We who with songs beguile your pilgrimage / And swear that Beauty lives though lilies die, / We Poets of the proud old lineage / Who sing to find your hearts, we know not why ... (James Elroy Flecker)

17.11.18

Missing the Boat


Missing the Boat

It was only
a momentary, passing
flicker of regret 

for an absence
from a place
I might have.…

After all, if
I had not …
or if I …

It’s just – I 
imagined a glimpse
of golden apples,

hints of sunlight
on sparkling water.
For a moment.

Linking to Poets United's Poetry Pantry #431

Phantom


Phantom

She rose in the night
her fairytale was broken
she thought she would sit up and sing ... 
she thought the wind would take her voice
and throw it out over the ocean

but the pearlescent light of pre-dawn 
mocked her, neither one thing
nor the other – just like me, she thought
and dwindled 
far away from the everything that had been

but her story has not yet
reached an ending
and until she decides, chooses
an action a direction,
she must remain listless, ghost-pale

hovering on the outskirts of day
wondering at the restraints
which stop her utterance
and fade the sight from her eyes
as we, too, stop watching.


Sharing at Poets United's Poetry Pantry #428

After Ten Years


After Ten Years

(Reunion with a young friend)


'I'm 78,' I  told him. (I was, then.)
He was amazed. Nevertheless 

he said, of some hinted, unspecified woes:
'I'll tell you later. Plenty of time.'

Just how much time do you imagine 
I've got? I questioned silently.

Off he went again, always the traveller.
Time runs on. The silence lengthens.

Accessing the Eternal


Accessing the Eternal

(Found poems, from online sharing in a Landmark Education 'Wisdom Course')

Looking at the first 
camellia of the season
is heart-stoppingly beautiful,
magnificent every time.

There is just silence. 
Nothing can describe it.
It's the most perfect 
thing in the universe.

************

When I hear  
the high note 
in Nessun Dorma
the world stops
the universe opens.

I'm linking this to Poets United's Poetry Pantry #430

7.11.18

Community?


Community?

until I was 
I didn't have
(one on one)

never had 
a tribe or posse 
because I was half

wasn't always
so much 
as the fact 

I liked 
the deep lots
lovely solitude

I am still 
in many ways
it surprises me


Erasure poem – from a piece of my own writing: a prose draft on the theme of 'community'.

I'm linking this to The Tuesday Platform for Dec 11 2018, at 'imaginary garden with real toads'.

1.11.18

Where my spirit is


Where my spirit is

More 'found' micropoetry 
(found in emails received)

grandson’s confirmation –
he’ll wear a white robe and stole
with symbols HE chose

************

autumn leaves and deer,
a mountainside in a forest –
restful, once I get there

************

a glorious, sunny day …
we expect gigantic waves,
logs tossed about

************

I found a place 
to share in rituals,
light a candle 
and meditate – my poem 
is where my spirit is

************

I've closed my wings
for the time being –
getting ready to fly


Linking to Poets United's Poetry Pantry #427