The Poetry Marathon

Love, if I love
I love with the same intensity
If I love in a sun dappled meadow,
In hazy summer heat
Taking in the birdsong,
The buzzing of bees
And the scent
Of fresh cut hay field
Then I love in the storm,
In the freezing, biting cold
In the damp, sodden, unrelenting days
In the grey, dreary days
Of chilling mists than gnaw the bones
If I love under a magnolia tree
By a river, as the world slows
Like autumn sunsets
Then I love in the bramble thicket too
Torn by sharp thorns
In the smallest turn or attempt
If I love you on the easy days
The carefree, have enough
Soft and gentle days
The nights of abandon and lust
The evenings of quiet togetherness
And the Sunday morning papers
Then I love you too
When the world bites
When we fight
When we let each other down,
When it’s hard to see a future
Or even a present
When the struggle tears at the soul
Like thorns in a bramble thicket
And it’s weight is a mountain pressing down
Seeking to choke the very love from life
But love doesn’t care if it’s easy
Or if it’s hard
Only that it’s worth it
And by all the Gods, you are.

Step soft onto the hallowed ground
With humility open the chapel door
Slip in silence to the prie deau
And kneel in the holy space
Where you’ve been so many times before
Yet know you are a stranger there
Offer up your first hymn
As the veil slips at last from your eyes
Light the candle flame within.
All ground you walk upon is holy
Be humble at every door
Learn to be gentle with yourself
Listen to the answers that come unbidden
When you sit quiet in yourself
Pray for the sins of not knowing
Who you are.

Whether the dawn spills
Slowly as winter honey
over the land
Or it escapes night’s grasp
And leaps for freedom
Skipping
Along the edges
Of lapis clouds
Against cerulean skies
I greet each day
As another chance
To get right
What it means to be me
And crave to crave less
To make simpler
To take away
Until the poem contains
But one word
And then none at all
Save the perfect silence
Where all is said and answered
In return.

Close your eyes and listen
Fall in love with this
Fall in love to this
Fall in love with your own silence
Fall in love with the vibration
Of your own smile
Be the bless’ed damned
To forever hear this echo
Through your romance
Down the halls of your years
Cast off the shabby drapes
Of the past
Step into the light, lightened
Enlightened

Excitement

Trepidation

Insomnia (nothing new)

Glee

Thumbs ready

Let’s get ready to rumble!

Looking forward to 24 new pieces and wishing everyone the beest of creative juices.

Karl