Such Sweet Sorrow

We separate ourselves
so that we will not be parted
by that which has no mercy,
no respect for the yearnings
for the touch, the hugs,
the blessed nearness of them


Their faces smile bravely
on the screens we hold close
- so very close -
we chat and laugh
with forced normality
about toilet rolls and pasta


Around the world
homes under siege
long for real closeness again
especially with the little ones
who cannot know that grownups
must suffer to defend precious family



But we will not be parted
so we separate ourselves
for a little while

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Missing my beautiful daughters and grandchildren so much...
"Partir, c'est mourir un peu"

(c) P.J. Murphy. March 2020

5am Semi-conscious Burlesque

The Gladiator righteously professes my disdain
Episcopal aloof both sacriligeous and profane
With serpentine precision searing hollow in my brain
Sorrow is sublime, but uneventful

Valentino and his mistresses flamboyantly carouse
With Freudian abandon bring Narcissus to their house
While Cleopatra makes a move on Oedipus' spouse
Plato is suspicious and resentful

Geronimo commands his tribe to dance and pray for rain
Noah shrugs his shoulders and prepares the Ark again
Maupassant protests that he is really not insane
P.T. Barnum just makes sure he has his tent full.


https://pjmurphypoems.blogspot.com

Treasure

              Treasure        P. J. Murphy

I will place your hand

In his hand,

Step back

To my place of pride,

Hear you proclaim

Those age-old promises

And watch

My baby girl

Become a Bride.

I will shed a tear

For all the days

We laughed and played,

And the nights

I sang your lullabies.

For the myriad memories

Of who we were,

And who we will

Always be.

Daughter. Father.

I will hold your heart

In my heart

While I bless your love,

Your new adventures,

And smile

My happiness for

Your happiness,

And my privilege

To be always in your life

I will not 'give you away'

You own your destiny,

I will proudly escort

A vibrant young woman

Of matchless strength and beauty

As you go forth to claim your world.

And I will keep you safe

In that hallowed place

Where a Father keeps his treasures.

Praefectus Iudaeorum

He troubles me, this Nazarene,
His humble words do not accord
with anarchy or insurrection
yet these others call him Lord.

He speaks no hate for Caesar's Rome,
Yet Jews would have me crucify
This man who's calm serenity
Does Judas' calumny belie

Were't not for the Sanhedrin's ire
My Prefecture would stay it's hand
and send this strange but gentle man
to exile in Judaic land

But yet they bay and thirst for blood
"He Blashphemeth", rabble cries
These Jews hold no respect for Rome
Their hatred for Him mystifies

I thought their anger would appease
Once I had sent Him to be scourged
But with His bloody body shown
"He must be crucified" they urged.

I think myself a humane man
I view their bloodlust with distaste
I wash my hands of local laws
But bitterly decry this waste ...

~ ~ ~

And now my days are numbered short
I wander, and my eyes grow dim
I pray to Pluto, as I should ...
And yet my thoughts are fixed on Him

~ ~ ~


This was written for an AllPoetry contest "Close Encounters with Jesus",  where the task was to write a rhyming poem in the first person from the perspective of someone who met Jesus, giving their feelings and reactions to the meeting, and to the situation. It won Silver for second placing.

Indigo Child

Indigo Child             P. J. Murphy

As the transient Age of Violet ends
Indigo child (she has no friends) is seen to be
just wild (ADHD.), tempestuous, stubborn.

She has beautiful clear purple-pea eyes

is sensitive (she cries) but self-assured
creative (that can be cured) but undisciplined
has a mission ( we have our suspicion) and a purpose
she knows but will not share with us

(she doesn't care) where she is going
Self-empowered, psychic, ethereal,
( she doesn't feel ) unaffectionate,
dodges hugs ( is she on drugs? )

She won't conform, she hates routine
( she's just being mean ) and sees the better way
She waits ( I think she hates us ) patiently
For the Age of Indigo.



