The Pilgrim

             Trevor Lawrence Jenner

           29 September 1947 – 15 January 1993

T L J

I found you today to find you are gone.

Who is it decides when it’s time to move on?

Your lonely farewell by me was unheard

Down this two way terrain – never a word.

But today the words reached over oceans and years  

         Now I offer to you my absentee tears

         As different directions tore us apart

         Your generous spirit still sang in my heart

         The smile I missed then I miss now even more

           Like the music you made – all gone before . . . .

           Down that lonesome road back home. 

         

            ‘Chapter 33’  -   Para 2 -  Brother to Brother.’

He handles life’s rejections with dignity and grace

As he compromises daily with the years

Accepting that his destiny is ever off the pace

He’s a constant source of sadness to his peers

Yet his past defies his future as he lets it slip away

Behind the dignified expression of a clown

Being grateful for the challenge to decide with each new day

If the going up is worth the coming down.

     

With apologies and gratitude to Kris Kristofferson

Mountain Grasses

(Lotus eaters theme)

The strong mountain grasses resemble my love for you

They hide in the passes  resembling my love for you.

Daily their abundance grow

Sadly there is none that knows

Daily their abundance grows

Sadly there is none that knows

As love lies dying others will die for love

I love without trying – dying for mutual love.

Daily its abundance grows

Sadly there is none that knows

Daily its abundance grows

Sadly there is none that knows

Never is  forever bringing lonelier tomorrows

If we were together would you recognise my heart?

(C) copyright Roy Jenner June 1976 Auckland NZ

I consider my cat
And where she is sat

A rumble of purr

Midst a jumble of fur

A comfortable heap

                     On the fringes of sleep

Her furry frame curled

At peace with the world.

What is there to see

When my cat surveys me

Through lashes now closing?

Content to be dozing

In my favorite chair

She knows I’ll be there

Approaching the end

Cat, wife, or friend.

RAJ (  www.storyteller.co.nz  )  January 2003

 Blankets Of Gold

I can  feel your spirit  reaching out to  me.

I can  feel its closeness, but  what is it that I see?

I see   myself  trying, trying  hard to live

Asking all of others, others who have  little left to give.

What can I give to show you that I care?
Surely  there is  something, something we can share?

My empty  life is offering its all

To  hands that are reaching  and  damaged by the fall

I can offer wisdom

I can offer gold

Each can be a blanket

To keep you from the cold

You can take my wisdom?

You can spend  my gold?

Let us share the blankets

To  keep us from the cold.

We each have trod the lonely path

And each of us has found the road too rough

I can bare for us to share if you believe that sharing  is enough

           Mistakes we leave behind us

           Bitter blows for which  we must atone

Shall we stride the path together or struggle down that lonely road  alone?

I can offer wisdom

I can offer gold

Each can be a blanket

To keep you from the cold

You can take my wisdom?

You can spend  my gold?

Let us share the blankets

To  keep us from the cold.

Together  we are strong

Together,  we belong

           © Copyright    www. storyteller.co.nz   December 2003

My Homeland of New Zealand

***(Hook and intro.)

New Zealand – I hear you.

Soon I’ll be near you.

Breathing a clear view

Of my memories in my Homeland of New Zealand

Since my early days I’ve travelled far

And wandered through many lands.

It’s natural I think for one to roam,

But I’ve yearnings now for sparkling seas

And blazing golden sands.

My homeland of New Zealand calls me home

New Zealand – I hear you.

Soon I’ll be near you.

Breathing a clear view

Of my memories in my Homeland of New Zealand

Though time has passed  impressions last

Of a thousand shades of green,

Rich apple trees boughs laden to the loam.

Of grazing herds and milling sheep

And churning mountain streams.

Yes, my homeland of New Zealand calls me home.

***

There are highways now through gorges

That once were hard to pass

And the diesel has replaced the ploughman’s roan.

But the winds of change can’t rearrange

Its heritage and past.

How my homeland of New Zealand calls me home.

***

It’s often said that Young Nick’s Head

Is the first land that he saw

As Cook sailed in toward the Long White Cloud

And it’s still there for all to share

For now and ever more

My Homeland of New Zealand makes me proud.

© Copyright Roy Jenner Auckland New Zealand September 1976 

 

    The Fields Of Kent

Let me wander wild and free

Where the white cliffs meet the sea

Where the days of my youth were spent

Where I’m most content

Midst  the fields of Kent

Let it be

Let it be that I shall find

All I left behind

Let it be

Can it be that I’ll  return 

To the land for which I yearn?

