A Genuine Reaction

Are you sure that what you’re seeing Is a genuine reaction
Can you be sure that what you’re hearing,even means a thing?
Can you look into my face and tell that I’m being truthful
Or do my subtle signs and movement, a lie to the answer bring

Do you know when I am lying, in order to protect you
Can you see when I am using truth to camouflage the lie
When my face Is telling stories of excitement or confusion
While the brain that sits behind my mask is perfecting its disguise

You may think that you are clever with such mastery in your wisdom
You may think that you have organised your life till its Nth degree
But no matter what you’re thinking,feeling,planning or controlling
When you have reached your final destination,It is me that you will see

And here I sit before you, I am the master of Illusion
Pretending deep emotion and playing the drama queen
Pretence from a pretender is but another form of story\
The sleight of hand deceives the eye, but the sleight of minds unseen

Rod Macfarlane

Jesus Christ It’s John the Baptist

He may look just like Jesus Christ and behave like John the Baptist
On Locust and Wild Honey feed, then shake his fist at Heaven and Blast it.
He may look quite the Holy Man, with the Holy Spirit strong and flowing
But he’s a Sinner and a Saint, while the fires of Hell, for him are glowing

Some called him once a Man of God and in Robes he cut a dashing figure
But he shunned the water for his wine, blessed them all and said go figure
Eve became a Serpent and tempted him with her carefully tended nest
So he took her in his pulpit and gave her the sermon of the Blessed

One night she came down from Heaven, a Devils Angel in disguise
But she was no Holy Mother, and for her he would not Baptise
She told to him a story, which at once did melt his heart
And while God from Heaven kept calling, he took Old Satans part

He now was lost to Heaven, while he was grounded here on Earth
His soul was sold in one deep hole, somewhere near to Perth
He then forsook the Holy Book, and the Communion bread and water
He gave God the Heave,got up to leave,and took up with Old Nicks daughter

Now I’d love to say that in this tale, they lived happily ever after
But this I can’t and this I wont, for it was bound for sheer disaster
For in the tale untold there was one of old, who would not let them be
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and she would not let him go free

Such Cursed Lies he would then Despise, as he was flayed and he was Beaten
They placed him on a Beggars Cross, and set about him for a season
Raking nails placed his Soul for Sale, and he was Dead before He’d Risen
When something cried and deep inside him died,his heart shackled and Imprisoned

They left him on that stony ground, a lamb, the victim of a slaughter
His Soul was encased inside a Stone, victim of the Harpies daughters
3 years went by and you could hear his cries, begging for forgiveness
Till Christmas came and a Star was born, and the Earth gave up its witness

In that Shining moment he was freed, and prayed on his knees to heaven
And God looked down and said come home my Son, where the bread is leavened
Before a mirror he then stood, and beheld his visage torn and tattered
But from his eyes the Light now shone, and the past no longer mattered

Rod Macfarlane

Would You Take a Look at Yourself?

Would you take a look at yourself?
Would you take a Long Hard look!
Try and see what others see
When they look at you.

What do they see? What do I see?
I will do you a favour and let you look through my eyes
It will be a brutally honest truth
Do you think that you are up to it?

Whether or not you are prepared
Here I come, Ready or not!
Here comes my vision of you
Open your eyes man, unblock your ears.

Let me begin with kindness
For you are a very kind man
You are a very Loving man
You put others before yourself
You often will go that extra mile
Where others will fail or fall
You still stand there
You lend all the support and love
Which you are capable of
And that is one hell of a lot!

You will always try to please others
and it hurts you to see anyone hurt
It Is almost like you are a one man saviour at times
You are a Ghandi or a Jesus or male Mother Theresa
In your Wisdom and Knowledge
You are the Wise man on the pole
You are a Bhudda but No Moses

You are Deep, Deep as the Ocean
Nobody really knows quite how Deep you are
They only know you are very Deep.
Nobody knows how much Hurt you have felt
Nor do they know how deep that Hurt has cut
You don’t even know yourself, do you?

But you never allow your hurts to turn bitter
Revenge is an alien concept to you
You will only Cry your tears and shed them till they dry
And then….After a while…You begin again
Once more trying to find that love you have always looked for
It doesn’t matter how often you fail
Or how often you have been let down
Still ..After weeping…After failing and falling
You will try again once more.

