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"clearings" poems
♪♫♪♪ Your beaded snakeskin loincloth strung beneath humid palms cool rippling breeze that calms our hammock hung under thatch what a catch . . . your Amazons running into my Congo lost track of my bongo back about one mile from the sources of the Nile: your jungle smile. Restoring all celestial things deep within your tropical clearings . . . flowing slowly, going loco at the mythic mouth of the Orinico; shake your nut-brown biospheres and banish all my worldly fears. Dusk is nearing — clearing the hill insects trilling a sinuous thrill; the yuca half-mashed in the clay *** the witch doctor hungover in his hut while our little fire smolders near the mountains of the moon —or are they only boulders? Come soon Jesus, Lord of the Jungle . . .
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Nov 10, 2015
Nov 10, 2015 at 9:22 PM UTC
Jungle Smile
I imagine this midnight moment's forest: Something else is alive Besides the clock's loneliness And this blank page where my fingers move. Through the window I see no star: Something more near Though deeper within darkness Is entering the loneliness: Cold, delicately as the dark snow, A fox's nose touches twig, leaf; Two eyes serve a movement, that now And again now, and now, and now Sets neat prints into the snow Between trees, and warily a lame Shadow lags by stump and in hollow Of a body that is bold to come Across clearings, an eye, A widening deepening greenness, Brilliantly, concentratedly, Coming about its own business Till, with sudden sharp hot stink of fox It enters the dark hole of the head. The window is starless still; the clock ticks, The page is printed.
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4.6k
The Though Fox
scavenger bride, she counted periods before the children came along, but never suspected eyes like bottles beginning to blue, a tangle of scars hermetically sealed, the new order of a broken romance, dead love cassettes in the glove compartment, her cold and empty constellations, like cold breath passing through a beam of sunlight, grid of points, pendulums, the ratio of freckles to stars, no subtle countenance, martinis and bikinis, soft ******* and ice cream, slight, elusive things, on a beach with no more meaning, the repeating pattern of her mistakes and reliefs, a preservation of decay, sustained by the tiny human fault line in that oneiric hinterland, between dreaming and waking, she draws around the noise and the clearings, she creates within that sightline the way her sadness can feel comfortable, an extension of loss that turns her ruins into a home.
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Aug 1, 2022
Aug 1, 2022 at 2:48 PM UTC
Living in the Remains of Love
Inspired by George Ella Lyon's poem Where I am From I am from cul-de-sacs From skinned knees and seven speed bikes I am from the bewitching perfume of the osmanthus bloom mingling with freshly mown grass I am from the familiar music of the bubbling creek and the cardinals song the swish of a golf club and the thud of a soccer ball I am from hot pavement on bare feet, the taste of honeysuckles, and reaching pine tree forests whose invisible trails and clearings became my secret empire I am from airplanes and home cooking From Mary and Mark northern accents and southern hospitality I am from "use your manners" and "Not enough month left at the end if the money" I am from sunday school and patent leather shoes that pinch my toes from a prayer before dinner that is carved into my brain I am from poland from poppyseed kuchen and kielbasa I am from my grandmother forgetting baking soda in the bread and then... years later, forgetting me too. I am from my grandfather's sense of humor and his unwavering stubbornness. I am from too many cousins to count from pinched cheeks and "How you've grown!" I am from piles of unfinished photo albums brimming with new adventures, frozen faces, and old memories I am from the path I carved for myself with tools that my parents bestowed upon me.
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Apr 8, 2013
Apr 8, 2013 at 1:14 PM UTC
Where I Am From
They run and run and run It seems, with little time to feel the sun And yet, what they have begun Is something that can easily be undone. Dodging the trees here and there They run through this thick and heavy air. An end to this overgrown forest do they give silent prayer But little do they know that they’re on the path to despair. They hide from the sun’s bright For they know not of its delight, And instead they run to the darkness on the right Thinking they will find some light. However, their path is crooked and steep As they run through the forest deep. They are like lost sheep Not realizing they need to awake from their sleep. They see others running passed the trees Dodging them with ease. They wonder what makes the others so pleased To be running through this breeze. The others also fall down, But they get back up and help those around. While they run through darkness abound, The others run through bright clearings round.
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Jun 7, 2014
Jun 7, 2014 at 1:08 PM UTC
Runners
Most mornings are spare, Like the spaces between the branches of a spruce tree. Most mornings are clearings in woods And bare bark. Most mornings sound of violins And Torquil Campbell’s voice swooning in and out of Bach’s Suites, Leaving you empty, Hueing you in gray, And sketching you, lightly, onto white notebook paper.
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Oct 27, 2015
Oct 27, 2015 at 8:51 PM UTC
The Morning Ballad
these faces on the wall that have no eyes, the young children with blood escaping from their hands as they pick up a mound of the Earth and throw at genuflected roses. these battered men in parks searching for light and my woman is no longer with me. it’s all vaudeville: this obnoxious working of continuance, these redundant flutings, these unprecedented fluctuations. opening the yellow gates to death as the automobile churns the last of its exhausted snarl. we are children peering through glass cases as death laughs at his hopeless clientele, sad, desolate progenies in working-classes, in parks, in factories, somewhere along Mendiola, or just treading the waist-high hellish froths of Dapitan, there’s always death in the nooks of the quiet and from where birds stir in sidereal circles, death with his hands resting on the cage, chases us back to our homes. death the changing of the gatekeeper. death the telling machine. death the dentist. death my next door neighbor. death, this boorish broken-winged Maya twitching in front of my dog’s shadow shot out of the Sun’s shameful recoil. death, my loud and loutish muse, death the truant, death, the copious fog somewhere in Kennon Rd. death, in my hands through darkness and light, death through troves of enigma, death through undisputed clearings, death the long line of red beads in EDSA, death the gates of Plaridel, it’s the moon following you, trailing your measure, i hold my woman’s used shirt, pick up her photographs and there’s no tender movement left but the still-seeking lion prowling the jungles of my heart, seared by lovelorn undoing. through the bottom of the sky and the unchanging roof-beam, the weathervane ceases to a sojourn and the wind is trapped in a place where we cannot utter any word between the gnashing of our teeth – through the wasted years, through the sleeping in and out of homes filled with beatings, to cathedrals swollen with tribulations, and to the vineyards wrung out of wine, my lover, walking through fire, sound silence.
