The Secret Well
There is a secret well I’ve found...
Uncovered while on summit quest
With faithful friend, a Knight renowned
Who led me through the sharpest crags
Bloodied and bruised, his honored guest
There is a secret well I’ve found...
He gave to me, though I was torn
To guard her best, a thorny crown
And diadem of clearest gold
Invisible, when humbly worn
There is a secret well I’ve found
Her moisture washed my open hurt
My wine, poured I, upon the ground
The grapes of wrath, no longer tilled
My flask, canteened her sweet dessert
There is a secret well I’ve known...
My hiding place of priceless worth
Near heights, where summer snows are blown
By spiraled stone, her depth secured
Strong tower, buried in the earth
There is a secret well I’ve known...
Her waters, deep, have held my prize
Refreshing to my thirsting groan
Mercy and truth, my trampled path
That brought me before her eyes
There is a secret well I’ve known...
I steal away, when moon is late
And see its twin, when beams are sown
As I look deep, my shallowed soul
Her stream of mercy tugs, and waits
There is a secret well I’ve known...
Where azure pools reflect the sky
And I, beside her wall of stone
Do rest and dream by weathered strength
A comfort knowing, I, nearby
There is a secret well I’ve known...
When gasping day was void of cloud
Smothering heat, dust winds have blown
I’d climb to find virescent eyes
That cooled the sting of peering crowd
There is a secret well I’ve known...
That gave me sight when blindness came
My vision, cataracts to stone
As flinty judgments sparked the air
Her water doused, as gentle rain
There is a secret well I’ve known
When I lay down, her silence bid
To drown the noise and fear I owned
And bathed me there, by trickling notes
Her song ascends that once was hid
There is a secret well I’ve known...
My perforated life she saved
Deep raging waters overflowed
The carelessness of men did hide
She shook the world where they behaved
There is a secret well I’ve known...
Where I did sip, left lost for change
My rope and pail, too short a phone
To reach and hear her love once more
Her deep tried to call my name
There is a secret well I’ve known...
Whose depth of face both leapt and ran
Stilled mirror, framed by pain unshown
Until the numb in me awoke
Beside her pool, this blinded man
There is a secret well I’ve known...
That cooled my brow when I insane
And heard her sweet and echoed moan
To lean so far, my balance lost
I fell into her well of pain
There is a secret well I’ve known...
Her waters catch by liquid glove
This broken, bittered man... alone
And mends him by stilled waters, dark
At last, he drowns within her love
There is a secret well I’ve known...
My trampled path, her Knight has found
When I, too wearied, seemed as gone
He bowed, and held my secret, while
I, hopeless to sip her sacred sound
There is a secret well I’ve known...
Her agony of soul ignored
My muzzled tongue, a dismal drone
No words of wine, no oil held I
No healing tide, to wash her shore
There is a secret well I’ve known...
Her waters fed by heaven’s stream
Vast reservoir, stone heart to hone
To him who fell, unbalanced there
Saved from her pain, her answered dream
There is a secret well I’ve known...
Her waters fed by hidden stream
Vast reservoir, a seamless home
To him who fell, unbalanced there
Saved by her pain, his answered dream
There is a secret well I’ve known...
Her shrouded ache, had I betrayed
That wounded, too, still-waters prone
My bitter root rippled the sweet
Until her Knight, by ransom, paid
There is a secret well I’ve known...
No more her trust believes me...tell
For I had lost her inner tone
That her dear Knight entrusted me
A banished life, my secret, fell
There is a secret well I’ve known...
None closer would I want with me
But now, a man of broken bones
Who cannot walk above the shame
A maddening thirst, with no reprieve
There is a secret well I’ve known...
My love, my life, for life I knew
For thirty years, her waters loaned
To wash this man wounded, and slain
By closest friend, in public view
There is a secret well I’ve known
She suffered long and envied not
Rejoicing truth, her waters cloned
Bore all, believed and hoped, endured
Her life, gave love, each dulcet drop
There is a secret well I’ve known...
Her depths for him, no longer toll
His loss, too much for words, alone
A mute, is he, and deaf for love
When he was silenced, from her soul
There is a secret well I’ve known...
She effervesced, a mist arose
and bubbled up from depths condoned
That he, alone, drank deep inside
No more, for him, her fountain closed
There is a secret well I’ve known...
But now, this man, a silenced bell
Without her touch, a hollowed cone
A dunce’s cap, all heaven sees
For he believes love never fails
There is a secret well he knew...
Her fluid cache, his hidden mine
Where he communed with hues of blue
And ate his bread, broken and blessed
Her water, there, his sacred wine
There is a secret well he knew...
Where he would rest and deeply look
Beyond the roily, surfaced view
His silent love, nothing to prove
His speechlessness, a man forsook
There is a secret well he knew...
Dark lords, fought he, no mercy made
They only seek his ruin, through
Their only means, his cherished well
For him to lose her love, betrayed
There is a secret well he knew...
It’s why he fought, to see her free
And where he fought, for love anew
And who he fought, not flesh and blood
To shift the heavens to agree
There is a secret well he knew...
Near her, fell he, by twisted dart
This man of grief acquainted, too
Besetting joy endured the pang
Between his shoulder bladed heart
There is a secret well he knew...
This man of briars, blood bramble, slain
Left naked there, with tattered clews
To give his life, for her to take
By wanting nothing of his name
There is a secret well he knew...
No greater way of slaying, sent
No way, to gage its magnitude
No hope, extended to his lips
No mercy, for this heart is meant
There is a secret well, he hides
Within his parting soul, a lust
That he, unable to confide
This desperate man was overcome
By loss, to gain her heart and trust
There is a secret well, inside
She felt his presence slip from there
No more to turn his love aside
No more, cupped hands, that held her heart
No more, to hear his sorrowed prayer
There is a secret well, beside
His lifeless tent, no more to dance
For he had hoped, and ached, and died
Disjointed man, that longed to dare
And share with her the Great Romance
There is a secret well, for now...
His heart, betrothed forever, there
In righteous judgment gave the vow
By lovingkindness, blood did flow
That plucks the deepest, rooted tare
There is a secret well, t’was known...
Her knight of sorrow, forlorn, dies
His orison, on wing, is flown
By messengers, not of this earth
That her dear Knight is glorified
There is a secret well, ‘twas said
Her Sterling Knight heard heaven’s breath
As heaven heard the earthly dread
Her man of sorrows gave the gift
And fell asleep in her Knight’s breast
There is a secret well, alone...
Her other loves, consoled for good
That she be thawed from frozen stone
Only when struck did nurture flow
His secret well, he understood
There is a secret well, his pledge
To take her, always, as he waits
He, sane or not, to set the hedge
That she be safe within the thorns
That in his life she came to hate
There is a secret well, his love
His starving heart, some say unhinged
For hell had seemed intent to shove
He fought like madness, no retreat
No respite now, no victory binge
There is a secret well, t’was known...
Her Knight of Sterling vows an oath
To see her trusting love, re-grown
And pardon all who broke her hope
And seek again, who loves her most