Mine.

This thread is all my own writing. Feel free to read or ignore as you wish.

Comments most especially welcome.

:cool:

Author's Note: This was written for my ym.

your eyes are pure
clear and unjaded
refreshing
as a deep clear pool
in a desert

like a rare incense
I breathe you in

you held me
you tasted me
you caressed me

(such a heartfelt possession,
yes, oh yes)

you poured your soul before me
and it seemed as if I were
home

they say that
age doesn’t matter --
I disagree

but I am glad
we are old enough
for us.

it seduces me, this
archway between the innocence
of torso and the
hedonism of genitalia

it is the perfection of
intrigue, the point of equilibrium
and expectation.

pelvis is too jarring, too
clinical for this dune of
bone & flesh, casting an
ashblue shadow on soft
tumbledried sheets

it beckons my palm, begs
my attention, and I
surrender, ensorcelled

you sigh
in feigned sleep, believing
these hipstrokes mere preliminaries

have patience a little; this curve
is a joy to my palm

a hip alibi.

Hush me, and I shall forget.
No visible marks disfigure the slate
Save a scratch found dead centre --
So light, it would escape notice,
Except that a lighter touch can sense it.

Bless me father, for I have sinned.
I slept; it has been long since
Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive
another wanted to touch me. I waken
The forgiveness of sins, and life everlasting
to desire rekindled, to search for a mate
Forgive & forget -- forgive & forget.
but I am told to sleep again.

Our world is prints in snow --
The defacement of innocence. We tumbled
And hope for redemption; we beg
For time to cover our tracks.

Sleep, my friend, share in this slumber,
And pray that it is
Dreamless.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by Fate in this poem do not necessarily reflect those of the author. ;)

I bet with Fate
That you'd run for the hills
And I must admit
I wasn't surprised

She dealt me
A Queen
And the Joker

It was a marked deck.

Fate's a trollop all right
But she knows her job

And I must admit
She gave me
An honest answer

I said, Okay Fate,
Give it to me straight --
What's the chances of
Him & me
Running off into the sunset
Happily-ever-after?

Fate picked her teeth
And narrowed her eyes
As if calculating stats

She replied,
About the same
As you transmogrifying
Into a lemon pound cake.

I took another slug of bourbon
(Gotta love that numbing effect)
And made a sound that
Could pass for a laugh
At a distance

Fate's a sharp cookie though.
Look hon, she said.
Men are intrinsically deaf
To common sense
And simple intuition
The slightest hint of mysticism
Scares the pants off most of 'em
(Except for maybe a 19th-century
Romantic poet or two)
They're running on
Half a chromosome less
Than we are

Makes 'em unstable
Can't trust 'em with
The Important Stuff

That's why
I landed
This job.

Venus stands clear of the horizon,
And the red dog fights low in the sky.
With my lips I have tasted
The blessing of Hesperus --
I am the elder initiate.

Where is the wind on this night of nights?
She is there in the trees,
She is scattering the apples,
She is singing low on the daggers of frost.
It has been long since I was warm --
Autumn is here, and my soul sings to Death.

And you, when will you return?
I long to capture your body,
To make the blood dance in your veins.
Soon I will lead you to beauty,
To the river, to the bridge of light,
And perhaps onward to forest,
Where the borderlines melt into green.

Well did you say I laugh too easily.
Et votre petit chien aussi.
I have blown the trump of Jericho,
I have danced the moon to lust,
I am the wind upon the sea.

Follow me, and so discover
The void of your deepest dream,
And the light of your sweetest nightmare.

Fall.
I will teach you to fly.

It slips down my throat like water over stone
Flavoured with jasmine
Brilliance and mystery
Secret whispers and revelations.
Drowning, dissolving
In liquid threads of silver
Lacing through my bloodstream
Till the veins shine through my skin
Revealing a tracery of inner rivers
The heritage of oceans.
Flashing like a coin in a well
Its seed comes to rest
And my womb opens for its reception
In an augury of future birth
When I will spread my pale thighs
Bear down
And release the tide of my desires
Begetting a radiant nativity.

Scarlet I have to confess that I read the first stanza of your first poem with a sense of blah, it was pretty but a little cliched to be honest, but then I read on and wow!