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Jan 2, 2016
Jan 2, 2016 at 9:20 PM UTC
Anthem
these faces on the wall that have no eyes, the young children with blood escaping from their hands as they pick up a mound of the Earth and throw at genuflected roses. these battered men in parks searching for light and my woman is no longer with me. it’s all vaudeville: this obnoxious working of continuance, these redundant flutings, these unprecedented fluctuations. opening the yellow gates to death as the automobile churns the last of its exhausted snarl. we are children peering through glass cases as death laughs at his hopeless clientele, sad, desolate progenies in working-classes, in parks, in factories, somewhere along Mendiola, or just treading the waist-high hellish froths of Dapitan, there’s always death in the nooks of the quiet and from where birds stir in sidereal circles, death with his hands resting on the cage, chases us back to our homes. death the changing of the gatekeeper. death the telling machine. death the dentist. death my next door neighbor. death, this boorish broken-winged Maya twitching in front of my dog’s shadow shot out of the Sun’s shameful recoil. death, my loud and loutish muse, death the truant, death, the copious fog somewhere in Kennon Rd. death, in my hands through darkness and light, death through troves of enigma, death through undisputed clearings, death the long line of red beads in EDSA, death the gates of Plaridel, it’s the moon following you, trailing your measure, i hold my woman’s used shirt, pick up her photographs and there’s no tender movement left but the still-seeking lion prowling the jungles of my heart, seared by lovelorn undoing. through the bottom of the sky and the unchanging roof-beam, the weathervane ceases to a sojourn and the wind is trapped in a place where we cannot utter any word between the gnashing of our teeth – through the wasted years, through the sleeping in and out of homes filled with beatings, to cathedrals swollen with tribulations, and to the vineyards wrung out of wine, my lover, walking through fire, sound silence.
Continue reading...
43
And dreaming of Inisfáil, I was raised on Bolivar Pond. Sheltered in my wake, I’d coo as the dewy’d morning dove And fern in my bed, I rose to greet The song-splayed sounds of light And work, I made it dropping slow Bright in the summers swoon, I was adorned in forest eves By rings that rang from tree to rook, and flung the wingèd down, Brambled in bay, garland in violet When blades could ***** and not make bleed, And I was brindled by the moon’d many shades, that liken To a brook, and mottled in my main, noted among moss In that glow, once knighted we must serve Wood, let me comb in peace! Colored in the mantled cloth of leaves And bonny and red, I was the brave and the boon, the deer- Ants learned me, and herons stood muck, on stands spearing all mite And the vernal song sang lowly Swaddled in azure’s unfolding dream. At each turn was a season, nascent life charming in marsh Forays that brimmed the hollow rood, in clover yards, I saw The lilt of bees, sallied in clearings Brown as the yellowed beech Colored in sounds that beat the heart. And forth into the field I sprang unto that shedded loam And high was the sail that bellowed the raft that raked my pond, Bullied by the har-umph of frogs I rippled, rowing cat o’nine tailed tunes. Windy and free in the hollowed bark round the ****** bay I trailed the bear sniffing **** heard the hoo of a swooping vowel And wild in hare, dug the fox-hole up! Damp fires hailed the rising Moon, as fire-flies dinted the troutling pools And nothing I saw in my drowning sun could nettle or thorn My piney ways, nothing could rot my wood-craving ears For the kestrel’s qweet-a-quee rang holy In the skunk-flowered fields of Bolivar Pond.
0
Apr 5, 2013
Apr 5, 2013 at 2:41 PM UTC
Bolivar Pond
And dreaming of Inisfáil, I was raised on Bolivar Pond. Sheltered in my wake, I’d coo as the dewy’d morning dove And fern in my bed, I rose to greet The song-splayed sounds of light And work, I made it dropping slow Bright in the summers swoon, I was adorned in forest eves By rings that rang from tree to rook, and flung the wingèd down, Brambled in bay, garland in violet When blades could ***** and not make bleed, And I was brindled by the moon’d many shades, that liken To a brook, and mottled in my main, noted among moss In that glow, once knighted we must serve Wood, let me comb in peace! Colored in the mantled cloth of leaves And bonny and red, I was the brave and the boon, the deer- Ants learned me, and herons stood muck, on stands spearing all mite And the vernal song sang lowly Swaddled in azure’s unfolding dream. At each turn was a season, nascent life charming in marsh Forays that brimmed the hollow rood, in clover yards, I saw The lilt of bees, sallied in clearings Brown as the yellowed beech Colored in sounds that beat the heart. And forth into the field I sprang unto that shedded loam And high was the sail that bellowed the raft that raked my pond, Bullied by the har-umph of frogs I rippled, rowing cat o’nine tailed tunes. Windy and free in the hollowed bark round the ****** bay I trailed the bear sniffing **** heard the hoo of a swooping vowel And wild in hare, dug the fox-hole up! Damp fires hailed the rising Moon, as fire-flies dinted the troutling pools And nothing I saw in my drowning sun could nettle or thorn My piney ways, nothing could rot my wood-craving ears For the kestrel’s qweet-a-quee rang holy In the skunk-flowered fields of Bolivar Pond.
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36
“When people move-when they travel-they look at where 
they come from, not where they’re going.” -Martin Amis, *Time’s Arrow

