drama, different cast.

The former cast, you somehow

sense,

Sitting in the audience.

~~~~~

Though battered by daring,

Not sorry I dared.

Though sorrowed by caring,

Not sorry I cared.

~~~~~

What shall I be --

the angry sea

that pounds against the shore

or soft agleam

the quiet stream

that carves the canyon floor!

~~~~~

On a windswept hill

By a billowing sea,

My destiny sits

And waits for me.

~~~~~

The past is but mem'ries,

The future but dreams,

Only the present

Is just what it seems.

~~~~~

Another night, another "Why?"

I launch into the starry sky

To echo as a fading sigh

Across the reach of no reply.

~~~~~

Under every full moon

I recall a lagoon

where a mandolin played,

and memories stir

of the dreamers we were

and the plans that we made.

~~~~~

The mind, as you age,

Is an artist, it seems.

Monet paints your mem'ries,

Picasso your dreams.

~~ Robert Brault