Poetry

[Adena]

Ode to the Poet

I long to be able
to nurture a poem in my mind.
Polish each line, oil the feathers of the rhyme
cup it in my hands and feed it
the seed of inspiration.
Open my hand
and watch it fly.
See it dance around the world without me
and then maybe, if I am lucky
come back to my hand to peck my cheek.

[Al Truest]

Jul 26, 2011 12:51:35 GMT Adena said:

Ode to the Poet

I long to be able
to nurture a poem in my mind.
Polish each line, oil the feathers of the rhyme
cup it in my hands and feed it
the seed of inspiration.
Open my hand
and watch it fly.
See it dance around the world without me
and then maybe, if I am lucky
come back to my hand to peck my cheek.

'Nice sentiment...nice poem.

[Adey]

Jul 3, 2010 23:33:48 GMT Al Truest said:

Starfire


I have gathered the convenient bramble,
and set ablaze
the twigs dried and eager
to release their store,
held until this moment
just to warm the Nordic chill in my heart.
It seems a dream.
In my mind I am fjordside.
Here I can hide from the boredom.
The salmon and alder smoke rise
under a firefly sky
that belies the chasm
from there to here,
this bucolic haven,
where Hackberry crackle
from the stream-side furrow fire
has burrowed into my recollection.
I conjure the horror
and borrow from childhood fear
of fanged faeries flitting
darting and devouring.
Tomorrow I can fashion the cudgel
I will deploy against the mundane
of my return.
Where like a canary in the mine
I sacrifice flight for the life of another.
But I stutter.
Linnet's wings come to mind
that fly me away
back to where
tree bugs and frog squawk
still swallow sadness
in the steaming humid calm of night
and rip the slithering fear from my
slight and selfish sorrow.
A song of tomorrow.
The sheen of new breeze
whisks away the matte flat of morose
and the verbose accolades
that have torn the flesh from my soul
in their retraction.
But my reaction is to grapple -
to cast the bitterness from Eve's apple -
make my memories mellow -
scrape the frost from my heart -
and find once again,
star-time,
where shadow angles point the way
to half a world away
and to where my gift finds home.

How on Earth did I miss this?

Just wonderful.

Thanks to Al and Adena for continuing to share their poetry with us. Never less than interesting, but sometimes - as here - another level seems to have been reached.

[Adena]

Hospital

The staircases are the only bits not sterile.
The smell of warm wood and sweat lingers.
Voices echo down, patients from Psychiatry.
The crazies are allowed to walk around sometimes. Funny that.
I find the signs towards maternity.
Part of me wonders what I'll see.
I walk into the ward and look down. His face is mine.
I am the one he has waited for. Our genetics irrevocably linked.
I am here to take him home.

[Adena]

Ultimacy

my body is whole
my heart forlorn
my soul is broken
ripped and torn

life is a game
of lost and found
and like it or not
I'm lost to you now...

The Push

Faith, faith,
the false sister I;
who would drown a girl
for the sake of a guy.

[Neo Stella]

Lost in Illusion

Believe its real and real its is,
this loss has put you in a tizz,
yet calmly know the only real,
is in your heart and how you feel.

We're never without the one in love,
always being and doing enough,
the illusion binds our thinking mind,
until we let our hearts be kind.

Of loving like we'll never be hurt,
the pain another illusion: exert-
the loving unconditional way,
and then our spirit will say:

Love us now and love us then,
because loving us is when,
beyond space and time and even not,
for only we forgot;

In us The God and Goddess blend
our messy worlds we mend;
Believe its real and real it is,
Creating is: OUR BIZ!

[Adena]

Little Woman

Why do I find myself crying for you
Late at night when my resolve is through?
Why can't I stop my heart again?
Just let you slip and run back to then?

Do I ask the preposterous of you?
Is this really all I'll have before I'm through?
The two Ms united stand as one
and once again I'm forced to run.

