I stood upon a crossroad
Seeing shadows touch the sky
And felt the chill of winter
As the world began to cry.
I felt a thin ice forming
As a weight upon my heart
And words that couldn’t be undone
Were tearing me apart.
I tried to fight the memories
That were battering my soul,
To find the fading flames of hope,
But I had no control
Over dreams from childhood
That were dying in the gloom
And angry thoughts alone remained
Like cobwebs in the room.
© 2009 Pam H. Murray
Dec. 25, 2009
Feeling the weight of a tropic rain
And air grown heavy with summer heat
She dozed in the shade of a tall palm tree
Content to be resting her tired feet.
She wrapped up in distance and solitude,
Free from her usual hectic pace,
Breathing the still air into her lungs
And brushing the beads of sweat off her face.
The night softly lifted her into her dreams
As thoughts of her family slipped away
And she is a child who is free to run
Over the sand on a summer day.
© 2010 Pam H. Murray
June 27, 2010
What a sense beneath that tree
Of peacefulness and history
A thousand voices seem to fall
Each one a moment I recall
Of friends forgotten over years.
Tonight each special face appears
With actions done so long ago,
Each voice a friend that seems to grow
Into the shadows overhead
Where needle coated branches spread
Like open arms to welcome me
Into this world of memory.
© 2011 Pam H. Murray
Aug 11, 2012
Dancing with shadow and sunlight
A shelter beneath the trees
Carries me back to childhood
Dancing with memories
My soul erupts in motion
Waltzing through all the years
That built upon the framework
Of all my laughter and tears.
Sometimes the footsteps taken,
Intricate, cross the stage
Leading me through a story,
Sometimes an empty page
Finds them as still as morning
Before the dancer awakes
Just when the day’s first promise
Arises and that’s all it takes
To give me this glorious motion
Choreographed in the soul,
Ascending beyond the shadows
As peacefulness takes control.
© 2011 Pam H. Murray
Aug. 5, 2012
As night accepts the stormy sky
And cooler winds begin to sigh
I wrap myself in velvet black.
I feel its strength as it pulls back
The curtains to let in my dreams.
At last the tattered daylight seems
To fade into the quietness;
No boundaries, no need to impress.
There’s simply me and solitude.
My heartbeats fill this interlude
And thoughts are free to dance at will
Or simply lie until they fill
The silent hours drifting past.
I’ve come to see myself at last
As one content to be alone,
To taste the years my life has sown.
© 2011 Pam H. Murray
June 23, 2012
I smell your presence in the trees
And hear your song above the seas
That kiss the shores where you once stood.
I stand beside this wall of wood
That shades this land where I have grown.
Today I witness it alone
Yet spirits join me on the cliff
Like stone, imposing, cold and stiff.
© 2011 Pam H. Murray
June 19, 2012
How can I say just what I feel
To know the journey that you’re on
Is one I never dreamed to know.
Life circles an eternal dawn
Of dreams and goals, of crossroads, too;
That shows us interwoven strings
No time to stop and see the view,
A tapestry of what life brings.
It’s all surprise as it unfolds.
We ask ourselves who’d think that we
Could rise so high or fall so far.
We wonder if eternity
Will carry on in this same way
Or will we see forever when
A melting pot in shades of grey.
Our souls depart this world of men?
© 2011 Pam H. Murray
June 13, 2012
I see the layers of the trees
That catch the sun in varied shades
And feel the magic of the wind
That sighs as morning shadow fades.
I walk along a winding path
And feed the birds along my way,
Content to see this world alone
As leaves and wind begin to play.
My feet begin to dance along,
A part of nature’s melody.
They kick the leaves of seasons past
And leave their mark that follows me.
© 2012
Pam H. Murray
June 1, 2012
Some find the night is cold and dark,
A place of endless loneliness.
Yet there is vibrant life there, too,
And it is not an emptiness
But forms a crowded symphony
Of life and breath.
Its endless song
Calls out within the depth of those
Who rise to follow it along.
I feel it washing over me,
A wolf call to the harvest moon
That echoes from a mountain crest
And as elemental two commune
I let my soul drift into it
And slip into my restless dreams.
On silent feet, down ancient pathes
Beside its frozen winding streams.
© 2012
Pam H. Murray
May 26, 2012
Look towards your left hand,
The path beneath the trees.
Its sunny luminescence
Dancing in a breeze.
Let it call you onward
With voices you don’t know
Planting your own footprints
Let your feelings grow
With sounds of running water
And the wolf’s good-bye
To its nightly hunting,.
In that last wild cry
Feel your spirit settle
Into nature’s arms.
Feel emotions fading
Beneath awakened charms.
© 2012 Pam H. Murray
May 25, 2012
The edges curl up on the edges of time.
I feel my existence and reach for a rhyme
To show of emotions that swirl overhead.
I look the heavens and see earth instead.
Life has turned over and hidden from view
Is a sense of completeness, a way to renew
Until I just sit and let Spring settle in.
Now I am freewheeling.
Come on for a spin.
© 2012 Pam H. Murray
May 18, 2012
Mesmerizing voices
Echo through the trees
Carrying night shadows
Evoking memories
Rising in a cadence
Older than the earth
Deeper than the darkness
That once gave them birth.
With a midnight chilling
Frost forms on the ground
Cradling the haunting
Of their eerie sound.
