We Walked A Path Once

We walked a path once,

You and I,

And shared some gentle time while basking in the sun,

We walked a road once,

You and I,

Fighting with the storms that blew upon our way,

We walked a highway once,

You and I,

And dealt with all the loss and hurt that fell before us,

We walked the Earth once,

You and I,

And broke with everything that Heaven threw in our direction,

But now the time has come for the parting of the ways,

And you will take one path and I will hold the other,

And we will walk the Universe,

You and I,

But with other souls as company.

bobby stevenson 2013

1948 (in 100 words)

From that little room in the cold-water apartment you could smell Harlem. The top window being stuck open with the paint that was probably put on around the time of Pearl Harbour. Cooking smells danced in along with thumps and arguments from far off places.

I decided that I needed fresh air and I headed down to 8^Th avenue where the folks were drinking canned-heat and digging the sex and the sax. In the dark corner of one coffee shop was Ginsberg and Kerouac talking ‘bout this and that and not seeing anything of the outside world; God bless 1948.

bobby stevenson 2013

Waiting

There’s a little place,

Not too far out of town,

Where I’ll go when I leave this place,

You’ll always find a log fire burning there,

And a light in the window to find your way,

When you eventually stumble over the top of the ridge.

You can sit among friends,

By then you’ll be deserving of a seat by the warmth,

You’ll have done your bit,

Struggled bravely along the path,

You’ll have cried your tears,

And fought your battles,

So come rest a while,

We’ll be waiting.

bobby stevenson 2013

The Dust Road

As they drove the last few miles, the wind grew warmer

And he closed his eyes, fixing his mind on that evening

When they celebrated with a party

Everyone was there that night, alive and well

Taking joy in each others' company

Never thinking that things would change so much

That fixed point in his head was where he ran to

When the days were cold and bare

Perhaps he repainted the colours every time he visited

But it was his to do as he wished,

For there he was truly, truly happy,

That one perfect night before his world crumbled

And turned to dust.

bobby stevenson 2013

Farewells

The only thing that used to crack was the excitement and the possibilities that hung in the air

But that was long before the clouds came down

Before the hard rains fell

Before life stopped forgiving

Now I chip and scratch at every turn 

And keeping hold of everything is hard enough -

The thoughts inside my head and

The hearts of other people –

The arrogant way that yesterdays keep slipping

Through my fingers without one single kind farewell

And the cold, cold future that must be faced

Where only chaos and decay

Have gained the upper hand,

Why must the endings be so cruel?

bobby stevenson 2013

Heroes

We thought that they were all heroes,

The way they stood tall and proud,

The way they fought our corners,

Fought our battles,

Gave us strength just by being,

But when it was late,

When it was all too, too late,

We saw that they were only hunters in the fields,

Hiding and waiting to mow us down,

And their fall from grace was complete.

bobby stevenson 2012

Coming Down From Wonderland

We walked as friends and talked of far horizons,
We even laughed at the thought of it all,
You and me, too old to struggle and exist,
Just as we ran beneath the trees to shelter from the rain,
Yet that was in the years to come,
In lands we had not yet visited.
How easy it had been, all of it,
Without a second thought
We shaped the things we held in our hands.
And then that final day, that day of sadness
When the bell tolled and we at last came down from Wonderland,
To have known it all was a joy itself,
But to have lost it so soon, so quickly,
Was undeserved.