I'm very rarely impressed by amateur writing, I'm no great shakes myself, and I'm as hard on others as I am on myself but this is honestly the best stuff I have ever read that wasn't professionally published.

I loved the way you conjured up clear and evocative images with just a few well positioned words - you have inspired me to give poetry another go myself :D

Ack I'm gushing now - but seriously, have you been published? And if not why on earth don't you give it a go?

I shall eagerly await more! :D

Oh and I have to admit a serious fondness for my lover's hips too :D

I love this last one. The way you used the words, the reference to us coming from the ocean, the reference to liquids, water, birth... beautiful!

Wow, thanks Keris and Maria! I have to admit, I thought twice about posting my stuff here because I thought it might be construed as a bit self-aggrandizing. But wow, your comments are soooo encouraging! Thank you both! :D

Author's Note: This is from a series of poems that I wrote to my best friend. The entire series was entitled "To A Knight", so this is the fifth poem in the series.

Child of the sun
Skin dark in response
Eyes hydrogen bright --
The lifeflash of a
Magenta-red dawn
Falling over the edge of the world.

You were born
From the rigid cold
In the year of your seventeenth
Autumn.
The spark was kindled
From an unknown source
(Though others claimed
To be responsible)

You are the flame
Drawn out of stone.
I have the ability
To reflect your light
Or be alive in elemental
Darkness

I am the changer
The wanderer
Sorceress only in mystery

I have no power
To divert a son
From his twilight destiny.

We just happen
To share the sky.

I love all of them... they remind me of Omar Khayyam, the highest praise I could bestow on anyone.

Actually, they move and inspire me.. guess that is a big compliment too.

the water is bound
by the dirt
and stones
the way we are bound helpless
to the pond
by territorial
machismo

I never sat on a bridge before

these hairless apes
build physical boundaries
either their memories are short
or they're insecure
and need visual proof
straight-lined
borders

one gets a much different perspective

some human behind me
is watching me
watch the world
wonder what she's thinking
she seems almost
ducklike

uselessness
is a moulted feather
but a feather growing in the flesh
of a duck doped by
pale food
false warmth
ape interference
who never
flies further
than the horizon
and back
is still more
useless

although these bridges are interesting

territories
squabbles
brainwashed birds
will we ever fully evolve
to rise like the sun
forever
free

she seems a quieter
intelligent (!)
human

I can almost
relate.

ok now you're e.e. cummings LOL
I also see some Emily Dickinson in some of the other poems..

I know poetry is difficult to get published these days, not that much of a market for it unfortunately, but my unsolicited advice to you is try your damdest, this is great stuff.

MHO

Any idea how or if I can reframe "Thoughts of a Philosopher Duck" without having to resort to code? If I try it the regular way, it shoves all my lines to the left margin.

:confused:

Originally posted by beenmisstaken
ok now you're e.e. cummings LOL
I also see some Emily Dickinson in some of the other poems..

I know poetry is difficult to get published these days, not that much of a market for it unfortunately, but my unsolicited advice to you is try your damdest, this is great stuff.

MHO

Wow. Thank you! :cool:

And yes, hardly any market for it at all, but I'll definitely consider it. I did have one of my poems win a regional contest once.

I'll post that one next.

WOW hardly describes your work. TFBFW.....get back to me on that acronym.

Please check out http://www.poetrypages.com/

You'll find another new home there.

Gillian

Soapbubble of sunlight
Molten lava
Cooling into stone
At the hollow god of fear
Bell without clapper
Laughter unsounded

Between the faerie childe immortal
And the gnarled tightlip
With one foot into death
Burns the Demon

Between the supernova
And the grey smokescreen
Burns the Fire

Intellectual games
Played with a pokerface
In a vault airtight
Love stirs the curtain
One instant
Of soft, fragrant warmth
Light through a rosepetal
And the heavy cloth drops

The observer blinks
Dreams of rainbows under dust
And wonders why

I am so glad you decided to share your work
with us
Your poetry is beautiful.



