Song of Life (William Stanhope)

Song of Life

This urgent song- a sudden cry
Springing forth from deep morning slumber
Like a  fountain
Filling the eager emptiness with 
Divine vintage

Uncorked and served
To any weary traveler
Awake enough to fetch an
Empty wine glass from the closet
And turn it heavenward

O Winemaker!
 Fill my cup
With this sublime vintage
Pressed abundantly from the long sweet -and- bitter
harvest of time

With your caress and wink
And gentle pull
Bring my lips to the cup's edge
And let me fall drunk
Into your awaiting arms

O weary man!
Why refuse the proffered cup
Brimming over with the fruit of
Joy-filled vineyards

Let this holy nectar
Smooth your troubled brow
And like a warm fragrant blanket
Cover your sorrow
And open your heart

(July 6, 2010)

Through my Window (William Stanhope)

Through my window I see
Swaying in the wind a
Whispered invitation to dance
The warm hand of that light
Smooths rough linear bodies
Stretching up and out to endless blue
Wet lambits of cloud
Catch wildly in the
Bony extremities of branch

O! To become once again
A lover of trees
To feel their strength inside
My own feeble bones
To stretch my body
Along soaring flanks of bark
To drink the rising life sap
To be loved again
By forest glade
To become the honored guest