2023 Poem Eighteen
Lay down with me and
carve your name into my bones
but it’s already there
Hour 24 – Mountain of Hope
Precariously trailing the crest of the mountain seeking relief in the canyon below darkness calling, caressing my sadness silence delivering a salve to my soul The mountain and I together embrace the ails of the world that won't mend love, respect, tolerance have been erased replaced by hatred, greed, disgrace... Suffering losses beyond measure the mountain has witnessed a lifetime of nature's abuse and lost treasure if human the suffering would be a crime Sadness swells and the earth starts to shudder tears from heaven fall upon my face a loud voice climbs up the canyon its sonorous notes the silence replaces Please do not lay down your sword fight for the land, the sky, the ocean, and all your trying alone gives us hope you must return home and answer the call
23~24
feeling his bones
through his
paper~thin skin
wound on his belly
a tumor i’m sure
deadly? ~who knows
so many worries
but for me, he eats
for me, he drinks
purring loudly
by my side
we drift off to sleep
as i stroke his still
silky light fur
ounces adding
on the scale
every time
i check
eyes still bright
the most beautiful blue
i’ve ever seen
we share so many slow~blinks
you’d never guess how wild he was
when he first found me
holding and snuggling him
wishing magic
into his medicines
we wait
we love
we hope
Hour Twenty-three: Alien Watch
We watched the alien aircraft
Watched them hovering above our world
Watched to see if we were welcoming
New friends who would walk
With us discovering our way
Together or
Would we welcome invading monsters
Coming to take, not give
They landed on the Shifting Sea
Where we sailed in my childhood
Digging beneath to gather the last
Coula that burrowed there and the last
Priri that bloomed
Did they know we’d killed our world
and were waiting for it to die?
Were they deities come to punish us
For our careless care what was given?
Or were they our
Salvation, shatra of legends
Who would show us how to make our world
Live again?
Jala held a handful of color
To shower them in gratitude
Berth hid the weapon inside
Close at hand, until we could
Know what awaited us
We watched
Poppies, shasta daisies & yarrow #24
I stood in a wind blown meadow
As poppies, shasta daisies
And yarrow
Played with the wind
Under a sky the colour
Of a million tonnes
Of Welsh slate
Feeling lost, beyond hope
When a gust caught me
Took my breath and reminded me
In a gasp
That where there is life
There really is hope
And the clouds opened
To turn their wrath upon my folly.
I stood, face upturned to the heavens
To greet the deluge
My black thoughts washed away
Alongside my mood
And smiled at the lesson
The flowers taught
To be is enough
To move with the wind is to play
And to receive nature’s gifts
Is something denied to none who still live
And for a moment
I swayed with the poppies,
Shasta daisies and yarrow
More free than I had ever been.
Menhir
She was cracked from cliffs of sandstone,
Took her shape from breaking blows
And shattered from her birthplace
They saw in her the flows
Of tides that bring the fishes
When rot has ruined the crops,
And welcome trade from distant shores
When sickness takes the ox;
They saw the streaking sunlight
As hailstorms flood the town,
They saw in her the breath of rain
When drought is beating down.
They saw in her the dancing
At new-built barrowsides,
They heard in her the singing
Under wind-torn turf new skies.
They raised her on a hilltop,
They daubed her painted length,
They gave her scented oils
And begged her for her strength.
They raised her in the knowing
That one day they’d be gone
But she would stand there steadfast,
That hope lives on.
Hour 24 – Friday
The shower of tears from the sky
She was thirsting for them
She gets filled with the petrichor
Awakening her spirit for a brief time
Coming from the brink of hopes and desires
She holds on to the possibilities
It seems like a meeting point
When the love birds reunite
After a long spell of dryness
Drenching herself in the unexpected rain
No umbrella to keep her safe
Longing for a cover
The chilled air brushing her heart
She sheds her sorrows
The broken her, rain drenched
It is time to fill herself with warmth
Friday making her shudder with life again.
©️ Divya Venkateswaran
Blackety Blackety Black
I am Blackety Black Black
Pride in me is where I’m at
Channeling Big Mama, Big Daddy, Unc and Auntie
Who left me a lovin’ legacy
Being Blackety Black Black
Means loving me inside and out
Cuz my melanated majic is what I am proud 2B about
Being Blackety Black Black
Feeds my soul
Makes me feel complete and a joy 2 behold
Being Blackety Black Black
Is what I will always be
Blacktastic Blacknificent Blacktabulous Me
Hour 18 : Horror! Horror!
Shakespeare, ace of the appalling art,
With horror’s touch, you played your part.
In Macbeth’s castle, fear dwells,
Where the witches weave their evil spells.
The apparition of Hamlet’s father, hauntingly pale,
Sets the arrange for an awful, wrathful tale.
Othello’s envy, a dangerous flame,
Consuming all within the Moor’s dull name.
In Julius Caesar’s ridiculous fate,
A scheme fixed with tricky hate.
King Lear, in franticness, loses his way,
A kingdom in chaos, a nightmarish display.
Shakespeare, you wove these repulsions deep,
In each word, your insider facts are kept.
Your stories of haziness, still endure,
A confirmation to your ageless allure.
In your plays, we discover the thrill,
Of horror’s control to stun and chill.
For in your words, we’re until the end of time bound,
To the repulsions in which your stories are found.
So, Shakespeare, we raise our voice,
In wonderment of your dim, lovely choice.
For horror’s profundities, you challenged to explore,
And in your works, we until the end of time worship.
Torn (prompt 23)
if I could bend the fabric of reality
to form something new
I would make a world where there were two of me
one to continue living the same blissful life
the other to take the biggest risks
one to build a quiet blissful home
the other to leave no stone unturned
it is the constant war between these halves
that holds me back from all I could be