When I write these things
my thoughts fly with birds
sometimes grey in storms
sometimes winged in skies
so feathery

When I sing this song
my heart goes in beats, bittersweet
sometimes heavy held, my sorrow spilled
sometimes warmed, red flushed
and fluttery

When I paint this canvas
my brush moves in labyrinthine moods
sometimes shades, darkest blue cerulean
sometimes flowers white, soft as clouds
upon the page, floating heavenly

Living on the ocean as I do, I hunt fish and mollusks
my kin are otters and whales, wide eyed we dive
the night waves, soft in lullabies
in a sea dream, starlit and moon cradled
my lips are sparkling and salt flecked
my eyes wide awake from sleep
in a myriad of visions these sea colors
all my days, swum in a variance of blues
oceans deep and streaked in silver shoals
the day skies fade and die, into nights
plush and indigo blue.

Pablo Neruda
(1904 - 1973)


Don't go far off, not even for a day, because --
because -- I don't know how to say it: a day is long
and I will be waiting for you, as in an empty station
when the trains are parked off somewhere else, asleep.

Don't leave me, even for an hour, because
then the little drops of anguish will all run together,
the smoke that roams looking for a home will drift
into me, choking my lost heart.

Oh, may your silhouette never dissolve on the beach;
may your eyelids never flutter into the empty distance.
Don't leave me for a second, my dearest,

because in that moment you'll have gone so far
I'll wander mazily over all the earth, asking,
Will you come back? Will you leave me here, dying?


http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/don-t-go-far-off/
(very good reader)

Storm clouds
of black thunder
electrical magnetic powered
sparks lashing loose wired
consumed by lightning fire
a wild red blazing blue
hot smouldering coals of you
the final burning through
a certain kind of death
grey the ashes
of our truth.

So early in the morning, bluest skies of birdsong
they sang like laughter, singing for summer, the dawn
flying to heaven, making their way toward home
Awakened from dreaming, wings unfolding, reach out for love
early in the morning with the sun.
Waiting, gazing into a silent green lily pond
no words, no secrets, only seeking reflection deep within
early in the morning with the sun.

Her hands bloomed with fragrant caress
soft as summer grass and petals
she touched the world

With gardens and tulips trumpeting songs
in reddish hues, amidst magenta
peony blooms

Apples and roses her face of flowers
ripe in autumn meadows, she held her children close
gathered ever near her love
before the winter's
dawn

Certain roads will beckon, haunted in their calling
enticing dreams, caress your head in pillows soft,
surreal, they wield black magic
leaving you stranded on roads unimagined, to unravel
dragging home, long through
dirt and gravel

Cool moss of spring so live in verdant green,
with cherry flowers - petals falling
our footsteps pressing in
dissolve the snowy lands
in the heart of sun
love, born of fire
unfolding

When I dream this desert turns green, blooms
clouds race where mountain lions loom
ash gray, the cool of blue rain comes
a redolent wind of desert sea
rushing waves, sand blown
sculpted saguaro forests
pale flowered yellow
drinking every drop
now this eve we drink
now before another dawn
of the mad thirsty sun

My lips are cracked leather
lizard dry, my breath melts into mirage
beetles emerge from dark caves
in flashes of iridescence, crawling
surreal sand paintings, their tiny tracks
art for cactus wren, hunting

Here, beyond yet another
sparkling diamond mound
lies a wild sea of the sailing ships, I've found

To the trees, to sun
to birds and the ways of love
to breath - I thank you

Chrysalis
of a lonesome heart
wrapped, spun and torn apart

Cool grass
wet rain soaked
fallen leaves bled
dead, decayed
ghostly offerings

wet bark, moss and bones
damp, gray and gone
birth of blue light sun lives one
burning into tomorrow
when yesterday becomes
the past, the dust
of us

Of you,
I speak of
softest petals, always kissing
flowers, full bloom
wet drops, your reddened lips
pour darkest cherry wine
all the day, watercoloring
my skies

In the garden a bird, a flower
gold the edge, gold the dawn that hovers
a song of summer, a tiny sparrow perched
long upon the woody yarrow, that musky fills the air
a redolent warmly breeze brushes by the maple trees
caressing sweet the singing leaves and breathes the air of heaven
in the gold of a halcyon summer
beyond the hills of sage, grey plumes  
a stark blue sky cloudless looms
and sings with birds in lilting waves high above the field
they break the silence in a world transformed
a song - void of man's ordinary words.

Like water running, strange requiem
things I can't recall, though deep in soul feel
these skies, these burning lives
we are wild in the fields
only a sun, a storm, the rain
passing by.

