3 Poems by Grant Guy

Until

My language and voice to give what I saw as truth was crippled

I crippled my voice myself to keep the unwanted language at a distance

Unable to do harm   because love and death are the same word

I thought the walls I built were as strong as a granite to keep the words out


Until

Until you found my heart and made it virtuous

Until you found my bed and made it virtuous

Until you eroded the granite stone fortress against the unwanted words


A new sound has entered into my ears that are not frightful


It does not matter if we are in the quiet hours of the night

Or in the golden daylight of a July afternoon


Wherever the words new sound travels   in laughter or tears

We could be holding hands or kissing the new sound

You could be angry at me    or I angry at you

Sings sings sings out

The new sound   the new song   of my wanted language


I

Love you


The Pioneer of Hope Collapsed


The pioneer of hope collapsed

At the feet of the veteran of despair


The pioneer's funeral was a sad occasion

The preacher was late being caught up up in cross town traffic

And forgot the the name of pioneer  fumbling through his notes

An out of tune marching band  played the Danse Macabre


The faint hearted mourners wrapped in bronze dread

Their acid malevolent blind eyed faces void of the next day

Projected out onto the super highway's dead end

Were turning to pillars of cynicism

Deaf mute and blind


Yet

Somewhere a sunlit cellar

Here there and everywhere

Seen and not seen

Scene and not scene

The orphaned children of the pioneer

Are secretly birthed Zeus


I Was a Disease

I was a disease

All that came close to me got sick

Until she soothed the man

And made me human

The end of pain


She took into the shadow of love

She did not lead me

She did not hold my hand

She was not the Stalker in the zone of love


I took footfall steps of trepidations steps

Sliding one foot carefully in front of me

I crossed to the other side of the shadow

Like a swimming reaching the far shore of a lake


I wanted to shout out the love that renewed me

She put a finger to her lips

A whispered is the proper refrain

Do not shout out my love like a boastful worshipper

Do not make a scene of my redemption

To be in it is enough

To live it is enough


I walked through the shadow of love


Bionote

Grant Guy is a Winnipeg, Canada, poet, writer and playwright. Former artistic director of Adhere + Deny. His writings have been published in Canada, the United States, Wales, India and England. He has three books published. He was the 2004 recipient of the MAC’s 2004 Award of Distinction and the 2017 recipient of the WAC’s Making A Difference Award.