But for All your Goodness, and kindness
For All your Loving
For All your Understanding
For All your Wisdom
For All your Knowledge
For All Your Healing
For All your Patience
Despite All your Wonderful Gifts and potential
You are a Massive Failure!

Why is this so, when so many appreciate and Love you?
Quite simply put
You are a Failure to yourself!

You who has given so much for others
You who has tried so hard to please
You who despises the thought of hurting anyone
You who hates the word Hate
You who has tried so hard, have failed miserably
You have Lost All that you have Treasured most
You gave your Love away Far too cheaply
Till it became a worthless thing to those who received it
You poor poor deluded fool.

Love is Not everything
Love is Not in itself the Answer
What is the Love of a Beggar worth?
What is the Love of the Waster worth?
It Is worth Nothing
If those who give Love do not value Love
If they cannot Love themselves as they should
If they cannot Respect themselves
If they cannot admire their own worth
What is their worth to anyone else?
For they have made themselves worthless

You poor deluded fool
All you ever gave was worth the sum of nothing
You have Failed yourself
In doing so
You have Failed those who mattered to you.
But You yet have a chance
You have found Love now
This Time
Do not let it go so cheaply.

Be Glad that you have yet another chance
But learn your Lesson, Fool!

Rod Macfarlane

I love you as myself

I love you entirely very much you know
For years and years and years it never showed
I had always someone else, or I was always somewhere else
And I never gave a thought to you, I know.

I kept looking for the answer for so long
But the questions asked were always questions wrong
I would keep on searching for the other part of me
Never knowing or realising you were there in front of me

I’d go running after Loves who weren’t true
Not one of them could ever compare to you
Still I overlooked you for the sake of someone else
Never pausing for a moment to find my self

I’m sorry now I treated you so bad
But now that I have found you I’m so glad
You were always meant for me, even though I couldn’t see
That you were there and always part of me.

But lets put all those yesterdays aside
There is now a changing of the tide
You’re here with me on this day,never more to go away
Ever more a true love which I wont hide

I look now into your smiling eyes
Sparkling blue like sea reflecting sky
I gaze upon your sunny face, where love will always find a place
Trusting you forever trusting I

Let me hold you closer now than you’ve ever been
Let me calm let me caress you, let it be seen
That you and I were truly One, till the setting of the sun
And let no one come between us when we dream

Rod Macfarlane

Time to Turn the Page

Take one last look behind you, turn the page
Take a moment to remember, turn the page
and once you have remembered, let your memories forget
Then let your past be dead and buried, turn the page

It is time to keep on moving, turn the page
It is time to keep on growing, turn the page
It is time for moving onwards and never looking back
It is time to leave the past, so turn the page.

Take off that load you’ve carried, turn the page
Shake off the dust you’ve gathered, turn the page
All the demons you’ve collected or others laid on you
Cast them straight into their Hell, then burn the page

Wake up this morning brighter, turn the page
With a feeling of new lightness, turn the page
When you’ve cast off the darkness, which you’ve carried for so long
you are feeling so much stronger, turn the page

Take all the lessons that you’ve learned, turn the page
Turn your learning into wisdom,turn the page
Discounting wounds and Scars and Scores,heal them all and hurt no more
Be someone yet you could adore, turn the page

When you’ve gained from each new chapter, turn the page
When the words are all completed, turn the page
Then when you’ve read the whole damn book, and it’s not worth another look
It’s time to then forget it
Turn your last page.

Rod Macfarlane

Once Again, that time of year.

So once again its come to that time of year
Looking back to those we knew and held so dear
Remembering all the places where we’d been
remembering all the faces and the scenes
So many now that touched us have all gone
But for us its still a time for moving on
New pastures they await us in the Spring
And somewhere on the moorland we will hear the lapwing sing

But as I look to the night sky on this day
As I share my drams of whisky on Hogmanay
There’s a sense of loss and sadness, mixed with my glass so fine
But there’s warmth and peace and loving on my mind

The clock it keeps on turning, its hands refuse to pause
It waits not for a second, nor emergency or Cause
The mirror tells me I have changed, the old photograph,it does too
But there is no point in complaining, Age is what life always does to you

The music goes on playing, and we are dancing faster yet
The Strathspeys, the Jigs, the eightsome reels that we never will forget
Partners come and partners go, the dance it still goes on
But soon we’ll come to Auld Lang Syne, and soon the Old Years gone

But here I am still standing, a new partner in my arms
We will dance this waltz together, caught up in the musics charm
And somewhere I hear laughter, someone has told another tale
Old friends they all surround me, and as friends we all prevail

The Old ones and the New Ones, and those we’ve still to meet
We will travel all together, until our journey is complete
The Bells strike up at midnight, we let loose a mighty cheer
*Slainte Mhath mo charadain*, and All the Best of this New Year
*Good Health my friends*

Rod Macfarlane

Neil Diamond: I’m On To You!

