have you ever been in love?

have you ever been in love?
it's scary like a test
you're vulnerable as a dove
it opens your chest

as it opens up your whole heart
someone gets inside you
messing you up from the start
and make you feel blue
distorting all your senses
you build many defenses

you build up a whole suit of armor,
nothing can hurt and your heart imprison
then one stupid person a real charmer
no different from any other stupid person
then wanders into your stupid life
you're no longer free from strife

you give them a piece of you.
they didn't ask for it, it's true
they did something dumb one day
like kiss you or smile at you that way
then your life isn't your own anymore
you're showing your peace the door

love takes hostages
it tears down bridges
it gets inside you from the start
and then begins to eat your heart

it leaves you crying alone in the darkness,
so simple a phrase can make you helpless
like 'maybe we should be just friends'
how can those words make amends
it turns into a splinter of glass
working its way into your heart
It seems the pain won't pass

it hurts,
you're unable to change the station
and its not just in the imagination
and believe me its not just in the mind
it's a soul-hurt, the ache makes you blind

a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain
and now who is there to blame
will you then ... do it again
it's only a matter of when

Copyright 2009
Johannes Cloete
All Rights Reserved

while you are sleeping

The sun still rises before it later fades
after the night still yields its twilight shades
while you are sleeping

Lips will smile and tears will fall
as the world revolves; without pause at all
while you are sleeping

Daily tasks will all resume
as flowers on your chest will bloom
while you are sleeping

Eyes now see, that once were blind
as your friendship you leave behind
while we are weeping

You viewed the world through beautiful eyes
and you've left unable to hear our cries
while you are sleeping

May now your dreams be treasure laced
forgotten, the sorrows you have faced
while you are sleeping

good bye my dearest
good bye my heart

Copyright 2009
Johannes Cloete
All Rights Reserved

Night Night

Here's a magical feather - soft and white
feel it stroke your neck and whisper
Night-night

Here's a magical feather - soft and white
feel it stroke your shoulders and whisper
Night-night

Here's a magical feather - soft and white
feel it stroke your chest and whisper
Night-night

Here's a magical feather - soft and white
feel it stroke your tummy and whisper
Night-night

Here's a magical feather - soft and white
feel it stroke your legs and whisper
Night-night

Here's a magical feather - soft and white
feel it stroke your feet and whisper
Night-night

Here's a magical feather - soft and white
Hold it in your hands now and whisper
Night-night

Spring Time

Hooray!!! Spring is nearly here
My vision I say has gone all monocular
I pretend to only have one eye this time of year
So all I can see is the spring time spectacular

The spectacular is the new season’s fantastic party
Food, drink, music and dancing the night away
I get to dance the night away with my dearest hearty
As usual she will ask me on vacation, and I will say...

Sure ... where shall we go this year?
Somewhere with a nice peaceful hush
Romantic with the sound of the waterfall we hear
Or go on adventure with an adrenalin rush

I don’t mind where we go; it’s a springtime break
It starts the day after the spring time spectacular
Now I’m dreaming of what to take, when BANG! on my desk I awake
My friend says hey, I asked if you knew the meaning of monocular

I belong to you

I became aware of you as I felt my heart glide
I felt your presence the laws of physics I defied
I tried to deny it in my mind but my heart felt it
I’m trying to be calm but my resistance melted
My defenses I thought strong, my feelings secured
Through the cracks I’ve fallen, my heart captured
I’m in a dream world filled with beauty and song
To reality in vain I’ve tried to return for so long

Before my cool runs out I’m trying hard
Only divine intervention can keep me barred
Here I found my chance for winning or learning
To put an end to my hesitation for I’m yearning
For you it’s time to end my resistance
I belong to you lets close the distance

I wonder if your defenses down I’ll pull
To see through my eyes a love that’s full
So cancel your plans and set yourself free
You’ll find a pure love that’s there for me
Of the same large family you and I are part
You deserve the love I’ve stored in my heart

There’s nothing really complicated about it
It’s our fate, I belong to you and I won’t quit
Do you have the need to feel closer too?
A tiny kiss on your neck may convince you

