He was there
Then not
All in the space
Of a few final breaths
Now a ghost
Whose laugh is lost
But to memory
And longing
Gone twenty five years
In this time of cheer
And on this day
Am I reminded
A twinkle in the eye
Said more
Than words, sometimes said
Had ever said
I love you, son
Dawn breaks in pastels
Scattered city lights
Which had powered night
Fade with encroaching day
Soon enough extinguished
While the trail
Marking my departure
Rises from the darkness
Now a frothy white
Upon grey slate
Receding mountains’ majesty
Diminishes with steady progress
In some few hours to be lost
Behind the moon-swelled sea
Held fast by Earth’s own gravity
So go I
Beyond the realm
Of all I know
To places
I’ve not yet loved
The waves they roll
With languid reach
Well up on
The shallow beach
While out to sea
They roil and pitch
To salt the air
With fragrance rich
With mem’ries dear
From childhood clear
When castles rose
Above the sand
And mother’s arms
With gentle grace
Wrapped me in
Her warming brace
Just as this ripple
Ends its leisured pace
Around my shoes
With wet embrace
Under a blood red sky
A metaphor
A cliché
I cannot resist
Blood red it is
And so too
This life journey
Heart broken
Love rent
By the loss of one
So much depends
On the construct, Love
Conscious
Unconscious
Conditioned
Unconditional
Unshareable
Unless a context
Shared
There is nothing so beautiful
As a moment offered in whole
To the act of creation
Except perhaps
One given
To love
Words arranged in verse
Form a matrix of possibility
An author’s intentions
A reader’s interpretations
Layers deep
Miles wide
All this also present
In a single word such as
Aum
Love
God
Beauty
Perfection
Each a poem with all the
Subtle renderings and possibilities of
Angelou
Frost
Dickinson
Shakespeare
Plath
The final meaning rests solely
And rightfully with the reader
Every culture
Every person
Knows beauty
In their own way
I remind myself
Try to find
Beauty’s heart
In every way
That is the place
Where we are all one
That is the place
From which flows love
Hers was an exquisite beauty
Not the kind to command
Covers or runways
That puts a name
Up in lights or lead a headline
Her beauty commanded a second look
The kind you missed on a first take
And yes, it was there on the surface
But more, it ran deep
In her bearing
In the way she made others
The center of her world
Her smile flowed
From every feature of her being
To receive one was to be blessed
The first time
She gave me that gift
It was through a tangle of locks
Tossed about in the wind
The sound of breakers far below
My heart knew only one person
In the entirety of existence
And it took years to convince it
That there were other smiles in the universe
Some time after I’d grown beyond the desire to possess her
Our group of friends retraced that old road trip
And on this same point, through tousled locks
She gave me again that heart-stirring smile
But this time said
“I think I am falling in love with you.”
towers and citadels
ramparts and parapets
fortress on the hillside
set afire in the morning sun
battles fought
war rages on
death visits here
still more to come
one strong heart
with will of stone
resolve of iron
but moments late
her final breath
his broken cry
their eyes now glazed
with death and grief
reign of tears
a rain of years
for one still form
her light now passing
towers and citadels
ramparts and parapets
fortress on the hillside
with darkness do the losses come
time withers
all good hope
but for love’s
illuminance
five hundred years
lives pass along
’til one strong heart
revived by dreams
a love once lost
was born anew
he holds the hand
of one once dead
knows the heart
which then fell still
now beats again
in true love’s breast
time’s never still
nor linear
where once was love
love’s never lost
towers and citadels
ramparts and parapets
fortress on the hillside
rememb’ring love can’t be undone
Pix to Words 