Road under Broken Wings

John Everett Millais, “Autumn Leaves”. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We met in days of graying gold

When dust should rise and dust should fall

And some fair mortal hope scampered bird-like along a road,

Borne on weighted winds no one could hold.

 

Years later we would find

At every twisting of the path

A certain comradery in the faded kind

Of broken wings too proud for wrath.

 

And though we had no coin to share

And too long, each, in winter fear expend

With horizon clear and air set upon a prayer

We shall yet know ourselves to be worthy of a friend.

* Footnote: The words are there, the path is set before me–I would not say this is a final piece as yet, but a work in the right direction. I welcome any commentary you may have upon it, for it came plucked unbidden from my thoughts just this morning, and shall yet by evening’s light be honed, I think.

Gold and Brown

This is,

notwithstanding,

the twilight fading hour–

all gold things brown with age and light;

no more.

* My latest contribution to the wonderful One Shot Poetry Wednesdays! The style used here is known as Cinquain, a five-line stanza form containing twenty-two syllables, in the sequence: 2, 4, 6, 8, 2. The form was invented by Adelaide Crapsey (1878-1914), an American poet.

Raking out the death…

Starting off the week right, with a little haiku for you all. Hope you enjoy:

Raking out the death

bares green, reaching light of life–

Zen repetition.

This is also being put out there for the Monday Poetry Potluck, as hosted by those lovely poets Amanda and Kavita!

The Oak

Alone, standing, oaken life take root

the wood gnarls as branches stretch,

the colored leaves fall down, down

and the moss hangs down, down

bent, twisted, craven mass of limbs.

I stand, wondering how this, alone, might stir and how the

—limbs, reaching, have no other limbs to twine,

I touch, and I consider wood-borne genocide, this rough

—bark grating on my fingers,

but the bough yields and the leaves descend,

and I, standing here alone, am left to ponder

how colorless the world can be

with one life, one love, and none to share it,

and I think it is no wonder this solitary thing

sets to wilting in the chill.

* My latest contribution to the wonderful One Shot Poetry Wednesdays! Once you’ve had a look, check out some of the other One Shot Poets as well– they’re a skilled bunch of poets, looking to form a community and support one another.  Enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

"The Dead Rise!" EL Zombie Walk '09

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

In honor of the holiday today, I have a number of All Hallow’s Eve-themed quotes for you all to enjoy. Get out there, enjoy some tricks and revel in some candy, and don’t be afraid to lose yourselves a bit…and if you get a free moment, do check out the Halloween-themed goodies at One Stop Poetry today. You won’t be disappointed!

Where there is no imagination there is no horror. ~Arthur Conan Doyle, Sr.

Pixie, kobold, elf, and sprite,
All are on their rounds tonight;
In the wan moon’s silver ray,
Thrives their helter-skelter play.
~Joel Benton

Backward, turn backward,
O Time, in your flight
make me a child again
just for to-night!
~Elizabeth Akers Allen

Hark! Hark to the wind! ‘Tis the night, they say,
When all souls come back from the far away-
The dead, forgotten this many a day!
~Virna Sheard

Changing of the Season

Through the looking glass

The shadows dissolute

Into departed sunlight show

This prism rain

All color manifold

Of passion, thunder

Recompense, colored by the twilight

Of the season’s breaths—

Draw in the life,

In basest being,

Breathe out the death

Of personality, in shimmering

Nonexistence fell

A lifetime of memory,

To lie fallow in the fields—

Crumbled cares

Take flight in dreams

Of pumpkin pie.

* My latest contribution to the wonderful One Shot Poetry Wednesdays! Once you’ve had a look, check out some of the other One Shot Poets as well– they’re a skilled bunch of poets, looking to form a community and support one another.  Enjoy!