Stage 5: Acceptance
True Love
Our love stories tell us about romance,
Of how there can only be one true love -
But love is a far more complex dance -
Rings and roses will not be enough.
We can’t love ourselves until we love each other -
But I’m still not sure that your love for me is true.
It doesn’t matter if you whisper the words of a lover
When the lover you love is not me - it’s you.
True love is not a wedding or a date or a kiss,
Love is more than passion, it’s how we survive.
I wanted so much more from love than this.
You are my lover, but not the love of my life.
I loved her first and so learned to love others
And that’s why I love others as much as I love you.
She was a friend, an aunt and a mother.
Her love is still strong and my love is still true.
Hard days and bitter nights
This is what it’s like to be on the outside -
To look in on strangers and the cosy lies
Of their lives between the window frames
That look so safe, so loved, so light,
So completely unlike an outsider’s life
Of hard days and bitter nights.
But on the inside, there is no room to breathe;
It is only on the outside that I can be free.
This is what it’s like to be on the outside -
To look in on strangers and the cosy lies
Of their lives between the window frames
That look so safe, so loved, so light,
So completely unlike an outsider’s life
Of hard days and bitter nights.
But on the inside, there is no room to breathe;
It is only on the outside that I can be free.
March
In the battle of the seasons it seems
that old brutal winter must surely win.
But the snow is slowly receding, to reveal
layers of trash and dead grass beneath,
While new buds shyly emerge in the tangled trees,
red and green and gold,
colour coming back to the world;
It is a delicate, fickle new spring.
Later, as the sun sets,
Flakes fall stealthily and by twilight
There is a thin coating of snow
And a trail of footprints, leading home.
In the battle of the seasons it seems
that old brutal winter must surely win.
But the snow is slowly receding, to reveal
layers of trash and dead grass beneath,
While new buds shyly emerge in the tangled trees,
red and green and gold,
colour coming back to the world;
It is a delicate, fickle new spring.
Later, as the sun sets,
Flakes fall stealthily and by twilight
There is a thin coating of snow
And a trail of footprints, leading home.
Kintsugi
The handle came off her favourite mug in the fight,
so she mended it clumsily with glue
and now there’s a chunk missing and a crooked crack,
dirty white against the glazed blue.
She’s loved too many times and she’s loved too foolishly,
her heart broken over and again -
by a cold mother and careless lovers
and the mocking laughter of those she once called friends.
In Japan they repair their china
with a golden lacquer - something once shameful
becomes now beautiful - and she wonders -
Can they repair hearts too?
So that the crooked crack in her oft-mended heart
could glow soft and gold against the blue?
The handle came off her favourite mug in the fight,
so she mended it clumsily with glue
and now there’s a chunk missing and a crooked crack,
dirty white against the glazed blue.
She’s loved too many times and she’s loved too foolishly,
her heart broken over and again -
by a cold mother and careless lovers
and the mocking laughter of those she once called friends.
In Japan they repair their china
with a golden lacquer - something once shameful
becomes now beautiful - and she wonders -
Can they repair hearts too?
So that the crooked crack in her oft-mended heart
could glow soft and gold against the blue?
Fair-weather friend (Part 3)
I tried - I really did, I tried - to get you to talk to me,
To not deny all the times that you cheated me,
All the times that you lied. (And yours is the snide voice
In my head that says it would have been better if I had died.)
So this is how our friendship ends - not in violence -
But in the months and years of your unending silence.
I tried - I really did, I tried - to get you to talk to me,
To not deny all the times that you cheated me,
All the times that you lied. (And yours is the snide voice
In my head that says it would have been better if I had died.)
So this is how our friendship ends - not in violence -
But in the months and years of your unending silence.
Stormy Weather
And we exploded with all the violence
Of a thunder clap shaking the house,
A fury of words and pent-up frustration
Spilling out into an emotion-drenched storm.
Afterwards, our hearts were cleared
And we agreed that we would live to fight another day.
And we exploded with all the violence
Of a thunder clap shaking the house,
A fury of words and pent-up frustration
Spilling out into an emotion-drenched storm.
Afterwards, our hearts were cleared
And we agreed that we would live to fight another day.
Bittersweet
It is better, I think,
to be than to have never been.
But this loss runs so deep
that there will always be
sweet in the bitterness
and bitter in the sweet.
It is better, I think,
to be than to have never been.
But this loss runs so deep
that there will always be
sweet in the bitterness
and bitter in the sweet.
Joy
Where is joy to be found in lives that are so unfair?
Where is joy to be found in lives that are so brief?
