The Poetry of Jeffrey L. H. Naylor

Which ever way I turn, as far as I can see,
Sacred, gallant rows of those who did their deed
Overwhelm me, and my heart begins to bleed.
Sacred, gallant rows filled with those of a valorous creed,
Who caught up with death in times of noble need.

Gallant rows of those who did their deed,
Overwhelm me until my soul accedes,
That for those who met their death I concede,
This sacred ground shall never wither with wicked weed.
Always and forever, I’ll guard this place where souls are freed.

From my memory you ten thousand here shall never recede,
Linger long in my thoughts, let my children’s children see,
The gallant rows of death, that guaranteed their peace and liberty.
Who knows what day even they shall be called to lead?
Fallen, they’ll come to rest with you ten thousand here, to see

Which ever way their children turn, their hearts will always bleed.

Rose, why do you love me so?
There are places you could go,
So far without me.
Things you could do,
So much without me.
Why do you love me so?

Rose, why do I love you so?
There are palaces I could build,
So far away without you.
Things I could do,
So many without you.
Why do I love you so?

Rose, why does our love never die?
Of blood and steel our love is forged
So far, its always been just me and you.
The things we do,
So much we’ve been through.
Why don’t you and I, just keep this love?

Silence fills the room, and for the first time
We become blinded by an undefineable restraint of reciprocity.
Her beauty quenches the sizzling air.
Uneasily, I cannot stop staring at this
Picture of raw sensuality,
Ripples from an unburdened nature.
Unholy Madonna!
Her hair shadows an unsettled face,
As she tilts her head and feigns a schoolgirl’s stance.
Emotions gush forth
From deep within the well of my empty soul,
Drowning all inhibitions.
Sleek fawn!
Gorgeous illusion!
Reticently, the inner calms the outer.
“Don’t give in to this princess who rules
Only within the hearts of men”!

The way it is in my Universe
Merely man, am I
Incontrovertibly, goddess is she
The quest to find happiness
Before her Ping-Pong smile
Brings me my religion
That is the way worship is
In my universe!

I wandered lonely as a crowd
That floats on high under veils that chill,
When all at once I saw a cloud,
A host of golden cockatiels;
Beside the Lake, nothing beneath my chemise,
Fluttering and dancing I fell upon a breeze

Continuous as the T.V. stars that whine
And Twinkle on their Milky Pay,
They stretched with never-ending neon signs
Along the margins of Off-Broadway:

Their maids beside them danced in full array
Out-did their sparkling waves of absurdity:
I gazed–and gazed–the glazed donut sought
What wealth to show such health is fraught:

For oft, when on my couch to my friends I lie
In vacant headed, expensive solitude
They flash their plumes, and upon my neighbors spy
With all the clamorous hiss of noodles strewed
And then my jonquil heart with pleasure thrills
And dances with sublimity revealed.

Raven perches near my window
Marks the morning with uncanny glow
Threads of Silk cover over her
As the fire to know within her stirs.

Black Beauty so close, so near
Quite easily a foreign grip she fears
Patient monitor keeps the watch true.
Paints the heart red, never blue.

In the hidden places of our hearts, we find the deepest,
Darkest secrets about ourselves. It is very often not what
We are looking for when we travel to those seldom visited,
Caverns of our inner consciousness. But once there,
We are compelled to fix our eyes upon the hiding place
That is, in essence, us. If we go there. . .are brave enough…
We will find the tools necessary to forge ourselves into what
We have always dreamed of being, but for lack of focus, have
Never found. In portentous, sad times we think about making
That journey to the hidden places we so successfully dodge all
Throughout our lives. We can only go there once or twice, because
The unfathomable pain of it can be overwhelming, if not intimidating.
Today and tomorrow, I will take such a journey, and I believe
Anyone who thinks they have lost their soul mate, may well invest
Some time in making this same journey. In this secret place,
We search corridors of hope despite the enigma of hidden fears,
And the stigma of darkest secrets. For it is in the glare of
True love’s openness and the forgotten darkness of all our
Secrets that our journey’s hesitation invariably melts. At last,
We find ourselves reborn at the hiding place of our tears.

I reach for the stars that shine in my tomorrows
And believe that all I touch in my dreams
Will be memories from which I will borrow
All the hope, love, and power, which stream
Across the decades, until life’s bittersweet end.
Knowing all of this without you is the quintessential sin!

Is my love merely the tick-tock of this stolen moment?
Am I not the thoughtful one who completes you?
Do not your passions fill content?
Why do you hide after a season of love?
Have you now become the clock empty?
Will you find happiness in the arms of mere mortals?
How long shall I be your suffering angel?
Will you wish always for my celestial embrace?
Are you not comforted with your heavenly lover?
Do you not know these fleeting moments are secure?
Do these eyes frighten you away from my pendulate wings?
Do you not fear the rattle of love scorned?
Does the dominance of inconsulate love become thy tear or fear?

Protocol! Thy wretched goose
Always an errant spoil throws loose
Strict rules for not merely those civilized abodes
But, for all whose manners suffer, I offer this ode.
When beckoned winds and all the ‘lil wee faces
Change the pace from grace to races.
And friends and foes, ev’n temper’d folk, speak slow
One’s afire, one’s aglow,
Flags of truth, spark a truce.
As reason dictates the angle obtuse.
A Moment demands a Time in which,
“Three spaces in three places they fit.”
But where to seek such a protocol?
Incredulous though it may seem to all,
Three points in space and one in time is all you need,
To follow all the protocol one could ever hope to heed.