When Worlds Collide: New Poems, Songs, and Short Writing

By E.G. Palmer

"My vision in writing When Worlds Collide is to engage the reader on a deeply relatable human journey. One in which it is the journey itself, not the destination which is the affirmation of a life well lived. It is a narrative in poetry and song of shared human experience culminating in a final chapter of fiction and non-fiction vignettes of humour and affirmation. As in the Buddhist belief in the necessity of suffering to reach enlightenment, within the writing of When World Collides we find pain, but as in all human experience, there is also the capacity for redemption, hope and love." 

 

When Worlds Collide is a collection of poems, song lyrics, and short writings by E.G. Palmer, a Canadian author.

• Language: English
• Publisher: E.G. Palmer
• Release date: May 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201657093

Book preview

When Worlds Collide

WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE

NEW POEMS, SONGS, AND SHORT WRITING

E. G. PALMER

Copyright © 2022 by E.G. Palmer

First Printing 2022

All rights reserved.

Printed in Canada

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No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without the express written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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For further information or inquiries regarding this edition, purchase or distribution of additional editions, contact E.G. Palmer at [e-mail]

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All rights reserved

Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN)

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Printing Services: Draft2Digital

Graphic Design by Barbara Storey/Storeylines Press, Stratford, ON

Cover Photography: Judy Palmer

Cover Art: E.G. Palmer

To my wife, Jude

Who at great personal risk

A leap of faith taken

To save the drowning man

CONTENTS

Creative Self Doubt

Part One

Learning to Let Go

Learning to Let Go

The Day You Left

Under My Skin

The Lesser Man

Hurricanes

When Worlds Collide

Wounded Bird

Broken and Blue

Artifacts

Everything I Did

I Have Found

Clairmont Hotel

Butterflies in Brazil

Slipping Away

Two Tigers

Pickin’ Time

Too Hard on Mary

State of the Union

Part Two

The Open Book

The Open Book

Regular Grind

Bluebird of Happiness

Old Harry James

Beautiful Words

The Pain Behind the Eyes

Broken World

Chewing on Bukowski

Back to Good

At a Crosswalk Engaged

The Mystery Revealed

What the Heart Wants

My Generation

Pink Forms

Moments of Brilliance

Colors

Becoming Our Parents

She Walks a Wire

Cinnamon Hearts

The Rattle of Old Bones

Five-Alarm Fire

Part Three

After Anger Comes Bargaining

After Anger Comes Bargaining

Worry, Worry, Worry

The Lawyer, Strategically Placed

The Fly A Villain

The Birks Store

A Place in the World

What Kind of Man

Plagued by Ambition

At the Missing of an Appointment

Waiting For the Storm to Break

Undone

Immaturity

Speeding to the Next Red Light

A View From a Window

A Devil and An Angel

A Car Struck My Dog

The Introduction of Mr. Bones

The Hills of This Land

Moth At The Window

Killing with Fashion

The Tiresome Weight

Love Is A War Machine

Part Four

Keep Digging

Keep Digging

Karma’s A Bitch

Remarkable Women

A Fine Line

Adaptation

Night After Night

Honesty

Love Is

Too Busy For Poems

San Francisco Panhandler

Perceptions

Cold Comfort

The Suit

Love Song For Judy Blue Eyes

Aunt Pearl’s Jam

Possibilities

Chicken Town

Crack At The End of The World

Perfect Day

I’m Here

Empty Room

Part of Something

Night Poems

Your Way of Thinking

For Loving Me

Part Five

Mending Walls

Mending Walls

Twenty-Four Summers

Stranger Directions

Butterflies On The Wall

Honeydripper

The Red Bird

Farmer Fixed

A Good Poem

The Strangest Dream

Certain Things

Power of Two

Until the Wheels Fall Off

Landscapes

The Game of Second Chance

If I Ask

The Heifer And The Bull Calf

Toronto Grey

A Perfect World

Brutal Honesty

Part Six

Other Worlds: Short Writing

Dancer In The Fire

Haulin’ Water, Forty Below

The Chicken Little Defense

A Small Thing Well

A Shot And A Beer

Sunflower Yellow Corvette

No Way Out

The Man With the Plan

Off The Grid

Not Any Other Flash In The Pan

Flameo And The Tall Grass Circus

The Curious Nature of Dachshunds

Merry Birthday, Happy Christmas

Frieda’s Fleas

The Cherry On Top

Miles To Go Before I Sleep

V Is Not For Victory

The Recalcitrant Rodent

Collateral Damage

Acknowledgment

About the Author

CREATIVE SELF DOUBT

When I was in my twenties

I started writing poems and songs,

Then threw them away.

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When I was in my thirties

I wrote poems and songs,

Then again, threw them away.

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When I was in my forties

I wrote more poems and songs.

And once again,

Threw them away.

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In my fifties and sixties

I wrote more poems and songs

And started on some short story writing.

Then I said to myself,

I could be on to something.