To the place where my dreams were made

In the cooling shade 

Of a woodland  glade

Can it be?

Can it be that I can find

All I left behind

Can it be?

Is there someone waiting there

Who can end my calm despair?

Walk with me in the cooling shade

Through a blue bell glade

As the evenings fade

Is she there?

Could it be she’s waiting still

On that blue bell hill

         Could it be?

         Yesterday’s dreams

Made to come true

         Yesterday’s dreams

Blue bells and you.

Yesterday’s dreams

Yesterday’s dreams

         Yesterday’s dreams.

                       Christmas Upside Down

When I look back on Christmas and when I was young

I remember with joy how the holly was hung

High in the hallways, on mantle and sill

To honour the season of peace and good will.

The greenest of prickles  with splashes of red

Midst garlands of  mistletoe high over head

Together with tinsel and bright, coloured lights

Flickering candles and other delights

All tenderly placed at this time of the year

As joyful reminders that Christmas is here.

I still feel the bite of the wind on my nose

As I fed robin redbreast  on chill winter snows

Whilst beckoning me through the night’s early rays

The village shops’ colourful window displays.

The butcher hand plucked our plump Christmas bird

And always had time for that joke he had heard

From the milkman, the postman, the man in the drapers

Or the freckled young lad who delivered the papers.

The voices of children still carry clear

With a songful reminder that Christmas is here.

As I grow older each Christmas I find

The pleasures of Christmas-past strong in my mind.

A man made of snow appeared on our lawn

Just at the time our sweet Jesus was born.

All winter he stayed and his eyes made from coke

Stared through our window, but he never once spoke,

But his eyes seemed to say ‘this is my Christmas too.

Would you folk really mind if I share it with you?”

And as Christmas means sharing we had nothing to fear.

A friendly reminder that Jesus is here.

Every year Christmas it comes and it goes,

But it’s no longer seasoned with crisp, winter snows.

Living  ‘down-under’  -  though just as much fun

Our memories are made in the warmth of the sun.

A day on the beach with the family seems strange

To one who remembers the old kitchen range

That produced a fine turkey, so hot, crisp and brown

With succulent vegetables dotted around.

The crackers, the paper hats, streamers and cheer

Are constant reminders that Christmas is here.

How special December as memory lingers

With barbecue steak sauce stuck to my fingers.

Sausages, hot-dogs and lamb on the coals,

Kumara, pumpkin and hot sausage rolls.

Long summer evenings with snacks on the beach

Place holly and mistletoe far out of reach,

But the giving, the taking, the kindness, the mirth,

The spirit of Christmas engulfs the whole earth.

Then as we relax with our loved ones, so dear

We need no reminders that Christmas is here.

(C) Copyright Auckland NZ   November 1996  ROY JENNER

Johnny Cash Tribute

 

             The Man In Black

 From the flat black delta where the water’s always ready to rise

Came a man on a mission with a vision and a fight in his eyes

He’d worked the land so he could understand

The meaning of struggle and strain

He was ready for the ride with God inside

Precious little to lose - and a lot gain.

The face of Memphis was about to change

The face of Memphis was due a change

It would really change

Be rearranged

Be rearranged and changed by the Man In Black

How does a man become a leader? He’s chosen.

The man in black - whom we all love supposing,

He hadn’t turned his back on the land to make a place in the  SUN

And sung to the people – the songs he sung

We’d never have known such a power and force

History would have changed its course

No! Country music would never have changed.

The face of Memphis would never have changed

Well, maybe changed

Been rearranged,

But not rearranged as it was by the Man in Black.

He strode into Sun with his six string in his hand

With words and music not hard to understand

With his pockets filled with songs and a love for life

That told of the strain and told of the strife

Of the strain and the pain in a working man’s life

Of the struggle and the pain in a working man’s life

And the face of Memphis began to change

Yes! The face of Memphis began to change

You could see the change

You could feel the change

And the change was there because of  . . .

                                                    The Man in Black.

Fifty years of passion cannot be forgotten

Firm picking fingers picking strings -  that once picked cotton

The seed of life he daily sowed

Inviting all to follow down the Gospel Road

There isn’t a place where his voice isn’t known

Where his love for the Lord isn’t clearly shown

While the face of Memphis continues to change

Yes! The face of Memphis has really changed

You can see the change

You can feel the change.

The change is there because of the Man in Black.

They ask him why he’s always dressed in black . . .

© copyright Roy Jenner Auckland New Zealand

                            7 April 2003