* Let us now take this chance
 to praise those dancing demons 
of ambition, whose feigned clairvoyance 
of fortune and exactitudes of fame
 burn as the smell of smokey fallow 
to the new-retired mare.

 Travel, and all its takeoffs, 
all its energies in skidding towards
 an unopposed truth, makes its mince
 by outlining all we ever look for 
but leaving the chalkdust prints 
of what we fail, at first, to find.

 Yes, spaces contrary to the familiar exist Carnivore cities of grind and result
 cascaded above the floodwalls that save
 the vagrant’s midnight search.
 Coastal clearings of pacific civs,
 best kept secrets where trees are still planted
 and further kinds of nowhere that you never expected 
to simmer with all the prospects of bored and implacable youths 
who pine to efface the status quo, which ,after all, is quite the average, 
is quite like “HOME”

 Though I suppose, we eventually find 
whatever space can be considered our own
 when everyone grows up and stops 
pretending they read Burroughs, have a lot more going on, or are a lot less busy than they make out over infrequent coffee meetings (where it is also admitted
 that they brew their own hot beverages, or tell their own jokes)
 Somewhere in the near-space continuum where Travel has 
become for us what essentially differentiates the commonplace in nature from 
that most human of neuroses,
 the acceptance of a willing to improve the conditional.