[Adena]

The Blessed One

In the Tibetan temple
my flesh cloistered in the curtains
I wait for you.
You are a pilgrim, one of millions
come to feel with me
come to feed on me
and take what I do not give.
But I feel you stop.
I watch as you turn
realising your blasphemy.
Repenting profanity.
And open your arms
to the embrace that is giving.
Two-way loving.

You opened up to me,
let me see you
let me read your secrets.
Entered into enlightenment.
Took my hand
and stepped across the threshold
of dreams.

[Adey]

In Extremis

I saw my toes the other day.
I hadn't looked at them for months.
Indeed they might have passed away.
And yet they were my best friends once.
When I was small I knew them well.
I counted on them up to ten
And put them in mouth to tell
The larger from the lesser. Then
I loved them better than my ears,
My elbows, adenoids, and heart.
But with the swelling of the years
We drifted, toes and I, apart.
Now, gnarled and pale, each said," j'accuse!"

I hid them quickly in my shoes.


--John Updike

[Adena]

Home

Home is not the rolling hills
Nor the snowy land that stills
Nor is it the sunny plains
Sometimes marred by dancing rains

Home is not the house I own
Not where my family's seeds were sown
Not anywhere that I have been
Nor anything that I have seen

Home is not a plot of earth
Home is not a place of birth
Home is with humans
Family and friends.

Home is not a piece of land
It is a loving, friendly hand.
Home is where we make it
In the end.

[Al Truest]

Miri


We spoke about the heavens
pinpoints of gleaming dots
'how we gaze upon them
'measuring and calculating
'hypothesizing their age
'how far they are from us

I can reach out and touch them
how much of them would it take
to calm the ache inside
how much joy can reside
in a truly open mind
that I find in you...

we are the stardust that has become aware
we stare at light years
trillions of galaxies
visible in one sweeping motion
an ocean of dark matter
splattered by scattering light

tonight I have discovered
that what has been uncovered
is but how ignorant we are...
that stars are reborn
that every morning is new
and I will be waiting for you

all these star gazers
'atom smashers and lasers
fail without emotion
and the notion of empathy
a sympathetic heart
and the art of caring

[Neo Stella]

Very eloquent, what is the source of this piece Al?

[Adena]

'Apologies are Frequent
Sincerity Skin Deep
Actions are Expensive
And Words so Very Cheap'

In silence I walked, with you beside
An ethereal wisp of caring
The tears, they did not matter so
It was all the release from my feelings.

I could hear you as your words broke
In rhythm with my own
A mantra entwined, though we knew it not
In the very depths of our souls.

Was it here and now, or was it then
Or many years ago
When our essential forms cleaved together
And left us a separate whole?

I know not when, nor how. But why!
My being screams to me
'Without you I am nothing
Since you released me free!'

It is you now, that wisp, for which I reach.
I do not wish to be alone.
No matter from whence your caring springs
I might hold you for my own.

'God is Love.
God is In Each Of Our Hearts.'

Could I start?
I cannot throw you away.
A person is not a commodity.
And I want you here today.

Castles They Might Crumble
Dreams May Not Come True
But You are Never All Alone
Because I Will Always, Always Love You

[Adena]

Who am I?

I am crazy.
A little slice of insanity
Crystallized and breathed to life.

I see so much grief
Ashes of singing voices
Now extinguished and silent

The world is blind
To stay safe from what's outside
I have chosen to chain up my mind

In a silent cocoon
I am safe from life now
But still living through those around me.

[Adena]

The Haptic Halls

In the haptic halls
there are no voices.
Only touch to guide the guests.

The observers wonder.
There is nothing here
unless you can speak without noise.

In the haptic halls
a man speaks in silence.
He tells a story of spirals and scrolls and swirls.

Things that twist and turn and shift.
They dizzy the world
into thinking lies are real.

In the haptic halls
the broken are flocking
towards the silent spirit man.

He does not bully or cajole.
He only guides his guests
to free themselves.

In the haptic halls
there is a revelation.
The watchers all released.

For those who can shake off the binding
the truth is there.
Their lives begin again.