There are moments, sacred places
where the heart dwells beyond words, no language
only silence, brilliance of clarity shines through the vastness of time
connection to the divine, so soon the mind
will flicker and change, thoughts blow away
nothing will remain

In the trees, through the leaves came crescent shadows
tiny silhouetted scooped moons upon the ground
without sound, black the round disappearing sun
in ways it came highlighting the shining of souls
and felt around the globe, shined like gold, like silver
like our shimmering days of lakes wet in rain forest waters
you and I on a path coming together, moving further and further
traveling through woods and smokes, traveling home
with a head full of smoke and eyes that cannot see me
my love I am truly in the fire.

There is no river winding, trickles splash, vanish
silty waters stone cold, gone
glacial icy blues fading fast
recede deep into
our past
soon recalling
nothing
not even our
breath

In the spring of warm grassy lawns, silver threaded
song sparrows high amid the bright lily bowers
they fly gold drenched in the morning hours
in the deep peace of this sanctuary shelter
we are far from the city's maddening swelter
here beneath shade trees and roses, we sip tea
we float soft as petals, a dream life in these hills
smell the ocean rain, blue the way the sky spills
we walk scented jasmine trails back home
come to rest in each others arms
before this resplendent day is gone
with nature becoming one
connected to all things
we are never alone.

After some desolate years, a strange reign came
and played your voice of cello tones deeply wild  
a resonance, I drank - my soul to follow
when my feet could no longer walk
fast my heartbeat swallowed
songs of you, haunted
hallowed

With chords that played silvery golds
in silken threads we wove
dreams and days of sun
that followed

Now sinks the sun dark below
and finds a place, a home
built for no one

It's like an Arctic wind, a bitter cold hovering
piercing, icy lunged we breathe the hollows in
A dense fog surrounding time, trapping
moments like hours, waiting the days like years
spilling over one another, waiting like a flower
to open in the sun.

The wind took my breath away
mingling with the sea
Your eyes of black obsidian
tumbled into me.

Overboard we slid beneath waves
deep as cormorants
our souls to be saved

Lungs, salty sea aired
our breaths of the day,
entangled in waterways
did soon float away

In ever deeper depths of love
what shall be learned?
If one dives ever deeper,
shall one not return?

When evening comes, the end of day
drink sweet the honey roses
and toast we two, day's farewell
the sun to slip away
Til' night appears fast before
a pearly blackened sea
Shells will sing
of warming winds
whistling through the hollows
A song of stars sparkling loud
humming skies of
ocean

blue, how salt corrosion eats away
falling leaves, dead decay
here, then gone away
oh and there were rivers
climbed upstream
sleeping to lose yourself
in dreams

red the rust
of a long vacant stay
cold, the break away
how grey rains sway
uncaring of our names

orchard of trees
the dying bees
our fruit hung, with disease
lost to blight
falling to
our knees

I fell deep
the steel - cold blue well
of unwitting wishes
sun silhouetted, blinding me
picnic blanket lazy days
wet petals, soft your kisses
deep the lake, some dive drowning in
or breathe their way back
home again

Grey
the darkness
deepened

In China, towering spires of green
with pine trees, the fog that hovers
breaks lucid in shades of mauve
blue flame of night's dawn
gives birth to stars, the skies
white snow of clouds,
the evening cranes
that fly above.

Someone's at the door, he wants to know me
I am lonely as a thousand dark winters
and because of the deep blue of you,
the wrecked sea of you and me
and much to my chagrin
I will not let him in.

Sad the hour of denial's disbelief
a day that never comes when years young of frolicking
Playful sweetest boy, swaying tail pure of joy
fluff ball dog in white, too soon your tired night
Long did run, his field days sung
we say goodbye, so cold yesterday's
setting sun

Oh green I sing, of wings and birds across blue morning sky
with summer sounds, willows round the floating pond
dipping gently by.

Warm winds play music soft
through leaves and reeds they sing
gathering in the transient breeze.

All the day I rest my head
breathe sweet the flowering fields
and never shall I leave this place
nor want for any sweeter heaven.

How like a fever this red sky burns of fire
impossible sun, hot orange ember
never to grasp, melts so quick the day
a fire extinguished, vanishes into night
black sea of coal, this place
colorless my sight
sinks slight, my heart with sorrow
drifts ever in night's darkness
ever into the unknowns
of tomorrow

In summer, a valley so green, thick in veridian
a pond looking on, sits atop the world - waiting for no one
The sun through an open window, so soon to be gone
hills above, some days ago
covered in whitest snow

I am looking at maps, constellations and planets
plotting routes to drive, to hike this country
seems I would stagnate and die
were I to stay put all of the time
my eyes scale topographies
like braille, my fingers feel
the green of flowering fields
the rain running down hills
always I dream of skies
I envy birds flying over
in cities, I don't seem to settle
pace this floor, a caged animal
daydream of wilderness walks,
spending nights watching stars fall
the heavenly peace of it all.

walking
no place today
in mind
thoughts reaching -
no tomorrows
to find

little daydream
a tune to be sung
life spinning
under autumn's sun

far off
meadow plains,  
cool wanes quiet falling sun
golden, reds
still hanging on

A place, nowhere to be,
no one am I
content beneath blue fields
of sky

Ancient oaks so swiftly you fell
no silence wherein cruel, unthinking men dwell
your echoing woods now lay upon the ground
with birds and tears, the ripping down
now where shall they go to shelter
safe from the storm?

