Photography: courtesy of Creative Commons and Leslie Moon
Clouds veil summer light
The sound of rain distant rise
Shadowed flames leaking.
*For One Stop Poetry’s first ever One Stop Poetry Form…today’s subject: Haiku.
Haiku
Tag Archives: Fire
The Phoenix
A poem for the wonderful Monday Poetry Potluck, as hosted by Jingle Poetry, and those lovely poets Amanda and Kavita! This week’s theme: Magic & Miracles, Wonder & Wizardry. The poem you see below, dubbed “The Phoenix,” was written in my Freshman year of High School, but it certainly seemed to fit this week’s theme – so I hope you enjoy.
Mournful cry
From flickering flame,
The smoke is rising nigh.
Such wondrous radiance -
Its time had come to pass.
The flames wind up its fading form,
As noble creatures hum
A lonely lullaby.
Tick tock-
The moments tick on by-
Ashes lay where fire burned,
The beast is now long gone.
Yet gaze into the ashes-
A surprise is soon at hand-
A beak pokes from desolate dust,
The flames burn bright again!
A bird rises from the ashes of its father-
The cycle begins again.
* If you’re looking for an additional bit of reading, I also encourage you to check out my nod to the Thanksgiving season on One Stop Poetry: A Poetic Monday! I wrote a poem for it called “Of Turkeys and Bounty,” a work I will be re-posting here a little later in the week, for Thanksgiving holiday. A bit of a history lesson on the holiday is also provided, for our more international audience, who may or may not know of what Thanksgiving is. Enjoy!
Last Dance
This fluorescence flickers
like a candle burning both in wick and base;
it croons toward some lonely end
but glows so lovely as it fades.
Elemental Elation
Bear me up
Rustling cavalcade of coalescing
Music rush, on tempo speed
These breaths across my skin.
The harmony
Of your exultation
Gives me strength
Beneath my wings.
-
Crystal flow
Caress and coax
The resolution of my being,
Dive down into the deep.
Crash upon
The shores of apathy
And stir upon us yet the storms
That break inequity.
-
Quick-step
Quivering motions elate
To find the kiss, the touch of motion
In the sensuous sway of your dance.
No hands
Could ever hold thy hips
This beat, thunder of thy solitary
Moment, unbidden.
-
Bastion
Rampart revelry of life
Shield yet the passions of hope,
A dream of majesty.
Resolute
Mother-being enfold
The world in thy being:
Ground this flighty soul.
* For the latest Monday Poetry Potluck!
Blackest Blood
Black blood breathe
beneath the rocky deep
burn bright and high
waves broil, frothing
into the flames of your passing
but the gold-toothed smile
burns brighter still.
-
Sizzle, sizzle, boil and bubble
worlds part before
the tremble of your passing–
send tremors to the core
of all the staunchest hearts
come hell or high water
There will be Blood.
-
Wounds fester
like blisters burst
your fevered pitch defies
the madness of their dreams–
the sky and the sea weep black tears
and all are consumed–
come Death or Life.
Haiku in the Sky
Spread my wings and fly
Nestled in metallic womb
The birds laugh at us.
-
Swirling vortex bright
There’s storms on the horizon;
The sky is burning.
-
The world disappears—
Swirling veils of storm-wrought gray
Beneath blue expanse.
Another set of Colorado Haiku
What you may notice about these Haiku is that they do not, in fact, have to do with the mountains themselves, as many of the my previous works have. Though these came from my time in Colorado, they were inspired by other sights around me–the city of Denver, for one, the sight of the towering mountain mines for another.
Also, while there are more still to come, I want to say that once again, there may be another brief hiatus on posting as I head north. I will only be gone for a few days, and when I return, posting will resume as normal.
In the meantime, enjoy:
Split the rock below,
Drills bore into deepest hold—
Dead men tell no tales.
-
Rocky mile high club
Five hundred thousand souls strong
No wonder they smile.
-
Beyond the pale light
Sleeps the gilded dragon king—
Fear the reigning flame.
To change things up: some Haiku
Today, breaking from the usual vacation-based poems of the week, I give you a series of Haikus. The trip was beneficial for many things, but my Haiku especially saw a lot of work while I was away. Enjoy:
Man climbs high above
But the earth climbs higher still;
Highest rides the sun.
-
Each step, hotter fire
Each breath, a chiller embrace—
The sky is thinning.
-
Fourteen thousand feet,
The world becomes a crystal
Despite summer heat.
Fire on the Mountain
Perhaps its because neither of these posts come with photos, but today I feel struck with the urge to drop two poems on you. The first was about my night ride through the mountains, and like its predecessor, this one is all in the title: a fire on the mountain. This one in particular saddens me for not capturing, but the fire struck as the evening was coming on, high up in the mountains, and I was caught in my car, in the seat opposite it, far and away from the actual site of the flames. What few shots I did get were marred by the glass and the swirl of the smoke.
Even so, I composed a poem of it, as it still struck me, even from a distance. Fire. Destruction. Beauty. We often focus on the destructive power of fire, but like any other element of our world, there is an unrivaled sense of beauty to it. We fear it, but it is only natural. It may herald destruction, but it is also a forerunner to creation, a key part of the cycle of death and rebirth.
Fire on the Mountain
Black skies loom over the valley—
There’s a fire on the mountain
Like a lighthouse in the night
And the smoke is rising,
Lightning sparks the hills
And only then
The houses in the trees.
Winter Fire
Trails wind into the heart of winter,
Built serpentine through rock and wood.
The life runs through it,
Bursting through the seams.
White earth rain down
Upon the precipice—
Shield your eyes against the light,
There is fire in the winter sheen.