The Voice in the Wilderness

I hear a voice, somewhere in the wilderness
I hear a voice, at the edges of my mind
I hear a voice,beyond the falls of imagination
I hear a voice,in the static of the line

And that voice is talking to me
In a language I don’t know
But I can somehow understand it
with its words from long ago
Some say it is the voice of God
some others say it came from Man
Then they argue in semantics
Will they never understand?

Some Scribes get out their Holy Books
And they pounce on every phrase
Dissecting and redacting
Every Prophets mushroom haze
The Angels gave them visions
From the Godhead up above
But the only word that mattered much
Was the word which spoke of love

The Imam and the Rabbi
The Ascetic Holy Man
Jesus and Mohammed
They all did what they can
The Buddhist Monk, the Shaman
The Atheist and the Jane
The Scientist and the Artist
All speaking different names

The words spilling out in multitudes
The words filling libraries of books
Everyone is arguing but no ones understood
Some fighting with a passion
Some caring not at all
Some chasing shadows of Illusion
Some filling minds with their brick walls

But somewhere in the wilderness,we all can hear that voice
Somewhere in the silence, it offers us a choice
If there is a God he’s listening, If there is not a God, he’s not
And does it really matter? When some say not a lot

All I know it’s Christmas, soon to be another year
And here I sit in silence, wishing all the world could hear
If all the world could stop a while,If we all could stop the clock
Take a look around us, and let our scattered thoughts unlock

There is a voice within us, it’s more ancient than our souls
and If we would only listen to it, it still might make us whole
It’s the voice that makes us who we are, Its the voice of humanity
It’s the voice that says “peace and love on earth”,is the only way to set us free.

Rod Macfarlane

To All my friends, Old and New, To all my family, And to all the world.
Let us speak words of Love and Kindness to each other, and may this season and the new year, give us all patience, care,forgiveness and understanding.

If I Should Suddenly Depart

If I should suddenly depart
If you should no longer find me here
If I should be gone from all your vision
Shed not a mournful tear
If I should suddenly depart
If you no longer will hear my voice
If I left without goodbyes
If circumstance left me no choice
If I left no final word
There was not much left to say
I had said it all so many times
As I got on my knees to pray

As a child I’d recite a prayer
as I lay down my head to sleep
I asked my God that he look after me
That my soul he should safely keep
and that should I die before I wake
I asked him then my soul to take
Thereafter would come my liturgy
as I said every blessing that I knew
To bless my mother and my father
my sister and my brother too
for all my friends and family
for every single soul both old and new
Somewhere In that prayer
there has always been a space for you

I would drift off In my sleep
a Love so large in a tiny heart
no hurt recriminations
no bitter words to part
The world is so much older now
so many cherished now long gone
but by list gets ever longer
with each setting of the sun
Some day I may no longer rise to wake
and my list will be complete
But should I leave without a word
In your heart find a loving soul to keep

Rod Macfarlane

If I forgot it all tomorrow

If I forgot it all tomorrow
Where would I be, where would I be?
If I forgot it all tomorrow
What would I see, what would I see?

If I had no recollection of your face
If your voice I simply couldn’t place
If I had no memory of what you meant to me
If I had no knowledge of you and history

If I forgot it all tomorrow
What would I do, what would I do?
If I forgot it all tomorrow
If I never knew you, If I never knew you?

Would I even look your way, If I passed you on the street
Would I listen to a word you say, should we suddenly meet
If you smiled at me, would I smile right back, or simply look away
Would I even like the person that you were, the one you are today

If I forgot it all tomorrow
Would It matter any way?
If I forgot it all tomorrow
would it be just another day?

Would first impressions lead us onwards, to the place where we are now
Or would life take another journey, and never leave me asking how
Would our paths just cross but once, and never more to cross again
Or In another time and in another place, would things be so different then?

Rod Macfarlane