Echo Floating: Poems

Echo Floating May 2018

I awoke and broke free
A being of light
Happier than I've been
In the longest time.
The darkness is gone
An unbearable night
A malevolent dream
That fades....

#change #happiness #freedom

empathy

Echo Floating Aug 2017

empathy

I hate those human moments
That take you unaware
A news report or passing siren
unheeding brings throatlumps and sudden blinking tears for unknown people
I awkwardly brush them away with redfaced embarrassment
and hope no-one noticed
that for a brief moment I felt empathy for another human being.
Its not the done thing.

#empathy #emotion #shame

leaves on the wind

Echo Floating Oct 2017

leaves on the wind

Ophelia rips still-living leaves from bowed trees.
The starkness of Winter will come early this year.
I watch them fly; copper, silver, green.
Cut off in their prime.
The unacknowledged tragedies of the hurricane.

#hurricane

mixed signals

Echo Floating Aug 2017

mixed signals

I know how to love
Unconditionally
To give my heart to someone
Utterly and completely.

I just don't know how to cohabitate
To constantly share my personal space
It doesn't mean I don't love you
In all there's a time and a place.

Please don't be saddened lover
I'm not pushing you away
Be patient, as you have been
I may get there someday.

New

Echo Floating Jul 2017

New

You don't need to fill his shoes.
Wear your own.
Teach me a new dance.

#beginning #dance #love #moving #on

People watching

Echo Floating Oct 2017

People watching

I passed a quiet hour today,
Watching people in a Café.
The studious girl with her homework spread,
Glancing sideways at the clique she'd rather join instead.
The middle-aged woman licking lips as she swiped,
Was it tinder, shoes or pastries on her notepad flying right?
The couple not speaking so engrossed in their phones,
Only acknowledging each other when it was time to go home.
The trio of yummy mummies, dressed carefully to ****,
Smudging lipstick on caramel lattes - politely competing to pay the bill.
I watched them all quietly,
Each tableau a one-act play.
On my last sip the curtain fell,
I rose and paid. Went my own way.

Peripheral Vision

Echo Floating Oct 2017

Peripheral Vision

Not looking
I saw it
in the corner of my mind

The answer to my question
appeared
without full stare

and illumination found
in the shadows
there

Precious Gift

Echo Floating Oct 2017

Precious Gift

Eyes wide with troubled wonder she looks at me.
I long to take her in my arms and soothe her disquiet,
But I know it won't be welcome.

Little one,
I wish I could explain the world to you.
I wish I could tell you that these things will pass.
I wish I could tell you that one day these weights of your mind will just be fleeting memories,
not to let them drag you down.

Then she smiles at me.
Deep dimples and shining hazel eyes.
Mood shifts in a mercurial instant.
She climbs onto my lap and slender arms envelop my neck,
Her breath warm in my hair.
I move with glacial slowness to return this rarest of embraces, fearing to break the spell,
my breath held,
I close my eyes and imprint this moment on my soul;
it may not come again.

This most precious of gifts,
the touch of a child who won't be touched,
overwhelms me.

#child #comfort #embrace

Seagulls

Echo Floating Oct 2017

Seagulls

Hovering high
Powerful wings
Maintain precise position
Steadfast beats
Against the wind
Battling storm conditions
Exhaustion comes
In the blink of a eye
They are swept beyond my vision.

Suffocation

Echo Floating Jul 2017

Suffocation

The need to breathe is overwhelming
Not just my lungs, but my ears,
eyes and tongue
To inhale sights, sounds,
air of my choosing
I long to taste freedom, to run

#breathe #eyes #inhale #freedom #run

sunrise

Echo Floating Nov 2017

sunrise

Grey pre-dawn light
Twinkling stars fade slowly
into paling night sky
Waves break on the shore
Seagrass whispers to the wind
My breath plumes into chilly air
I shiver and pull my coat tighter
Colours and shapes take definition
The slow passing of time
Brings all into view
Muted but there
The first fingers of pink and gold
touch the far horizon
And excruciatingly slowly
The sliver of sun appears
Expands
And swells into the waiting sky

Sunrise beach cold dawn winter alone

Sunset... Rosslare Point

Echo Floating Oct 2017

Sunset... Rosslare Point

I close my eyes to set my other senses free.
The salt tang fills my nostrils and mouth,
and the biting cold of a dying day prickles my skin.
Waves slap on rock and gargling water ***** noisily back to the sea.
Even with my eyes closed I see the sun slip behind Forth mountain,
my eyelids losing translucence with the dimming of its glow.
The October wind whips chill on my face,
and with a shiver, I open my eyes and see my way home.

The Pyre

Echo Floating Jun 2019

The Pyre

Are the grasses of loves past green enough,
To throw ours on their pyre?
Will you always hearken back love,
To long burned out desires?
When you close your eyes is it me you see?
Or some other lover from memory.
Will you take my hand and walk with me?
Or is this spark lost in their flame?

Are the grasses of loves past green enough,
To twist ours on their pyre?
Is their ash in your mouth not cooled enough?
Are there embers still burning brighter?
When you kiss my lips are you where you want to be?
Or are you lost in other kisses reverie?
Will this lacking fool become a brief history?
Or will this spark rise to a flame?

Are the grasses of loves past green enough,
To consume ours on their pyre?
You say you live in the moment love,
But your heart is full of old reminders.
When you hear my name does it make you smile?
Or do other names echo through your wistful mind?
Will you ever look at me as your greatest find?
Or will this spark die in their flame?

Touch

Echo Floating Oct 2017

Touch

A word to soothe a spirit.
A smile to reassure.
A nod to encourage.
A tear to empathise.
A text to say I thought of you.

So many ways to touch...
Without actually touching.

wallpaper

Echo Floating Oct 2017

wallpaper

Peeling the wallpaper
From the walls
Glimpses of layers underneath
Some vibrant and bright
Others sombre and dark
Measurements of growth
And the passing of time
A history revealed
With patience and care
Papered-over cracks
Stripped and laid bare
Each one a story
A voiced over documentary
Narrating the life of a room.

wintercusp

Echo Floating Nov 2017

wintercusp

Autumn has fallen.
Bowed her umber head
On bended knee
In supplication

A new reign begins

The geese in formation flee
Their discordant cries
a perfect counterpoint
To their orderly V

The banished army of summer

Still Sunday mornings
Frostbitten silences
Shattered by the cacophony
of hunters' guns

Reaping the spoils

Hedgerows thickly laden
Berries of holly,
sloe, ivy, crabapple
After sweeter fruits are gone

Provide a bitter feast

Coldness brings clarity
Stripped away
of the raiment of summer
The bare vista in her true form

Naked, cold and beautiful

Only the strongest scents survive
The salt tang of the sea
The sharpness of evergreen
Joined now by a new one

The tingling promise of snow

Onward she sweeps
A glittering queen
Tracing filigree on
leaf, pond and pane

Marking her conquests

The world is struck numb,
Dumb
By this terrible beauty
This force of nature

Now is the cusp of Winter

#winter #cold #ice #frost #snow #migration #seasons #change

You Take My Breath Away

Echo Floating Jun 2019

You Take My Breath Away

With every crooked smile,
You take my breath away from me.
Your eyes filled with laughter,
Beguile me.
My happiest place is in your company.

With the heat of your kisses,
And each soft caress,
I fall into breathless space,
No regress.
My foolish heart flutters within my chest.

With each song you sing,
You take my breath from me.
A lyrical seduction,
Enslaves me.
Now and forever, I'm yours completely.

— The End —