Poems

Word Blooms

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Kingsbrae 10.1
10 June 2017

Word Blooms

Snow
a blank page
below it
dormant bulbs
paint box colors
waiting to awake

Watchful
the gardener’s eyes
eager her helping hands
rainbows the flowers
pushing into bloom

Words
also wait for the sun
to warm them
to pluck them
from their word beds
and give them shape

Light
and delightful
the word seeds
blown across the world
implanted their ideas

Words
taking root
their blossoms
blooming sudden
in the reader’s mind

 

Word Blooms Voice Only

Word Blooms Music

Scent and Touch

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Kingsbrae 9.4
9 June 2017

Scent and Touch

A feather upon the cheek,
this fern frond held
fragile, hesitant
between fine fingers.

Touch and smell:
two senses engaged.
A paint brush sounds,
brush-brushing lightly
the expectant skin.

Faint the taste tested
suggestive
on tongue tip.
No sight, just insight.

I have a sense of senses lacking.
My words reach out like fingers,
but they can neither retain
nor explain the meaning of it all.

Comment: “Built in cooperation with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, the Scents and Sensitivity Garden is dedicated to the memory of St. Andrews’ resident Albert McQuoid. The garden features raised beds that allow handicapped, sight impaired, and wheelchair bound visitors the opportunity to enjoy the feel, and scent, of the plants and flowers right within arms’ reach.”

Labyrinth

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King’sbrae 9.3
9 June 2017

Labyrinth

What thread will lead
blind Theseus
this labyrinth through?

Light the ladybird sun
caressing his one cheek
the other in shadow.

Fanciful the bumble bee,
heard but not seen
its miracle of ponderous,
heavier-than-air flight

Sight-blessed,
life’s obstacle course:
a flat track frolic
for all those confident
of foot and touch.

Listen to the ladybird:
she cracks her wings
and launches upwards
to join her companion,
the bee, twin specks
together now in the sky.

AWOL

 

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Kingsbrae 9.2
9 June 2017

AWOL

Two days ago,
earthworms squirmed wet
through pock-marked puddles.

Yesterday,
they lay shriveled,
dried out and dying
on the sun-warmed drive.

Today,
grey skies greet us.
The sun has gone on walkabout.

Absent without leave,
he has abandoned us again
and left our world
shivering in the shadows.

Will all those dead worms
come back to life
and squirm through the puddles
forecast for tonight?

Tomorrow,
who knows what will happen?
Rivers and seas continue to rise,
water threatens to drown the land,
and we dream of the second coming:
Noah and his spaceship Ark.

Love Spoon

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Kingsbrae 9.1
9 June 2017

Love Spoon

Celtic the Knot
binding heart and soul
the love spoon
carved
by caring hands

Sharp moon blade
honed by the wind
white
wooden clouds
flowing against
dark sky grain

Sweet surge
time and tide
tied together
knotted
our heart strings
twisted our love
forever in this
Celtic Knot

Comment: Celtic Knot is the name of one of the more formal gardens at Kingsbrae. It is also one of the symbols carved into Welsh Love Spoons and signifies eternal love. Carving the love spoon was one of the traditional tasks given to the young man when he asked for the hand of his beloved in marriage. In addition to showing craftsmanship and woodcarving skill, the task of carving the wood spoon kept the young man’s hands occupied while he was courting. Parents would then be able to check on the progress of the love spoon and ensure that their daughter’s virtues were in safe and trustworthy hands.

Le Pont Mirabeau

Kingsbrae 8.4
8 June 2017

Le Pont Mirabeau
(click for French original)

The Seine flows down beneath Mirabeau Bridge
and so does our love
must I be reminded yet again
that happiness always follows pain

Let night descend let the hours sound
the days go by but I’m still around

Hand in hand let us stay here face to face
while beneath the bridge of our arms
our gazes interlock
like river waves flowing

Let night descend let the hours sound
the days go by but I’m still around

Love flows away like these flowing waves
love flows away
how slowly life passes
and hope is so brutal

Let night descend let the hours sound
the days go by but I’m still around

Days flow by and weeks flow by
nor times past nor former loves
come back again
under Mirabeau Bridge flows the Seine

Let night descend let the hours sound
the days go by but I’m still around

Comment: I spent the school year in Paris in 1962-1963 and I have always wanted to translate Le Pont Mirabeau from French into English. Today, I found both the time and energy to do so. It’s not a great translation, but it is mine. Click on one of the links above to get the French original.

Words

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Kingsbrae 8, 2
8 June 2017

Words

Here, on the seashore,
the whisper of waves,
splashed with a flash of sun,
wind fingering the hair,
the light a delight,
and wordless this world
though its beauty be
configured in words.

The scything of the sea,
the land seized in snippets,
grey stones, red rocks,
gelatinous mudflats
blue on white striations.

Seagull wings
snipping celestial ribbons,
salt caked keen on lips,
sea weed scents sensed
yet never seen.

Captivated we stand here,
unattached our single wings,
save to this singular beauty:
peregrine the falcon soul,
so solitary as it soars.

Comment: So many of these new poems are just that, “new” and “raw”. Words, for example, is just a couple of hours old. That is the gift of time that I have been given. The writing process is so rapid that there is little time to digest the last thought and image sequence, before the next comes tumbling along. I guess it’s just a question of rolling merrily along and we’ll see later what we still think is fit for survival. The selecting of these poems will be an interesting task … and who will select the selectors …

Absences

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Kingsbrae 7.3
7 June 2017

Absences

Pigeons flapping
across abandoned squares.

Clothes peg dripping
raindrops from a deserted line.

Ile Ste. Croix,
lonely in the bay,
longing for Champlain’s
return.

Endless rock and roll
tide after tide
water without end.

A whole day goes by
without putting
pen to paper.

The blank page
waits for the pencil’s
resurrection.

Time

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Kingsbrae 7.2
7 June 2017

Time

Where is it going
when it overtakes me
in its speeding car
and leaves me lumbering
along life’s highway?

10:00 AM, 11:00 AM,
the hours flash by
like milestones marking
time’s passage over
the face of the clock.

What am I going to do?
I have left the last
gas station way behind
with my motor failing,
and me running out of gas.

Visitors

 

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Kingsbrae 7.1
7 June 2017

Visitors

Bees to flowers,
they come to visit,
their sojourns just as brief.

Hummingbirds hovering,
they push pointed noses
here and there.

How much and what
will they understand?

Perhaps they retain
an impression of raindrops
falling, or dust motes rising
to dance in the sunlight.

Maybe my words
will sting like tiny blackfly
and leave small red bites
that will burn with a wild
itch to hear more words.