Cold the world of choking cities we build
barren and stripped, the land we conquer, ****
dark this greed of men I deplore
and where shall we go to shelter
safe from the storm?

Lilting lake of music
echoes, birds, your watery world
I am fully undone in clear turquoise depths
glacial waters blind me to all else
I dream to walk across, song of you deep in heart
at the edge I stare gazing, a bird of dawn
alas, to dream, to be one with earth

Gathering colors of day
sea of green viridian, washing storms of grey
seagulls cry in shades colored blue
how mad the ocean's raving tune
it sweeps away the end of day, a hopeful sun
to paint the sky of blackness
paleness of moon
rises, fades
beyond the sway
of silvery shades
night shimmers its way
into red and blue
where fiery clouds ignite
the day once more anew.

In this moment I am water, grey rain
I cry with trees, and all the streams running.
Fog and clouds, a twist of branches overhead
my mind, a loop concentrically swirling
a trick, the swoop and slip
the black and falling birds
scream of skies unraveling.

a garden fence of wooden slats
giant poppies bloom and fill the gaps
brightest petals, orange

white birds of summer  
will mend, with twine and twig
windy nests of a northern winter

today, only an indigo sea
of lavender bees, will hum
like gold, beneath the sun

no frowning clouds will come
only morning glory flowers will bloom
blue as sky, blue as heaven

I tried water
wading, floating, drowning
the pooling and spilling of years
immersed myself holy
deeply to find the fear
dark in the deep end
the coming home to soul
the pain of it all
unknowingly I'd slept
heart wrecked
frozen in fear
unwilling to look
until there was
no other choice
until one day discovering
hidden truths beyond
my darkest void.

Tiger, your eyes of amber
lull me hypnotically under
slowly sink, you slink in tallest grass
night, a steamy jungle where you sleep
scratch and paw, you claw my neck
I run, always you bite and bite
growl, and prowl hunting me down, to defeat
tireless in your clever games of hide and seek.

Ever twisty they climbed - the vines
the tree was speaking low, so slow - the breathing
roots were diving deep, so deep the breath, the depth of grieving
concentric soul, go within to flow, letting go, it's time the past was leaving
born a child, wild as smiles, dance in meadows green
with joy your heart is weaving
and when the night starless looms, you'll bloom  
your heart, open as a flower

Branches

                   Father
                   he spoke soft, willowy winds
                   protecting
                   when harsh, the storms blew in


                   Mother
                   reached in, touching deep the soul
                   igniting
                   her love lit the world

Like stars fading into the blue of day
the blackness that somewhere slips away
how the sun fire burns clouds into the air
the river that wends through lands, a stream no longer seen
a winding path, a deer trail I follow, the sun shadows that swallow
the light of this sycamore forest, where time is somehow lost
amid the trees of blue and silver contrast
beyond these woods, my eyes follow
birds, that fly into the sky hills
far and disappearing.

Just the sound of rain on the tree leaves
your voice there on the line
Just a love note I'm waiting to weave
a sacred path to unwind
Just my heart unraveling a daydream
a sorrow felt undefined

Gray woods, morning mist
hangs upon the trees, leaves decay, sway
falling to the ground

quiet this world, but for the sound of rain
washing wet the berry vines, droplets
falling to the ground

tiny sparrow flits among sheltered branches
a nest to repair, twine and twigs, little sticks
falling to the ground

Days were like honey, even sweeter than golden suns
you were laughing in rainbows - colorfully ever undone
dancing in meadows, and mornings
to bloom again

Your eyes of silver spun light, did shine
flashes of soul, glowing pieces of amber nights
Voices of angels sang you to sleep in peace

Remembering all the places you've ever felt love
with letters in boxes you've looked upon

Days are just pages, they burn into ashes that blow in the wind
all of these days, where do they
begin and end?

This house, it does not speak of me
I am unknown to these adobe walls
these cool clay floors
I press my feet against
wanderlust, I dance
desert nights alone, roam
these sands to drink
and drink of moon
thirst for stars
to call me home

I travel endless nights
painted blue with black
wait until sunlight
warms my room
once more to bloom
in wild fields
with you