Hope

She would awake every morn

Eyes flashing bright as golden corn,

Hearts pulsing; blood freezing;

Breathing accelerates -

When he passes by:

The One whose skin

Glistens as his smile brightens the Earth,

When darkness slowly pines away

As spells of sun step slowly out

Leaving behind trails of Hope.

The One whose eyes bring life

To starry seeds under pure pools of light.

His soul chases away the night,

And every head turns to see

His exquisite beauty.

Inhaling the sweet scent of youthful love

Reaching for those fine feathery limbs,

Hoping that he might notice her bright face from above

As he passes by.

Light fades - Evening comes -

Still his distant light fails to reach her.

Sorrow fills her heart-stems,

Choking her racing soul.

The light passes her by,

Leaving her barren - her heart left to crack -

Her slender, pale body bends in the blowing breezes

Beating her thin green dress.

Her eyes, now charred, crazed, bleached-black

(From the Sun's hateful glare)

No longer keenly watch her love's movement:

East       to      West -

And the once golden-jasper strands of hair

Which flowed loyally in the fresh air

Now hang limp, rigid, frayed,

Like a knotted noose

Over her slumping shoulders.

Her roots unravel - the green veil falls -

Over her boney stalk – petals with red-tinged tears -

As the Sunflower's journey ends

As the Sun makes his final bed.

(This poem was inspired by Blake's poem 'Ah! Sunflower'.)

Copyright © JRFB 2013

Skydark

The clouds painted with hints of heaven cast deep, sinister shadows on the beating surf below, slapping at the rocks with the aquatic wrath of a god. The soft arms of nirvana, where glinting gates of gold peep out, allow the Sky god to offer himself as a host, and to dramatize the celestial love from above. The ridges of the nebulae turn from blue to pink as the Sun closes her weary eyes and drifts along to the edge of darkness, shepherding oranges and reds into her sacred field of sleep.

 As my dark pools are torn from the fantastic realm above, I see fields of rusted fronds fluttering in the wind. Strands of cobwebbed hair determined to distract my vision cannot mar this delight: the silver spray from the waves; the pink bonfire of beaming divinity; the teasing light from across the bay. The latter entices my interests with its bitter brightness – a sparkling jewel amongst the lurid colours of sunset. My heart urges me to edge nearer to this furtive radiance and so my legs amble over rocks encrusted with crackling salt crystals, and spiked grasses bleached blue by the Earth’s malice, until the night engulfs my clouded mind and the swirls hanging above.

Chills lace my body as dribbles of icy water seep into my sink; the light draws me closer still. I find myself at the end of the shore.

Before me – nothing but the dark perils of a wintry sea, behind me – the echoes of rusted tufts of deathly shrubs, melting and fragmenting into the curling wind. Below, the hungry waves kiss my feet, waiting for the final plunge; above, the light screams for me, bellowing my name.

The yellow glare penetrates my shivering bones, extracting my soul, my will. So brilliant, so intense – I must join you at the core. My essence, slipped from my hollow shell skips from the shore onto each swirling wave, like the gold flecks from the fountain above, dancing in the bubbling sea.

*

Closer and closer our hearts collide. I release a howl, you discharge a sigh. The rain ceases; the wind croaks; our spirit surges; we are one.

Copyright © JRFB 2012