<FONT SIZE=5 COLOR=768A76 FACE="Lucida Handwriting">~Sage~ </FONT><img src="http://ChasingDownTheBlue.homestead.com/files/femme.gif">

<FONT SIZE=2 COLOR=Black FACE="Tempus Sans ITC">No reason to get excited
The thief he kindly spoke
There are many here among us
Who feel that life is but a joke but uh
But you and I we’ve been through that
And this is not our fate
So let us not talk falsely now
The hour’s getting late</FONT>
<FONT SIZE=5 COLOR=Black FACE="Freestyle Script">Jimi Hendrix</FONT>

Jeez, I'm gonna get a swelled head soon... ;)

(And okay Gillian, what's TFBFW mean?)

ulcers form from unsaid words
an anti-pearl from a chafing grain
layered quiet unsaid words
their weight sits as a stone, a strain

corrosive acid in each vein
live your day in sinews tight
try to relax against the pain
try to relax against the night

neverending inner fight
restraint from touch, regress from hold
behind stone eyes the tears are bright
frozen by inflicted cold

yearning desperate to unfold
heartstrings vibrate in the stress
no song was sung, no proverb told
of walls that close, of movement less

when there is little chance of yes
when there are only more absurds
when there is burning cold distress
ulcers form from unsaid words

How do you guys protect your author's rights? With such a beautiful work, I would be worried about it. It's really beautiful. :)

Fire from fire
Incinerator
You light me with a spark

Dancing blaze
Smoky intelligence
I fly on mothwings
Dazzled
And expire in fiery wishes

I regenerate
You fan the flame
Pour oil on water
Then douse me in ice.

With dripping wings
I realize
That consummation is ashes
In the chilling pool of your
Frigid innocence

I take the heat
But you blind me with brilliance
Then drown me cold
At the slightest suggestion

Let us solder
Melt in curling smoke
Then phoenix-rise
On sparkling wings
And fly to touch the sun

Our Mother, who art the Earth,
Hallowed be thy stones,
Thy animal kingdom,
Thy magnificent forests,
And thy great mountains that reach to Heaven.
Give us today thy nourishing grain,
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we teach our children not to trespass against thee.
Support us with thy wisdom,
And teach us to walk in beauty upon thee,
For thou art our Origin, our Mother and our Home,
Forever and ever.
Blessed be.

And I walked the streets
Of a sleepy morning Saturday
The pavement bare
Of tire tread and footsteps
The saxophone voices
Just out of reach
As night slid into
Consciousness.

Last night I dreamed
Of a river run slowly
Water between
Dividing our path
I the proud not admitting
You the indifferent
Our laughter was hollow
True voices did
Fade.

A shot in the dark

Never again
Will I be like this
So frail and
Indestructable
Sunlight accepts you like a son
In the mist
I vanish.

Shimmering tendrils of light

And I walked the streets
Of a sleepy morning Saturday.

I really love everything Scarlet writes.

She has this quick, short and yet so perfectly captured way of put her feelings into words.

I don't remember who was the French poet that described poetry as the most beautiful way to reveal all your feelings in a glimpse...

It's all about the perfect choice of words, all fitting, and all meaningful.

Thanks so much, Dragonfly and Maria.

I've been toying with the idea of posting another of my rare rhyming poems, but I've been reluctant because it's HUGE.

On the other hand... what the hell. ;)

If the site crashes, folks, you know who did it!

Just kidding, but have you ever seen Victor Hugo's works? HUGE!

So go ahead! :)

(or, What Happens When I Read a Lot of Chaucer.)

In a place that bragged of light,
But kept within it shades of night,
And where the quiet of a sigh
Could blend with sporty battle cry;
Where talk of academics flew
Amidst the crack of billiard-cue,
There did a thorny rosebush grow --
A demon too, with a heart of snow.

The rosebush looked like bracken thick;
All who approached her felt the prick
As needle within flesh would pierce,
And many ran from sharpness fierce.
But some did glimpse within the shroud
A bloodstained bloom grow low and proud --
A velvet rose, soft as a peach,
That those with patient hand could reach.

Close to her, this hidden bud,
A demon lived with flaming blood;
A curious sprite on nimble feet,
And all approaching felt his heat.
But deep inside his fiery chest
A cool heart beat within his breast --
He hypnotized and danced to tease,
Then cooled those close with an arctic breeze.