There’s no joy in dreams that have been drowned by our cares.
How can there be joy in lives that are so shadowed by grief?
What is joy, anyway? Calm contentment or wild abandon?
No matter - forget joy - except as something lost.
However glorious our lives, after death we’re forgotten
And grief is too high a price that we pay for our love.
But...
There’s no meaning to be found in a loveless life
And I’m wrapped up in your hug like a bear’s cub
As we stargaze dazed by the beauty of the night,
Full of wonder at this world, that we're a tiny part of.
Is joy then to be found in this love of life?
Is joy to be found then in this life of love?
Where is joy to be found in lives that are so unfair?
Where is joy to be found in lives that are so brief?
There’s no joy in dreams that have been drowned by our cares.
How can there be joy in lives that are so shadowed by grief?
What is joy, anyway? Calm contentment or wild abandon?
No matter - forget joy - except as something lost.
However glorious our lives, after death we’re forgotten
And grief is too high a price that we pay for our love.
But...
There’s no meaning to be found in a loveless life
And I’m wrapped up in your hug like a bear’s cub
As we stargaze dazed by the beauty of the night,
Full of wonder at this world, that we're a tiny part of.
Is joy then to be found in this love of life?
Is joy to be found then in this life of love?
Cup of tea
Let others seek fame
to give meaning to their lives,
Let them try with both their hands
to hold onto time.
Let them get high in the sky
and burn their candles at both ends,
Let them reach for the stars,
or drown in decadence.
Outside the wind howls
while I drink my tea
and Wooster pins me down
as he snuggles in his sleep.
And this is all there is -
and it’s enough for me.
Let others seek fame
to give meaning to their lives,
Let them try with both their hands
to hold onto time.
Let them get high in the sky
and burn their candles at both ends,
Let them reach for the stars,
or drown in decadence.
Outside the wind howls
while I drink my tea
and Wooster pins me down
as he snuggles in his sleep.
And this is all there is -
and it’s enough for me.
Small Things
You think love is roses and surprise trips to Paris
And I should think myself a lucky girl -
To have so much romance in a handsome lover,
To be caught up in such a dashing whirl.
But I think love is loyalty, a good listener,
And a cup of tea at just the right time.
Love is in the silence between thoughtful words.
Love is acceptance. Love is mine.
You think love is roses and surprise trips to Paris
And I should think myself a lucky girl -
To have so much romance in a handsome lover,
To be caught up in such a dashing whirl.
But I think love is loyalty, a good listener,
And a cup of tea at just the right time.
Love is in the silence between thoughtful words.
Love is acceptance. Love is mine.
This fragile fleet
So here we are, this ragged band sailing on a cold, indifferent sea;
a storm-dark sky above us, treacherous waters underneath.
We’ve lashed our rafts together - a flotilla of friends and family -
but each storm that comes is a mortal lesson, our vulnerability revealed.
We sail as best we can, through gales and becalms and all weathers in between,
dreaming of unchanging lands, of solid ground beneath our feet.
But such dreams are only fantasies of what never was, nor ever will be;
dreams of green lands to comfort us when one of us is lost at sea.
Heads bowed, our hearts are heavy - for we have borne so many griefs.
But still we sail, lashed together: this fragile fleet, this family.
So here we are, this ragged band sailing on a cold, indifferent sea;
a storm-dark sky above us, treacherous waters underneath.
We’ve lashed our rafts together - a flotilla of friends and family -
but each storm that comes is a mortal lesson, our vulnerability revealed.
We sail as best we can, through gales and becalms and all weathers in between,
dreaming of unchanging lands, of solid ground beneath our feet.
But such dreams are only fantasies of what never was, nor ever will be;
dreams of green lands to comfort us when one of us is lost at sea.
Heads bowed, our hearts are heavy - for we have borne so many griefs.
But still we sail, lashed together: this fragile fleet, this family.
Abide
It’s a harsh world that asks too much of me -
With everyone chasing after their own tails
While I drown alone in a crowded sea.
I tried to be a better person: I failed.
For as long as you can, please stay with me.
I’ll never be successful, I’m not often liked.
It’s a harsh world that asks too much of me.
You help me to bear what I otherwise can’t abide.
It’s a harsh world that asks too much of me -
With everyone chasing after their own tails
While I drown alone in a crowded sea.
I tried to be a better person: I failed.
For as long as you can, please stay with me.
I’ll never be successful, I’m not often liked.
It’s a harsh world that asks too much of me.
You help me to bear what I otherwise can’t abide.