P.J. Murphy
(c) P.J. Murphy 2005

Note: This was an entry for one of a series of Allpoetry.com contests with colour themes, this one being 'Indigo'  


pjmurphypoems.blogspot.com

Sleeping Beauty

Sleeping Beauty       P.J. Murphy

In the sorrow of your smile
I wandered for a while
wistful, wishful, heart-concealed
in the bitter of your tear
I washed away my fear
flesh and spirit nakedly revealed

To the silver of your speech
I listen, as you teach
wisdom pouring from your honey-lip
in the comfort of your breast
I lay my soul to rest
as deep into oblivion I slip

From the golden of the dawn
is your sleeping beauty drawn
the soft perfection of the waking sun
in the amber of your eyes
I find, to my surprise
the joy and sorrow of the world are one

P.J. Murphy

Copyright ©2004 P.J. Murphy

Website: pjmurphypoems.blogspot.com

Undiminished

Undiminished        P. J. Murphy

Her beauty undiminished
tho' she believes it tarnished
by the ravages of time.
Her unquenched spirit a beacon
banishing life's mundanity to shadow,
eyes shining with a childs mirth
twinkled with her impish wisdom.

Lifting me from cynical indecision
To this happy certainty:
that while we journey as one
we are shielded from adversity
by her fearless positivity.
And by her smile.
And all the while
she doesn't realise
her enduring beauty

P.J. Murphy
Copyright ©2003 P.J. Murphy


Website: pjmurphypoems.blogspot.com

Galileo

Galileo        P. J. Murphy

Gifts of celestial truths
he brings to them,
charts, orbits, trajectories
- order and meaning
to the chaos
that is
the cosmos.

Long years observing,
plotting, deducing,
concluding
re-constructing
God's universe
for those whose eyes
would never see
further than their
misconceptions.

Magisterium,
by way of gratitude
remove freedom,
God-given rights.
Father of Science,
strident follower
of  trails of stars,
now trails strides
between portals
in prison-home

Bereft of confiscated
tools of Science,
nightly seated
by high barred window
intent on Tuscan night sky.
Eyes dart to locate
Sirius, Jupiter, Mars.
Memory telescopes,
repaints the universe
in all of its celestial majesty.


An AllPoetry contest entry, the theme "Telescope"

Galileo Galilei, known as the Father of Science, was a scientist and astronomer, whose theories on heliocentricity ( earth revolving around the Sun, rather than vice versa ) led to his being put under house arrest by Pope Urban VIII .

You Know Who I Am

Commanding the stage 

and the fine musicians 

bestowed with the honour 

of accenting your wisdom 

you spill your honeyed words 

into our eager consciousness s

erenely smiling like a holy man 

In your seventy-fifth year 

you sing your psalms and stories 

with the voice of a God 

but soothing now, no questions asked 

but an acceptance that there are no answers 

You were the crutch, t

he mainstay of my thoughtful youth 

a comforting validation 

that someone more austere than I 

could strip away veneer 

and see the sewers and the sunsets 

the sinner and the sainted 

and cosset them in blankets of words 

rendering them timeless 

Thank you, Leonard.

pjmurphypoems.blogspot.com

Queen of Ghosts

Triumvirate Deity, exalted by Zeus,
Hekate Queen of Ghosts am I,
Goddess of moonlight and magick,
Protectress of the wilderness

In Phrygia and Lagina
devout acolytes pay homage yet;
the lost and the swollen pray
for safe deliverance; safe delivery

Favouring ever my faithful,
sorcerers and necromancers
beseech favour: howling hounds
herald my intercessions

Wary traveller lost, receives
Divine guidance at crossed road,
Titan torch throws illumination
to light the righteous path

Queen of the Night, traversing
that precipice betwixt the worlds;
nourished by obeisant offerings
lost souls I steer to Hades' haven

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My Night

I placed the moon in my pocket
( My heart glowed suspiciously
pale in the darkening night )
When no-one was looking I stole
a whole constellation of stars
( for that subtle touch of concealed light )