Steaming hot, the demon's hand
Once burnt the bush, a firebrand;
Passed her daggers unrestrained
And softly stroked the blossom stained.
He withdrew; her petals blushed
Magenta-deep, and heated, flushed --
She grew her thorns with sharper blade,
But still her hotter colour stayed.

The demon laughed, and danced with zest
To tease her with this passion-jest,
And O! he capered wondrously
About the thorny low rose-tree;
Hypnotizing in his glare,
Fire dancing in his hair,
Searing her with sparkling heat --
Then laughing loud on his retreat.

The rose, perplexed, perused a thorn,
Her face pink as a summer morn,
And looked for traces in the sand
Of her courting firebrand.
Well she knew his dance was jest,
Yet warm she grew, her thoughts possessed
Of all the power he could wield
To touch her through her thorny shield.

And lo! the demon did return,
Her cheek to flush, her thorns to burn;
But she gave back his little fling,
And flushed his cheek with her own sting.
Caught off guard, he looked askance
As she pushed forth her own advance;
When his cold heart gave its advice,
He froze her bloom in bonds of ice.

The demon fled, he as confused
As she had been when he'd amused
Himself before at her expense,
And reached beyond her thorny fence.
Surprised she was, and filled with awe,
As slowly she began to thaw...
His polar powers so extreme:
Flame around an arctic stream.

Curiosity then grew
And soft war reigned between the two:
He to take her spears apart,
And she to melt his icy heart.
Gifts of print and ink he gave --
They were consumed in thorny grave;
She blushed his cheek, his blood she stirred,
Yet he could freeze her with a word.

And so they were in stalemate locked;
Each advance the other blocked --
If needles broke, she grew them back,
And ice held strong to her attack.
The wind oft passed between the two,
And laughed at how the battle grew
With demon's ice and rose's sting,
And thought this was the strangest thing.

Still they turn themselves around,
Holding little common ground --
Fire laughing from the ice,
Bloodstained bloom with sharper slice.
It is anybody's guess
How they will resolve their stress;
For lest they let their weapons fall,
Stagnation soon will clutch it all.

Tonight
I have glanced across time.

Somehow I know
That at my birth
There was wonder in your eyes
Mixed with tears
And your heart sang with praise.

Since then
Life grows more
Convoluted
And sometimes
It was hard to hear,
"I love you"
Breathing beneath
The sound of brittle speech
And disabled words.

Re-relating to each other
As two adults
Has been a little more difficult
Than expected
For I am no longer innocent
And you are no longer
Immortal

I have made you feel
Worthless at times
Made you sorrow at your own
Percieved inadequacy

Now on your arm
My hand is laid
The sorrow is mine
For allowing you to believe such a lie

Inadequacy
Is the least of your sins
The largest you have ever committed
Is that of loving
A stumbling little girl
Much more than any human being
Can hope to deserve

It is easier
To criticize the obvious
Picky little details
Than to praise
The more abstract higher brilliance
Which you possess

You harbour a beautiful
Masculine tenderness
For all living creatures

You are able to touch
The stormiest soul
And melt it calm

You can levitate
Above the trees
To survey the depths of the forest

You consider
We other two of your family
Sacred
(How preciously we are loved by you --
You rock us warm)

Father
This is for the times
You blessed me with a kiss
As I lay sleeping...

This is what I mean
When I say
I love you.

***

This was written for Father's Day in 1990. My father died of a brain tumour in the autumn of that same year.

I still can't read it without weeping.

Originally posted by ScarletHawke
To Father, on a late Father's Day.


...

End of comment.
[Edit: This is a very good '...'. Not an indifferent '...'.]

Originally posted by ScarletHawke
Tonight


I still can't read it without weeping.[/i]
Thanks Scarlet
It made me cry as well and my dad is still alive and the best dad in the world to me.

wow..been looking at the boards all this time and only just now stumbled on the poetry part! Scarlethawke, I must say, I thoroughly enjoy your writing! Especially the poem, Girltalk! I love that one...gave me a nice chuckle. Had to interrupt my reading to comment. :D