 And so to Ambition, and its fiery fops who make us refute 
steadiness, accountability, the routine of the resolute
 Who let our ships of sanctimony attack 
implied with the luxury of steering back.
0
Apr 2, 2013
Apr 2, 2013 at 5:29 PM UTC
Of Exit Strategies and Their Ilk
“When people move-when they travel-they look at where 
they come from, not where they’re going.” -Martin Amis, *Time’s Arrow

* Let us now take this chance
 to praise those dancing demons 
of ambition, whose feigned clairvoyance 
of fortune and exactitudes of fame
 burn as the smell of smokey fallow 
to the new-retired mare.

 Travel, and all its takeoffs, 
all its energies in skidding towards
 an unopposed truth, makes its mince
 by outlining all we ever look for 
but leaving the chalkdust prints 
of what we fail, at first, to find.

 Yes, spaces contrary to the familiar exist Carnivore cities of grind and result
 cascaded above the floodwalls that save
 the vagrant’s midnight search.
 Coastal clearings of pacific civs,
 best kept secrets where trees are still planted
 and further kinds of nowhere that you never expected 
to simmer with all the prospects of bored and implacable youths 
who pine to efface the status quo, which ,after all, is quite the average, 
is quite like “HOME”

 Though I suppose, we eventually find 
whatever space can be considered our own
 when everyone grows up and stops 
pretending they read Burroughs, have a lot more going on, or are a lot less busy than they make out over infrequent coffee meetings (where it is also admitted
 that they brew their own hot beverages, or tell their own jokes)
 Somewhere in the near-space continuum where Travel has 
become for us what essentially differentiates the commonplace in nature from 
that most human of neuroses,
 the acceptance of a willing to improve the conditional.

