The Eberhard Triptych.
(Songs for D Eberhard)
By Robert L Hughes III
For Eberhard.
1.
Life is the poor player…
A wonder I have found?...
A living spring in the heart of Quasimodo breaks forth…
I am who I am…
Why should he sup with me?
Who am I to bring joy to his heart as vast as the brilliance of a shooting star?
Do I think so highly of myself as to be worthy of remembrance?
To be talked to?
I am used to having to pass what I call the Cup of Friendship to people
But I am not the one to had to give… not this time!
It has been first given to me.
What can I do?
Foolish heart!
For I am the poor player
I am the shamed one!
I am the dark son.
In my own heart I am not one to be trifled with.
Because there is another player…
Whose on stage, and life’s stage he is one.
He is one who wants to bring happiness to his audiences and though
that he shares the one precious gift.
A Cup of Friendship!
How precious is that to me!
Far more then the arms and the endowment of any man!
More than the greatest of operas!
The stage I entered, and the stage I’ll leave but I’ll leave with at least one
friend
Precious Thought?...
II.
Am I the poor player?
Am I the fool?
Far too many times I thought what was solid had turned out to be liquid.
A Foolish heart with foolish notions.
Do not strut and fret over nothing; do not get your heart up.
You are what you are.
You are the dark son.
The ugly.
You are the faceless!
And what do you deserve from him that you cannot receive?
‘Eberhard is young and foolish’ I say ‘He is pretty by the false standards
of youth’
What do I have to offer him? I cannot compete with such brightness.
What have I to offer him I still ask myself?
Empty words?
Stammering tongue?
Day advances the day…
You are what you are…
Nothing!...
You sit alone locked in your introverted heart and mind
You see people though a wall.
They don’t see you!
THEY DON’T SEE YOU!
III.
I am who I choose to be
Eberhard is who he is…
What he has chosen to be…
We are who we are.
Performers’ and singers bound by the equal stage and by whom we choose
To love.
Bound by the commen love for performance.
How I love the stage!
But how much more do I love life!
After acrid pain!
After the bitter taste of death.
Of twice dying, and being once risen.
But yet the stage beckons and it calls you like it called him.
But you came reluctantly
With hopeless and with downtrodden heartache you came
But what of him? What lies possibly hidden within deep confines of the
eyes? And of the heart?
A smile can easily hide a wound just as the sparkle of one’s eyes can cast
into shadow any sadness that one may have accrued.
What does he have to do?
IV.
My heart calms.
The hope is gone, and for a brief span all things are equal before me
For life is the alluring stage.
No one person plays on it alone.
We play from our own experiences,
And the audiences are none but our own!
Eberhard brings to me a freshness of a memory of what I should
had been.
Of what was once possible.
‘no wine untasted’
Every beating heart reveled of memories—of joys rekindled.
The Stage!
Life!
The Theater and Song…
Of beauty and of wine and of food.
Of happiness that I once knew…
Eberhard—his friendship…the stage….
LIFE!!!
.
An Oath for Eberhard.
I.
For him I will do this, for I am the fool.
An idea grasping at straws.
Will I be put to shame?
I do not do this lightly, I do not take on such a
Ponderous role in the life of him nor do I wish for
another obligation .
but it is with a heart geared toward what I know
is right that I do this.
I tremble with fear, I do not—I cannot say ‘friend’
easily ! for that word is sacred with me and I dare
not cheapen that by foolishly spreading that
around…For the word family is dead to me,
Friend is that word, friend is that power!...
II.
I cry, I morn and I weep.
Days will no longer comfort.
The dark recess of night becomes my mistress.
To not bless him will be like a curse on me,
For I cannot rest!
My heart shall never cease until I have spoken it.
III. The Oath.
‘I cannot give you anything for I am poor.
But I can show you my richness of my character.
I cannot assure you that you’ll never be alone,
But I can say that whatever you will be I shall be
there also either though spirit or though
a simple phone call .
I cannot assure that you’ll be wise, but I can share
With you what wisdom I have
I cannot assure that you’ll go in the ring of life
and knock out whatever life brings to you but I
can assure you that I shall always be in your
corner rooting for you.
I do not know if you’ll ever be safe from harm
But I would sacrifice my life to assure you would be
Safe .
This is my oath I make to you.
My word is now given and I am bound by mighty
cables to it. Only death shall make me part with it.
This oath shall remain alive even if you would walk away from my friendship it shall die when I
will pass on
I shall always treasure you, and what time we
will now spend ‘till we have parted
I will forever and always will be your friend.
I name you friend!
I name you brother!
You chose to share with me your life. What an
hounor you have given me.
I have taken what you have given me and I shall
give it back to you ten times the richer!
IV.
So I will commit myself—in the vast façade of his
youth.
Am I on a fool’s errand?
Are these words some empty, vain triptych?..
The Cup Passes.
i
Come and stand before me and I shall tell you what
I see!
Sie Junge eine!
Stand still with this fact that there is at least
one person in this world who wishes to get to
know you!
You lover of life!
You singer of songs!
Tell me of the songs that you sing!
How many verses has been written down
How has life dictated its pentameter?
In the fast quick-step of youth does
Disappointment lie beneath?
In the quick flash glare of a smile, the brightness
of your eyes reveals to me.
Is there a darkling melancholy?…a brooding like
the sun setting after an afternoon filled with
storms that come with the sudden calamity
that betrayed the start of an easy day ?
ii.
An easy day
An easy way?
Who will be your iron?
That sharpens against you?
Who will be your improver?
I will help
I return the cup that you have given me tenfold
You will be all the wiser for I will share with you
what I know .
And I shall part with the one thing that I have of
Any value in this world.
Wisdom! Oh wisdom!
What I have learned in this life came with a bitter
price.
A price that maybe you will not have to pay.
But my path is my own, it is not yours. we share the
paths that life has given us and perhaps you will
not have to make the same mistakes that I’ve been
Scarred with.
The price that you may have to pay will be your
own, but you shall not bear it alone…
Like I once did!....
It’s the morning of your life, you shall go your
own way
But please be patient with your life, for its only
morning and you still to live your day!
What path shall you take this morning?
What path will you live your day?
No one can truly say.
Nay!.. Not even you can tell !
Only careful Confidence should rest on your
current abilitys
Nothing is assured final!
Nothing is rested in stone.
Except truth undimmed .
Nothing except beating hearts
Nothing except the love of life.
Nothing except the love of family.
Nothing except the love of friends.
These are truths that are real!
As solid as stone
Remember!
III. BENEDICTION.
Walk with me as you have invited me to walk with you.
You flushed in your glorious youth
And I clothed in my shame!
(But I have laid aside these rags and the scared beauty
That was dimmed in me shall once more be lit,
and I shall be seen as what I truly am !
‘Beauty and grace unstoppable!
Kindness unmeasurable ‘
And an honor of old shall be bestowed upon me…
Manhood!
Strength unshakable !! )
An unlikely pair we are!
Our thoughts are not distribed by what the
world says that we should be.
Yes walk with me!
Yes, in glorious friendship!
Let the joys of life surround, and set asunder and
Rebuild anew .
You shall hear new songs in sing them
To whomever you meet.
To people whom I shall never see.
And I shall be glad.
My friendship I give to you,
Because you first give me yours!
Precious Thought!...
copywrite July 2009