Maybe it’s time to follow my heart.

So here it is,

My first book of collected works.

Now I save everything!

PART ONE

LEARNING TO LET GO

LEARNING TO LET GO

We spend

Half our lives

Searching

For a connection

The other

Half

Learning to

Let go

THE DAY YOU LEFT

The day you left

I remember

Looking out the window

Watching you drive away

The soft sound of

The crush of gravel

Under car tires

The house cold and still

As houses are when left to themselves

The way emptiness finds ways

Of filling spaces

A slow suck of silence screaming

The room expanding then folding

Into itself

In an explosion of energies

Like a collapsing star

A clutter of boxes

And old newspaper

Littering the floor

In a whirling dervish

Leaving behind

A flood of memories.

We will always share

"Our house

With two cats in the yard

The windows illuminated

By the evening sunshine through them

Fiery gems" *

This is what I remember

The day you left

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* Song lyrics from the song Our House

By Graham Nash

UNDER MY SKIN

You were always the one

To make the best

Of a bad situation.

With this love affair begun

Your glass was always half full

Mine always half done.

When did this begin?

How did I let you

Get under my skin?

How do we end up

In all these wrong directions?

Chasing love or stranger obsessions.

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Now the time has come.

Hold on to love

Or learn to let go.

With all we have become

Is it love if we can't say so?

When did this begin?

How did I let you

Get under my skin?

How do we end up

In all these wrong directions?

Chasing love or stranger obsessions.

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So this love has come undone

In a tangle of lies

And truer confessions.

With the hardest part to come,

Letting go of all those connections.

When did this begin?

How did I let you

Get under my skin?

How do we end up

In all these wrong directions.

Chasing love or stranger obsessions.

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You were always the one

To make the best

Of a bad situation.

THE LESSER MAN

I think it happened

On a Tuesday.

No, then again,

Maybe on a Wednesday?

I never could

Get it right

On a Wednesday.

It was then

I saw the look

Of disbelief

On your face.

A glimmer of doubt

Behind the eyes.

It was the day

I ceased being

Your hero.

In the same way,

Over time,

Small cracks

Become great divides.

The end coming

Not before

A thousand cuts

Of small failings.

It was never the same

After that Wednesday.

No going back

Nothing to be done

The day

The curtain pulled back,

Revealing the deception.

The lesser man.

HURRICANES

I'm falling

Falling into you

Into your eyes,

Watercolor blue

The scent of your skin

Drawing me in

You take my hand

Is this how love begins

Make a stand

On an acre of land

Nothing one can't do

With the power of two

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Hurricanes

Moving in off the coast

Hurricanes

Hurt the one you love the most

Bring on the winds

Bring on the rain

Bring on the hurricane

Hurt me again

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I am falling

Falling into you

Love is calling

Can this love be true

Does love last

Or fade with the past

With the things we've been through

Watch the day

Dropping away

Butterfly wings

Change to hurricanes

Angel face

Queen Anne lace

Hurtful things we say

Take what love remains

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Hurricanes

Moving in off the coast

Hurricanes

Hurt the ones you love the most

Bring on the winds

Bring on the rain

Bring on the hurricane

Hurt me again

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I'm falling

Falling into you

Into your eyes

Watercolor blue

Pool to watery grey

Watch you slip away

Watch you slip away

WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE

What you wanted,

What I could not do

Play the well-intentioned fool,

The lesser part of you.

They say everything happens for a reason.

I'm inclined not to believe them.

We were worlds apart

Long before you broke my heart.

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We push against the changes,

Making plans and arrangements.

Wishing on falling stars

Won’t mend broken hearts.

Though we bargain for our alibis,

Planets pull me from your side

With nowhere to run,

No place to hide.

The way it falls apart

When worlds collide.

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The words would never come

Or never came out right,

But there’s a little piece of you

In every song I write.

Maybe on the other side,

After the years and long decline,

We can laugh about

The things we never worked out.

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We push against the changes,

Making plans and arrangements.

Wishing on falling stars

Won't mend broken hearts.

Though we bargain for our alibis,

Planets pull me from your side

With nowhere to run,

No place to hide.

The way it falls apart

When worlds collide.

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If it's any consolation.

You weren't just any constellation.

I fell fast and I fell hard

Into your eyes, like a falling star.

We play our part,

We pay our dues.

Dogs still bark at the moon,

Longing for what might have been,

Holding onto sweet memories.

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We push against the changes,

Making plans and arrangements.

Wishing on falling stars

Won't mend broken hearts.

Though we bargain for our alibis,

Planets pull me from your side

With no place to run,

No place to hide.

The way it falls apart

When worlds collide.

WOUNDED BIRD

In a small café

With the usual friends,

A tangle of words

Hanging on our youth and innocence.

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We walked along the avenue,

Arm in arm as lovers do,

While making plans of a future

We would never see through.

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In those small cafés and bars

Lovers play out a part

To love’s mischance and enterprise,