RICHARD DOIRON

 

Home: Your Anchor

 

It matters not whereat you roam,

you'll never find a place like home;

although perhaps you left it young,

it's always there upon your tongue

 

The early years that gave you form

(with tender love that kept you warm

and lessons learned along the way)

such are the traits you bear today.

 

You can't deny a single truth

that takes you back into your youth

and paints for you a splendid scene

that nothing ever comes between.

 

It matters not for years amassed,

your calling card remains the past

and home is yet your anchor still,

the way it calls and always will.

 

Home Reclaimed

 

I chanced upon the forest green -

a change of pace, a hush, serene -,

and, there, began a flood of tears

the likes not shed in many years.

 

The city block (of steel and stone)

had been to me a combat zone,

with body blows that took their toll

but deeper, still, that seared my soul.

 

The sturdy trees now formed a frame,

a home at hand I could reclaim,

and so the flood of tears that day,

that home I'd come and home to stay.

 

Home Among The Flowers

(Ode To Li Bai 701-762)

 

Fellow traveller, weary among the flowers,

walking against the wind,

you need respite from the chains

that bind you. And lucky you are this day!

The flowers have parted like loving arms,

inviting you, and there is no absence of wine!

Lie low awhile here beside me, then,

and I shall relate to you a story that has

no beginning, no middle, and no end.

For in this world one cannot ask

for more than for flowers and for wine.

And here we have both.

I am all for sharing. Not that I own them,

for it was in walking against the wind

that I was led here also.

It was because of that that I got wind

of the flowers, and among the flowers

there is always bound to be wine,

even if some will say the wine is bought.

It matters not, as there is

in this countryside no other explanation

needed for partaking of the wine

than to be found at home among the flowers.

 

RICHARD DOIRON

 

RICHARD DOIRON: Canada, published 58 years; one of the most prolific poets in history, with tens of thousands of poems penned, including over 5500 sonnets alone; estimated 1000 poems published in over 150 anthologies, periodicals, personal books; author of novels, biographical works, essays, and lyricist (with some 200 songs written, some recorded, one internationally). Graduate in journalism and Certified Lifeskills Coach; work read at the United Nations University for Peace, Costa Rica; published in the world book,"Prayers For A Thousand Years," alongside His Holiness, The Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and Nelson Mandela. Participant in local, national, and international literary festivals; 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award winner with World Poetry; 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award with Pentasi B World Friendship Poetry; 2017 nominated for a Lifetime Achievement Award with ARTeryUSA, nominated by James Pasqual Bettio, former senator in the California Senior Legislature. 2019 named World Poet Laureate by group Pentasi B World Friendship Poetry. Twice nominated for Governor-General's Award and the Griffin Poetry Prize. Nominated to the Order of New Brunswick, 2019. Published on a regular basis, mostly by invitation. Profiled in media, including television, radio, and newsprint on an ongoing basis.