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Castles in the Sky


Delicate are the strings that tie dreams and desires,
Like gossamer lined with pearls of morning dew,
And yet they bind, like brick and plaster
The castles that ideas conceive.

Above the clouds, in the beckoning blue,
Of driftwood made, with windows inked,
Smeared with the hopes of childish hands,
Emboldened by visions and sifted wishes.

Tinted with the hues of the painted morning,
Littered with the plumes of a thousand songbirds,
Concealed by veils of airy illusion,
These towers stand tall, intangible yet real.

For the locks that chain castles to the skies
Can be undone with golden keys,
To earth they may fall, within human grasp,
If mortal hands manage to unclasp
The latches that keep their fantasies afloat.

Some to earth have pulled their wishes,
Some have bound their desires to stone,
Some have caught their far-flung dreams,
Or lent their woven sunbeams life.

There are such things as happy endings,
Flawless fates are far from myth,
And yet no journey is without its faults,
No ribbon, unwrinkled and free.

A lifetime’s worth of crystal sunbursts,
An eon’s worth of marble halls,
The toil and tears of centuries
Can a single landslide, collapse.

When lives are rent by misfortune,
When destiny cheats at cards,
When catastrophe lays waste to all the hopes
We’ve cherished in our hearts,
What can we do, what can we say
But walk the paths we’ve paved?

Sullied by irreparable sorrow,
Weathered by the weight of expectations,
Of old grudges turned green with time,
The remains of broken castles float
Downstream and out of sight.

And yet, with greasy, coarsened hands,
That can all but dream,
With feet that have covered a million miles,
You strive to rebuild what you’ve lost.

Salvaging wishes tainted by circumstance,
Grasping at scattered, muddied straws,
Digging graves wrecked by moss,
In an attempt that could end in vain.

But why sing a song with ravaged chords,
Why play an instrument past repair,
Why quest for shattered, useless notes,
When one can start afresh?

Fill up blank canvases, push rubble out of sight,
Splash paint on surfaces, bid cracked toys goodbye,
Draw up new plans, wonder what the future has in store,
Don’t hesitate to file away memories,
Of those there’ll always be more.

Build another castle, write another song,
Don’t bother about perfection,
Don’t hang your head if
You can’t reach that branch up high.

Live for the love of breathing,
Live for the love of doing,
Live for the love of living,
It doesn’t matter if things go wrong.

Look not toward shattered casements,
Toward ravens whispering about lost yesterdays, *
Why spend the rest of your days resurrecting the past when
There’s a wonderful world to explore?

Like an aurous ballet of buttercups,
Pirouetting ‘cross the changing green,
Like wisps of white evanescence,
Clouds floating in the brilliant blue,
Make the most of the present,
Revel in the moment’s sheen.

For through the crumbling, leaden skies,
Through shrivelling wings, through broken links,
Through lost hopes destroyed by envy,
New saplings shall grow, new buds shall bloom,
And from the clouded palls of gloom,
New castles shall arise.

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