English | Poetry Lights

2020 regina KEy

Farewell

For once just

following our breath

no further than

the point of its dispersal

into the starry ocean

of a winter’s night

aware

that everything counts

and nothing remains

Beginning and end

dissolve each other

in transient silence

What was left unsaid

Will fill volumes

The Goddess

I could be your rock

or a charm

a statue veiled

or a book missing the last page

I could beat the odds

find land that was left unclaimed

and live in close proximity

Not everything requires a name

I could be your beacon

or a dream

probing mantic seductive or grave

or a tree

standing like a prayer

green and impossible

in the desert

a rare flower pleading with the sun

not lasting the night

I could be your sail

at the turning point

of a voyage

duration uncertain

destination unknown

or a breath

like sea air salty and cool

touching your skin as you sleep

sounding the unspeakable

We could be mirrors

revealing and healing two ways

or a passage unchartered

and homeward bound

in dormant answers

to questions

which yet dare not face their meaning

Silent look

of wordless trust

reaching out and

resting inside you

a glance of quiet love

and pleasure

longing to be returned

in equal measure

Whatever meets your eye

so still and true

is happiness

meant for

and finding

you

Turning tides

When turmoil recedes

and the noisy claims

of knowing

what and why

are fading

we may find

that the answers were

never heading for

the frantic questions

but were waiting

in the fearless calm

of ourselves

humming to the songs

of suns moons and planets

orbiting our minds

We may realise

that the tide of life

is simply turning

and all we need to do

is turn with it

and heal

Touching time

I run my hands softly

through the incandescent joy

of this day

like I have never

touched summer before

leaning into its opal song

nothing to hide or explain

still humming its colours

in my dreams

I run my mind slowly

through fleeting eternities

immersed in spectral miracles

trusting the oceans of now

beyond the changing light of passing hours

like I have never

touched time before

Wild Dolphins

Time and again

I stand in quiet awe

as their presence draws near

my human soul deeply moved

at the sight of such synchronised

trust breath and agility

boundless vigour

charging breaching leaping

through the seas

with infinite oceanic eloquence

unrestrained boldness

of intense and smart momentum

Absorbed by this vibrant exuberance

Oh how I crave such spirited freedom

Soliloquy

As I look with slow eyes

nature is a wordless poetry

intense, delicate

powerful, raw

authentic unto itself

and in it I compose

my breathing, organic verse

Here now

partaking in human consciousness

not to own

but to disperse again

from this conductive concentrate

carrying the coding of experience

elsewhere

Some questions arise

with no need

for the gratification

of instant answers

They may be found

in unexpected ways

times or places

or not by me at all

As I look with slow eyes

lights begin to find me

igniting deep inside me

Ruby Callover for Self Easement

Aspire to the higher but

don't be afraid of falling

for what feels like falling

is you orbiting the origin

of your spirit

Hold your fire

Fears, doubts, anger and worry

don't call for punishment

There is such kindness

always ready to embrace us

in our weakest moments

Whatever God is

is never distant

God is a warm coat

in the winter of ourselves

Don't expect yourself

to remember everything

you have been told

Drop the pressure

Allow emptiness

Know nothing

Question everything

including God

God needs liberating too

Cozy hour

Cozy hour of first light
still touching seven songs of dreamy night
without word nor plan nor duty
all respires in tranquil beauty
and somewhere very far away
the strange gruff crow
of tired old rooster
sounds to start the day

Afar

I like to gaze
into the distant haze
because what is near
is already here
New and at velocity
things rise from curiosity

What we miss

Time has taught me
not to be wanting
life not longer
breath not faster

No storm blows the sky away

You can feel safe between books
and dress elegantly
in lavish fabrics
eloquent and accomplished

Head so full
Heart so blinded

We are

what we so dearly miss

The Angel of Silence

I am silence
I frame the piercing lament
of the gull
I stage the blackbird's
rousing song
and mute the turbulence
under predators' wings

I am silence
broken in the coming
of final farewells
petrified in the arrival
of difficult decisions

I am silence
worn out in the barren void
of plundered landscapes
tormented in the voiceless agony
of caged wildness
deadly in the coded intelligence
of viral disease

I am silence
tranquil and intense
in the pure black winter night
bursting with stars
sweet in the warm breath
of sleepy exhaustion
when love is made

I am silence
I am colourless
I am infinite

Luna

Lucent and still

a soft silk glow rises at dusk

No other heavenly body so close

but keeping a perfect alluring distance

revealing as little or as much

as the moody skies permit

secret unnamed features

facing away from admiring eyes

disclosed to the infinite dark alone

Moon is she

Forest walk, Humford Park

Radiant sunlit bluebells
and fragrant wild garlic
covering the slopes
up to fields beyond the trees
and down to the
restless whispers
of the sparkling brook
in its joyful hurry
to join the river
by the giant stepping stones

I felt the heron's gaze
before I turned and saw the slender shape
motionless and framed
by a single beam of sunlight

The path meanders before us
through a multi-dimensional concert

of invisible birds
the silent flutter of butterflies
white delicate wings
with a crescendo of orange tips
and the gentle bassy buzz
of the humble bumble

Ferns uncurling from

their knotty brown cocoons into
lush leafy feathers
of a fresh dreamy green

A lofty forest scented breeze
cools my face
stirring memories of
countless walks through woods
and years and places
of such magic
that words will never tell

Skin

Measured surface of the sun worshiper
Radiant health barometer

Seven much enduring layers
Canvas of clinical pictures, harsh portraits of disease
Landscape of secret wild agility
of adventures had
electrified, contact ready everything risked
Membrane to earthly reality
elastic as space, sense, world and time
Lively dress
Inherited, weathered

and sometimes numb

with unsustainable pain

raw under a racing heart
Seismograph for each internal tremor
Sometimes young and soft as rose
in happiness
Sometimes blue with cold lifeless

grey and pale
dreaming back to tender beginnings
Minute life index
Restless biography
Directory of every experience

Revelation in the unpredictable wrinkles of repeated daily emotion
Millions of inventories

Eruptions chronological and close
in the cauldron of contradiction
Last sensual barrier

before the invisible shell of
supernatural experience

abundant along the meridians of

the fine electric flow
True and responding to every touch
Seamlessly contained inside we are
Perfectly enveloped with neither

ending nor beginning
we feel, however, naked

Wings

Watch the birds
claim indefinite skies
in noisy flocks
or silent solitude
Soaring eagle
Gliding swift
Whizzing sparrow
Plunging cormorant
Hawk poised motionless
in the wind
Starlings in their thousands
articulating the air
in ever changing verse

Above and around us
a constant flux of
winged motion
demonstrates with ease
a borderless world

Free

This day be mine
as I slip from the grip
of the trembling hands of time

and dawdle beyond horizons
and wonder
even beyonder

The Clown

Let my greatest weakness be
the total inability
to give in
to the sadness of it all

With the widest grin
even as I fall
I try to help you see
beyond impossibility

This be my very humble
message as I tumble