![Photograph of a gate at Kothi Gulistan-i-Eram [कोठी गुलिस्तान-ए-इरम] in Lucknow, Madhya Pradesh, India.](https://berniegourley.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/img_7619.jpg)
A Wall -- one may love or hate.
But picture one without a gate.
It is our ever-present fate
to need to see from either side.
Gateless [Lyric]
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Tag Archives: Lyric
Soul Deaf [Lyric Poem]
As I've traveled around the globe,
I've felt the music from some souls --
Those who exude, in part or whole,
a secret and sacred rhythm.
And when their tunes did call to me
I felt a yearning to be free
to dance and sing, if out of key,
yet ever so resonantly.
Who could have known that I'd go deaf.
With ear to ground, nothing was left.
It felt like a horrible theft
from all (and yet received by none.)
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Ominous [Common Meter]
What lives behind that ornate door
that's carved of snakes and vines?
I see them writhe and feel a shift
in its symbols and signs.
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Play Mind [Common Meter]
What is this cloud above my head
on such a sunny day?
You may think it foreshadows rain.
I think that it brings play.
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Armenia [Common Meter]
I once sped through an ancient land
that blurred of gray and green.
Its pastures had been neatly grazed
by some livestock, unseen.
Its mountains rugged, under clouds
whose drift could not be seen.
It felt like a long-lost painting
or unremembered dream.
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The Industrial Disease [Lyric Poem]
I heard the last gasp and wheeze
of Industry's fatal disease.
Why would we need any workers?
We don't need factories!
We'll grow it all from nanobots
in a closet where you please.
There'll be a 3-D printer, printing
printers endlessly.
You won't hear another mention
of Industrial Disease.
The question is not how or where
to make it, that'll be a breeze.
The question on economist's minds...
that strains their expertise.
Is how will slobs who have no jobs
pay for their indices?
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The Deeps [Lyric Poem]
A jutting rock
splits the river,
diverging streams
never wither,
but speed around --
smoothly flowing,
still gaining speed --
never slowing,
until they reach
the deeps.
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Ignorance is Bliss [Lyric Poem]
A turtle swims to water's edge,
and finds before him a steep bluff.
He makes himself a solemn pledge,
"I'll scale this cliff, however tough!"
Struggling over the toilsome rim,
he sees another wall of stone
stands just ahead - tormenting him.
"Just one more, I'll not piss and moan."
If he could know that it was stairs,
He'd have some turtle curse words to share.
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Passing Buddha [Lyric Poem]
The train is speeding down the line.
Gold Buddha glints in the sunshine.
Jarring is the train whistle’s whine,
we plunge into a dark tunnel.
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Green Hills [Lyric Poem]
So many hills I have seen
That grow so soft and thick and green.
Though jagged rocks sit down below
The grass and shrubs and weeds that grow
Through cracks and gaps, in mud patches --
Sprawling wide from tight-knit batches
That stone cannot constrain or kill.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 