From the ancient legends
Wolf lore fills the night
Though they just seek passage
Beyond the campfire’s light.
© 2012 Pam H. Murray
May 4, 2012
Sing to me of water
Passing over stone
Just as ice is forming.
The river sets a tone
For the hidden spirits
Calling me to write
Sitting in the shadows,
Communing with the night.
© 2012 Pam H. Murray
May 4, 2012
Across this desert two by two
Tired eyes take in the angry view.
Parched lips long for a drop of rain.
The years of drought have come again.
The distance holds a smoky glare.
The smell of burning wood is there
As we awake and turn to run
The victims of relentless sun
While over head the planes pass by
And drop the water from the sky.
We hope our homes will be passed when
The flames seek out the hot dry glen
That once held water, trees and shade.
We wonder at this world we’ve made
That seemed so endless just last year
But now becomes our land of fear.
© 2012
Pam H. Murray
July 22, 2012
The whispers of another dawn reach out
Reminding me of hours filled with doubt
That would not let me find tranquility
But left me lost in useless memory
Of all the saddened moments I’ve been through.
I know regret at what I didn’t do
Before you left, when I could make amends.
I didn’t see the messages life sends.
Oblivious I thought you’d see my way.
I didn’t know the meaning of the day
That makes us all the keepers of our soul.
Which doesn’t mean that we must keep control
But that we use compassion when we share
Our hopes, our dreams, our passions. When we care
It’s up to us to give our true respect.
Instead I thought to capture with neglect.
© 2012
Pam H. Murray
April 22, 2012
A long time ago, I was told in Wales,
Lived a knight, a teller of tales
Who became lost in a world of pain
Silenced by years of relentless rain.
Those who had known him felt the loss
Hoping in time their paths would cross.
But time seemed illusive and they moved on.
After the years the memory was gone.
Life intervened and they changed their road
Planting new gardens.
The seeds they sowed
Were lovely enough in the summer sun.
But something was missing when they were done.
Then today came a bloom they didn’t know.
I woke up this morning and watched it grow
A bright shade of crimson, tall and strong.
It captured a butterfly, carried along
On the breeze that came dancing from tree to tree.
It held it so lightly then set it free
And suddenly you stood beside the wall
As welcome as joy that encompasses all.
© 2012
Pam H. Murray
July 26, 2012
I’m walking slowly down a road
My memories a winsome load,
Some full of laughter, some of tears,
All shadowed by the passing years.
What looms ahead? A
sad good-bye.
Life will go on and I will cry
To know that you have come and gone,
A fragment of another dawn
When I thought we’d live on as one.
Somehow a lifetime’s course was run
And all the years I thought we’d spend
In life and dreams will simply end.
You’ll never share new dreams with me.
I’ll never know the unity
Of being someone you can trust
To keep you strong.
Life turned to dust
And winds still pass across the ground
Though we are deaf to every sound.
Sometimes at night I’ll call your name
But life will never be the same.
© 2012 Pam H. Murray
April 17, 2012
Walk softly through this quiet place
And let the shadows touch your face.
Out here beneath the ancient trees
Let life slip into memories.
Don’t think about a sad good-bye
As time breathes out his final sigh.
Each moment will be prescious now,
Each dream a field beneath time’s plow.
Reach out and slowly gather in
The dreams though they seem frail and thin.
Each one will shine and warm your soul.
Take back what fear and pain control.
© 2012 Pam H. Murray
April 17, 2012
I heard it singing quietly
A duet with its guardian tree
I felt its kiss upon my skin
Slowly seeping deep within
The lonely places I had grown.
I felt its spirit claim my own
And wandered down a rocky track
My heart reaching for peace I lack.
I found a tiered shelf of rocks
Where water fell in rhythmic shocks
And winds played a song in pines.
Here shadows live and no sun shines
Yet peaceful beauty calls the soul.
I let it touch me, take control
And walked into the waterfall
Content to hear its siren call.
© 2012
Pam H. Murray
August 16, 2012
I sat and watched a sea of grain
Caught in the magic gold of sun
Dancing, dancing just for me
To let me know I’m everyone.
All that gold was framed in black
Of thunderclouds before a storm
Like two worlds trying to compete
With beauty that was wildly sweet.
The contrasts told how worlds collide
Enhancing moments, memories
That haunt us years after they’re gone
In flashes that are meant to tease.
They call to mind the sights the sounds
And feelings that take us away
From deep emotions, cruel and sad,
That almost stopped our hearts today.
© 2012 Pam H. Murray
August 16, 2012
(for Dianne)
Will it ever be possible
To say good-bye,
To watch your smile fade,
Forget your voice?
Where will thoughts gather?
Who will be the keeper
Of memories,
The source of pictures
To our collective souls?
Time is encroaching.
Our pounding fists
Meet no resistance.
Just as my own battle
Begins
Yours ends.
I’m finding it hard
To say good-bye.
© 2012 Pam H. Murray
April 21, 2012
As darkness pulls me from another dream
I almost feel you reaching out to me.
Yet moments that I often longed to share
Are gone as if they’re never meant to be.
I see a wide path over city streets
That branches off in many different ways
And feel old conversations start to fade
As life moves on beyond the winter’s haze.
My soul is searching out along a wall
Built long ago and stretching through the years.
I try to break its mortar and I fail
Even with the acid of my tears.
© 2012 Pam H. Murray
April 21, 2012
