Deborah Sweetsilverbird Birch

Deborah Sweetsilverbird Birch Dec 2018

The day is bright, the sun is high,
The air is fresh, the fog is only a sigh.
You look at me. your eyes are bright,
But I can only shy away from the light.
There's ghosts so deep inside me,
A shadow on my soul
And though there's nothing wrong, Love,
I have to let you know...

I'm groping blind, I flail and fall,
I'm just not really part of this world at all.
I look at life, through pain-glazed eyes;
The only word I ever hear is, "goodbye".
But I can dream of your world,
From very far away,
And I can share your joy, Love,
But I can't make it stay.

So here's the truth. I'll do my part.
Just as I shimmer in and out of your heart.
I always try. You know I do,
To hold on tight to my connection with you.
And why you come to me, here,
Please tell me, tell me soon.
Why leave your sunny world, Love,
To come here to my moon?

Deborah Sweetsilverbird Birch Feb 2013

A Quality of Crows

My love is ethereal, unknown.
Magical, but true.
Genderless and fathomless;
my one and only you.
Androgynous because
It doesn't matter what's outside.
Love lies between the spirit and the mind.
Oh may your heart be blessed to feel the waters of starlight;
or live among a quality of crows, a lonesome night.

Deborah Sweetsilverbird Birch Feb 2013

The Lions At English Bay

Night hovers upon day in clouds ominous.
My city of rain is all silver and gold.
Reflections catch and mystify -
bounce back upon the city's castles of glass.
But it doesn't capture the mountains.
The mountains are sleekly hugging the city,
like black lions ready to leap-
to protect this jeweled treasure..
My city. My city.

Once, for a time I had to live far away.
My life waned and I stopped looking up.
There were no beautiful mountains and castles
where I had to live.
I shriveled like a leaf in autumn
my heart was broken

Somehow I found my way home.
My city cradled me and nursed me
Set me on my feet again.
At sunset I'll go to the castles
And show my face to the mountains.

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/9248/hdtrvancouver01large.jpg
Vancouver, BC

Deborah Sweetsilverbird Birch Jan 2013

Red Sails

Red sails.
Sing me sad songs of you.
The Sea. Deepening shades of blue.
Charting my course by winking starlight.
I'm just a stranger out here in the night.
Red sails, promise me love is true.

Daybreak.
Here comes the shining sun.
Blinds me, but fills you with strength and fun.
I've spent a lifetime out in the cold.
I've never known warmth, I've only been told.
Daybreak, to my love, let me run.

Twilight.
I've come full circle now.
Always, hope comes across my bow.
No matter how dark the waters may be;
I'll follow the ways of Love's star-crossed seas.
Twilight. May my dreams you allow.

Deborah Sweetsilverbird Birch Jan 2013

Heard on the Wind

The wind winds up and smacks
the back side of a newspaper sheet
as it jogs along the gravel of the projects.
There is a cacophony of sounds
but always discernible is a baby's cry
and a young mother singing, ah, la-la, la-la

la-la
an aria.
Crystalline, tentative, sorrowful.
Where did her young man go?
Where do all the young men go?

Deborah Sweetsilverbird Birch Nov 2012

Sibyls

Sing to me and keen on the white-washed wind
of all the spectacle and horror you have seen.
Bring all the colour back and then rescind
the power given where the powers have been.
Lift up your heads from blank and dreamless sleep
and be uncomfortable but be true.
See all iniquities, though they be deep
and they will come to be revealed to you
for what they are, and then you can be gone-
when those who would enslave you in the night
know nothing of the learning of the song.
They never will anticipate your flight.
This cause may leave a heroine unsung,
but one who'll tell the truth to everyone.

This was a challenge from a poetry forum. The guantlet was hurled by a person known as Dust&Water.; We were all challenged to write a poem starting with the line, 'Sing to me'. This was what I came up with. The workshop poetry forum is at http://poetry-here-and-now.proboards.com/index.cgi?

Deborah Sweetsilverbird Birch Oct 2012

The Plea (A Triolet)

I beg you please, just walk away,
though I can't bear to see you go.
Don't throw your life away and stay;
I beg you please, just walk away,
Why build a dream that's lost its way?
And if you plead, I shall say no.
I beg you please, just walk away,
though I can't bear to see you go.

The Triolet Is shorter than the other forms , comprising only 8 lines. Of those 8, the poet only needs to write 5 original lines as the form builds on a rentrement - first-line refrain - and further repetition of the second line. These also initiate the only two rhymes of the poem, with all other lines either repeating or rhyming with the first two.

Originally, lines would be in Iambic Tetrameter - four sets of two beats with a weak-strong rhythm - though in more recent cases and through its English-language revival, this has been mostly left behind so that the poet can choose their own metre.

Here is a closer look at the layout, showing the rhymes and refrains, where like letters are rhyming lines and capitals are refrains.

A
B
a
A
a
b
A
B

My inspiration was the song Walk Away by Matt Monro (1965) It's on youtube.