Oasis (Tom’s song)

when you hit the lows
and the doors close
in the desert of the city
I’ll be your oasis

oasis

when you face a crisis
and mirages give you the blues
when the streets have no pity

I’ll be your oasis

trapped in the sand’s crazy glow
I’ll offer shelter, flowers will grow
in the sweet water

I’ll be your oasis

Faith like breath

My star was calling me to follow her
through the night
so I took my heart, gave her free rein
and walked the tired streets, fresh with falling rain.

The silver streaks of street lamps
were the spirit of my pain reflected
and the church windows glittered their message
as I sheltered at the door, praying to be lifted.

Faith like breath

A police car rode past oblivious
the driver looking only at his horizon
the care in the night for the lonely is not generous
the streets make bitter beds for the lowly.

Faith like breath

So I took a streetcar to resurrect my journey
traveling to oblivion in the comfort of passengers
we drove into the dark, lit by our humanity,
asleep on each other’s shoulders like lovers.

And then my muse alighted me
in the land of stops and starts
a bus station in the darkness
of London’s heart
deserted except for a stranger
with bags surrounding her, disconcerted.

Faith like breath

We recognised each other’s loss and care
and took the friendship bus to london’s square
where victory smiles down from a great height
and defeat below is everywhere.

Anna, homeless like Jesus,
had the samaritan’s love for her neighbour
she gave me dignity and comfort
and shared warmth in hope’s labour.

Faith like breath

She said she was poor,
she worked through her religion
to help others
watching and waiting for signs
sometimes in vain.

I remembered the church
empty in the night like a tomb
providing no material giving
for the samaritans in london’s living
where the buses are their homes.

Faith like breath

She wanted her religion to find me
so I told her I was on an open journey
and as we passed the stop I was given
the church of Mary Magdalene
I feigned I had a sign.
That God had told me
she should seek a home for winter
tomorrow in urgency
to protect herself from the rain.

Only God’s word could help her
find shelter
and so the night bus took her away
into the mystery I could not hinder
Anna, a stranger full of faith.

Faith like breath

I took my fond and remembered path
to my home full of warmth
feeling her faith like breath
and the fragile nearness of death.

And so the night’s rich story
told to me in the poverty of my vainglory
was that love reigns in the heart
even in the hardest dark and pitiless rain.

Faith like breath