Time for Something

Tick Tock

I hear it calling
Lonesome tolling
Slowly catching me
Time
Wasting away
Day after day
Playing that game
Between you and me.

Whispering to myself
Seems like I'm going crazy
What about you
Old man in me
Young man at heart
Tearing me apart
Why don't we just see
Where this takes us
Why all the drama
People calling us out
What's that all about
Another long night yearning
But it can't be.

Tick tock
Time on the clock
Swinging left
Swinging right
Why do we fight
Denying the pleasure
What is the measure
Of a lifetime alone
If you don't take a chance
You'll never know
A life never lived
Is like a love surrendered.

Cadence call
Writing on the wall
Music and madness
Chorus of voices
But always alone
Harmony and happiness
Always competing
Calculating the distance
Between us
Gardens of stone
Or a valley of clover
Under the cover of night
Time is right
For a reckoning.

Tell me a story
Happy ending
Not some tragedy
That never was
Hope and glory
You and me
Sunrise, sunset
Whispering breeze
Secret message in the trees
That time never regrets.

Tick tock
Time on the clock
Swinging left
Swinging right
Why do we fight
Denying the pleasure
What is the measure
Of a lifetime alone
If you don't take a chance
You'll never know
A life never lived
Is like a love surrendered.

Dale A. Wittler 17'

Cause of the Fallen

A few thoughts:
I went for a long overdue walk the other day through St. Mary's cemetery in Ottoville, Ohio and I remembered something I learned some years ago about placing coins upon the grave markers of veterans (you may have seen the article posted yesterday). Well, the idea kept gnawing at me at work, and so I sat down, and composed a little something that goes along with the article about using those coins to support veteran causes. Here's my take on the idea. On Memorial Day, or any day for that matter, plan to take a walk with family, or friends through your local cemetery, and place a small token upon the grave markers of veterans. It not only gets the kids outside, and us adults, but it shows our support in a way that
touches our hearts, and minds to the sacrifices, and needs of our veterans. Hopefully, local service organizations can organize times to collect the coins, and donate the proceeds to veteran causes.
And so, my friends, a gift.

Cause of the Fallen

Consider a penny
Fallen from a pocket
Lost
Round and weathered
Copper colored
Bronzed with age
Over time forgotten
Then found
Upon the ground
Like some prodigal son
Singular, and insignificant
Yet gathered as a multitude
A treasure to behold.

Then consider a brother
A sister
Fallen from this life
Begotten son and daughter
But never forgotten
In monuments of stone
And the living
Who like some relic of war
Become unknown
Returned home
Unscathed, yet scarred
Visible and hidden
Reminded daily of the battle
Healed, and broken
Price paid in full for freedom
Yet become a nation's burden
Debt, unlike a penny spent.

So now we realize them
In repose, and living
Veteran and citizen
Soldier and sibling
To place our treasure
In gardens of stone
We march and remember
On streets with flags flown
Cause of the fallen
For the needs of the living
For honor, courage,
And service rendered.

D.A. Wittler 17'

Sing A New Song!

Daddy's Words

Early Monday morning
Sun coming up
Shadows growing shorter
Near that old pick up truck
Third shift closing down
 People coming in from town
Another day begins and ends
On his dreams fading fast
And he wonders
How long will it last?

Grey in his hair is deeper
Widows peek a bit steeper
Older than he's ever known before
And daddys words echoing in his ears
"Son, go wipe those tears
Big boys don't cry
At least this one don't any more."

What became of the dream?
Four long years have gone by
Questions still remain
What did he do to deserve this
Warm sheets turned cold
In a one bedroom all his own
Worst has come and gone
But he still lingers at dawn
Maybe I need to wake up
Cause this nightmare is killing me.

One more night
Beneath a billion starlight
And God so loved the world
That he gave his only son
Our salvation he won
But one man don't feel the reason
Another passing season apart
Won't warm his heart
He just gets older
Daddy's words sound colder
Than ever before.

Woke up in a sweat
Worst sleep he's had yet
Twelve noon and you can bet
Daylight brings familiar sounds
That a night shifter dreads
But he welcomes them all the same
Cause they remind him of a time
Before they met
First time lovers, they set
The world on fire.

Now he can't wait forever
Life goes on in a minute
If you blink it might be over
But his story has just begun
New pages waiting to turn
If he just lets them flow
Like those tears from long ago
And he can hear his daddy say
"Where you gonna go son
If you run away."

One more night
Beneath a billion starlight
And God so loved the world
That he gave his only son
Our salvation he won
But one man don't feel the reason
Another passing season apart
Won't warm his heart
He just gets older
Daddy's words sound colder
Than ever before.

D.A. Wittler 17'

A Beautiful Mess

In unconscious dreams we wonder free to visit our true selves, and in doing so we may find answers, or more bewilderment. In any case, we are faced with choices of fate, and faith. However you choose to decide which one to follow, know this; that fate only leads to fate whereas faith leads to purpose, and the promise of new life. And so, here is my omage, or tribute to William Paul Young's novel, "The Shack", what a wonderful example in both written form, and film.
God Bless
Witt

For a wonderful soul
Like you my love
Within a human frame resides
There is a place one goes
Not above
Where heavy burdens exist
A broken down building
If you will
Where truth, and life do battle
And if you linger with a stare
God is sure to greet you there
Though not as you expect
Where a divine wind blows
Leading us all
To a beautiful mess
Where complexity grows
A garden all our own
And we must confess
Tend our worries
Forgive our foes
Bury our woes
Deep within the earth
And there a tree of life
Springs anew
We simple few
Who try so hard
Who only need a trusting hand
A partner to hold us up
When waves threaten
And our vessel is tossed
We feel lost
Without a savior's gaze
To take us home again
To our own beautiful mess
Beside that field of light
And living color
Where all is forgiven.

D.A. Wittler 17'

On Higher Ground I See

A few thoughts:
You came to me in a dream today, and I knew it was true, that when someone is praying for you they come to you in this way.
There are many strange forces at work in our world, countless choices to be made, but the greatest choice is to love someone, not because of a mere feeling in the pit of your stomach, or because of the laws of attraction, or nature, but because they reach a part of you that runs deeper than any senses you possess. You love them because on some level they bring out the best in you, the lover, the fighter, the survivor in your soul, and that feeds your desire to be one with them. Indeed, there is no greater example of true love than two souls joined together. I thought I knew that once, and a part of me still believes in what now seems to be a distant memory, but now I go forward into an uncertain future where time has no meaning, only the search for connection on a higher plain than mere affection, or the needs, and instincts nature has planted in my human brain.
 And so I continue on that quest for deeper meaning, and not just dreaming of what could be. For dreams call us to aspire to our greatest selves, not our mediocre present expectations of what the world tells us is real, when in fact it is full of lies, and always tries to steal us of our inmost desire for unconditional love. And so, here's to you...Beyond the dream, and I will be your muse.
God Bless
Witt