Intently I’m studying myself closely in the mirror
Perhaps I can see what you’ll see once I’m nearer
I’m only an ordinary guy that’s completely fallen in love
And dreaming how your hand will fit mine like a glove
I’m standing so close the mirror’s all fogged
So I just drew a little picture and laughed

What I’m trying to say I’ve been blind
My dearest a better reason I cannot find
To shed my vanities as I’m feeling my complete awakening
And just accept what all along my heart’s been planning

To my hesitation I’m going to put an end
No longer can I wait so these words I send
I belong to you

please can I have that girl who ...

please can I have that girl who sings to me

and my heart sings along happy and free
she just knows how my cheekbones in smile to raise
she recalls my every comment poem or phrase
originated from my inner TS Eliot I reproduce

words imperfect and rhyme sometimes loose
and she has them stored in the back of her mind
from the soles of her lips ready to impart in kind

please can I have that girl that fills my heart with song

and in whose soft caring eyes I can do nothing wrong
who with orbit fresh breath and colgate smile
who talks with her Janet-Jackson-voice while
in a breathless reassuring steamy-mama-sound
a preparation of a slow seduction can be found
of my mind which me with silence arm
who perceives compliments and charm

as the overflowing refuse pit
its just too typical for my wit

please can I have that girl friend who
just knows that I don’t want that rue

who, so I can be happy will not change
if I collapse broken anemic out of range
broken with tears as the ill treated animal of the plains
that wants nothing but fresh dry grass to mend its pains
from the vast fields of the polluted earth

and knows not of any better since birth
who will gently pick me up

as the lioness collects her cub

safely in the clutch of her mouth

whether I’m here, north or south

A Lover’s Passion

I blame you not my dear
For the fault was mine I fear
Had I not been made of flesh and bone
And reached up into the sky’s dome
And climbed the higher heights unclimbed yet
As I breathed the fuller air a larger day I met

For in the wilderness of my passion
A better, clearer song I did fashion
And for a freer freedom a torch I lit
Against many wrongs I sent my wit

And scorched these lips of mine
Into kisses that bled for some time
And in the fiercest bright blue light
As you seem like an angel’s sight
As in a paradise of splendor lush and green
A gift from heaven you had surely been

And as I was following this path of mine
Where Dante saw the suns of seven circles shine
And I saw the heavens opening by pure chance
The same as when the Florentine did advance

And the world would have crowned me with fame
But here I am now crownless and without name
And you would find me kneeling at first light of an African dawn
Find me at the entrance of the house of fame for which I was born

And together with the famous and wise I used to often sit
Where the eldest together with the young was equally fit
And there was good fortune bountiful
And their blessings were flowing plentiful
And the famous would look upon me with praise
And with a kiss on my forehead me they did raise
And with their noble affection and charm
They would hug me with outstretched arm

And at springtime when the apple’s blossom
Brushed the beautiful dove’s burnished bosom
And two young lovers in an orchard under a tree would lay
They would have read the story of our love back in the day

Would have read the legend of my passion
Known the bitter secret of my heart
Kissed as we kissed in similar fashion
But never parted as we are fated to part

For the crimson flower of our life
Is eaten by the cankerworm of truth
And no hand can gather up
The fallen withered petals
Of the rose of youth

Yet I am not sorry that I loved you
What else was I supposed to do?
For the hungry teeth of time devour
And the silent-footed years pursue

Rudderless sideways into the hurricane we drift
Without any introduction or warning it’s so swift
And when once the storm of youth is past
Death the silent pilot comes at last

And within the grave there is no pleasure
Where blindworm get fat beyond measure
Where desire shudders into ashes devoid of care
And the tree of passion has no fruit to bear

What else than to love you was I to do?
God’s own mother was less dear than you
And less dear than that glorious moment’s prize
When Aphrodite like a lily from the sea did rise

I lived my poems it's a decision that I have made
And though youth is gone in wasted days I fade
I have found the lover’s crown of leaves and thorn
Far greater than the poet’s crown of laurels borne