Surreptitiously fitted on Saturn's rings
while, keeping her tryst, Lovely Venus,
had brought me her most precious things,
( we briefly kissed )...
Slipped the planet Mars
into an unobtrusive carrier bag
( I planned on painting the town red )

Mercury made me a present of his wings
created a momentary planned diversion
( pretending he was scared of heights )
to disguise the fact that I was borrowing
all the glowing lights of the city streets
( a jaunty neon halo for my head )

No-one seemed particularly to notice
the flamboyant fluffy feathered coat of indigo
Which I'd had tailored and fitted by Seraphim
from the nimbus clouds and the night sky
Nor the meteor shower chain-and-pendant
glowing fiery on my cherubic throat
( I'd grabbed it deftly, swiftly as it tried to hurtle by )


All in all, for this neo-angelic man
things were going celestially to plan
     It was undoubtedly
         going to be,
          literally,
          eternally
          MY NIGHT....

P.J. Murphy
(c) P.J. Murphy 2005

Note: This was an entry for an Allpoetry.com contest

Easter childhood naivete

Memory of paschal purple.
Fat candle lit on lenten alter.
Pennies for St. Anthony's box
and light a candle for a soul.
Glow of piety tastes sweeter
than the sacrificed confections

Stations of the cross
feeling the pain of the thorns
on this poor scourged Man
The weight of the wood
bearing heavy on 9-year-old shoulders
as I fall for a third time

Confession in the drab mornings
early before school
Purge the dastardly sins.
Lies, deceit and disobedience,
selfishness and greed
He died for these,
for my transgressions

Palm strewn church entrance
"Hosanna in the highest..."
but I know how this will end
Why do they celebrate?
Wednesday's heinous betrayal
leading to that calamitous Friday

Kiss the feet on the cross
return to kneel and pray
Wait until the crowd has gone
Perhaps they'll find me dead here
my pure soul ascended straight to heaven
Like the story the nun's told

Easter Sunday - he has risen!
Triple mass - two stoic hours
No hurry home for Easter eggs
I know that my redeemer liveth
and sins are banished
and souls are cleansed

P.J. Murphy 
(c) P.J. Murphy 2005

The Sorest Loser (with apologies to Roget)

Betweeen the devil and the cobalt sea
I seem dismally to be.

Bawdy, ribald obscenities hide
disconsolate, melancholy thoughts.

Though I've cried
'till I'm gorgonzola in the face,
never in a sapphire moon
will you agree to take your place
as my "something borrowed" bride.

As your preference is to swoon
over those ultra marine and navy guys.

I gaze with peril into those
averted forget-me-not eyes
and sadly whisper
"...Beryl"

P.J. Murphy
(c) P.J. Murphy 2005

Note: This was a tongue-in-cheek entry for one of a series of AllPoetry.Com contests, where the themes were colours ( this one being Blue ) www.guitarsongs.info

Thoughts on St. Valentine's Day

Do I really need this signpost on love's highway
This beacon over ardour's ocean
This festival of passion's patron saint
to remind me that I love you?

My love for you is eternal
Conceived at eyes first meeting
Fanned by loves young flames
Burnished by your radiant beauty

Grown more, as my child-woman bride
then child-mother, constant by my side
Our love defeating all life's challenges
Soaring upon it's many triumphs

I know it as my truth that I will love you
All through this life and beyond...forever...
However... I proudly, loudly say
I Love You, on this St. Valentine's Day

P.J. Murphy
(c) P.J. Murphy 2002

Website: www.guitarsongs.info

Give 'em up?

Give 'em up?
Can you not see
that every fibre of my being
clamours for this cigarette?

Do you think I choose
to take my place
in the New Minority
-with Ireland's New Age Lepers?

My once cosy perch
on society's ladder
now hovering precariously
in this bitter wind

Three rungs up
from miscreant priests
one down from
smug corrupt bureaucrats

No, stand with me here
in the sleet and the shame, my friend.
Then remind me again
That I choose to smoke

P. J. Murphy

(c) P.J. Murphy Jan 2005