 And so to Ambition, and its fiery fops who make us refute 
steadiness, accountability, the routine of the resolute
 Who let our ships of sanctimony attack 
implied with the luxury of steering back.
Continue reading...
40
And dreaming of Inisfáil, I was raised on Bolivar Pond. Sheltered in my wake, I’d coo as the dewy’d morning dove    And fern in my bed, I rose to greet        The song-splayed sounds of light    And work, I made it dropping slow Bright in the summers swoon, I was adorned in forest eves By rings that rang from tree to rook, and flung the wingèd down,        Brambled in bay, garland in violet    When blades could ***** and not make bleed, And I was brindled by the moon’d many shades, that liken To a brook, and mottled in my main, noted among moss    In that glow, once knighted we must serve        Wood, let me comb in peace! Colored in the mantled cloth of leaves And bonny and red, I was the brave and the boon, the deer- Ants learned me, and herons stood muck, on stands spearing all mite        And the vernal song sang lowly    Swaddled in azure’s unfolding dream. At each turn was a season, nascent life charming in marsh Forays that brimmed the hollow rood, in clover yards, I saw    The lilt of bees, sallied in clearings        Brown as the yellowed beech    Colored in sounds that beat the heart. And forth into the field I sprang unto that shedded loam And high was the sail that bellowed the raft that raked my pond,        Bullied by the har-umph of frogs    I rippled, rowing cat o’nine tailed tunes. Windy and free in the hollowed bark round the ****** bay I trailed the bear sniffing **** heard the hoo of a swooping vowel    And wild in hare, dug the fox-hole up!        Damp fires hailed the rising    Moon, as fire-flies dinted the troutling pools And nothing I saw in my drowning sun could nettle or thorn My piney ways, nothing could rot my wood-craving ears        For the kestrel’s qweet-a-quee rang holy    In the skunk-flowered fields of Bolivar Pond.
0
Sep 27, 2012
Sep 27, 2012 at 12:55 PM UTC
Bolivar Pond
And dreaming of Inisfáil, I was raised on Bolivar Pond. Sheltered in my wake, I’d coo as the dewy’d morning dove    And fern in my bed, I rose to greet        The song-splayed sounds of light    And work, I made it dropping slow Bright in the summers swoon, I was adorned in forest eves By rings that rang from tree to rook, and flung the wingèd down,        Brambled in bay, garland in violet    When blades could ***** and not make bleed, And I was brindled by the moon’d many shades, that liken To a brook, and mottled in my main, noted among moss    In that glow, once knighted we must serve        Wood, let me comb in peace! Colored in the mantled cloth of leaves And bonny and red, I was the brave and the boon, the deer- Ants learned me, and herons stood muck, on stands spearing all mite        And the vernal song sang lowly    Swaddled in azure’s unfolding dream. At each turn was a season, nascent life charming in marsh Forays that brimmed the hollow rood, in clover yards, I saw    The lilt of bees, sallied in clearings        Brown as the yellowed beech    Colored in sounds that beat the heart. And forth into the field I sprang unto that shedded loam And high was the sail that bellowed the raft that raked my pond,        Bullied by the har-umph of frogs    I rippled, rowing cat o’nine tailed tunes. Windy and free in the hollowed bark round the ****** bay I trailed the bear sniffing **** heard the hoo of a swooping vowel    And wild in hare, dug the fox-hole up!        Damp fires hailed the rising    Moon, as fire-flies dinted the troutling pools And nothing I saw in my drowning sun could nettle or thorn My piney ways, nothing could rot my wood-craving ears        For the kestrel’s qweet-a-quee rang holy    In the skunk-flowered fields of Bolivar Pond.
Continue reading...
36
We are but a fleeting plume of dust, We are but a withered patch of rust, We are but an aimless wind, whose gust Is drifting, through the dreary twilight's must, Awaiting, the new rising of the dawn, Awaiting, the dewdrops which glaze the lawn Awaiting, the quick prancing of the faun, Whose dancing through the fields might lead us on Through streams and forests, far from where we've strayed Through pastures, where the lilies rock and sway Through clearings, where the sunbeams pierce the gray Of the foreboding clouds, to light the day. Yet, here we wait, with eagerness and zeal, Yet, here we lick these wounds, which never heal, Yet, here we churn the spinning water wheel, Which drips a fatal poison in our meal.
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Jan 20, 2019
Jan 20, 2019 at 2:16 AM UTC
The Hidden Messiah
And dreaming of Inisfáil, I was raised on Bolivar Pond. Sheltered in my wake, I’d coo as the dewy’d morning dove    And fern in my bed, I rose to greet        The song-splayed sounds of light    And work, I made it dropping slow Bright in the summers swoon, I was adorned in forest eves By rings that rang from tree to rook, and flung the wingèd down,        Brambled in bay, garland in violet    When blades could ***** and not make bleed, And I was brindled by the moon’d many shades, that liken To a brook, and mottled in my main, noted among moss    In that glow, once knighted we must serve        Wood, let me comb in peace! Colored in the mantled cloth of leaves And bonny and red, I was the brave and the boon, the deer- Ants learned me, and herons stood muck, on stands spearing all mite        And the vernal song sang lowly    Swaddled in azure’s unfolding dream. At each turn was a season, nascent life charming in marsh Forays that brimmed the hollow rood, in clover yards, I saw    The lilt of bees, sallied in clearings        Brown as the yellowed beech    Colored in sounds that beat the heart. And forth into the field I sprang unto that shedded loam And high was the sail that bellowed the raft that raked my pond,        Bullied by the har-umph of frogs    I rippled, rowing cat o’nine tailed tunes. Windy and free in the hollowed bark round the ****** bay I trailed the bear sniffing **** heard the hoo of a swooping vowel    And wild in hare, dug the fox-hole up!        Damp fires hailed the rising    Moon, as fire-flies dinted the troutling pools And nothing I saw in my drowning sun could nettle or thorn My piney ways, nothing could rot my wood-craving ears        For the kestrel’s qweet-a-quee rang holy    In the skunk-flowered fields of Bolivar Pond.
0
Jun 4, 2012
Jun 4, 2012 at 6:46 PM UTC
Bolivar Pond
And dreaming of Inisfáil, I was raised on Bolivar Pond. Sheltered in my wake, I’d coo as the dewy’d morning dove    And fern in my bed, I rose to greet        The song-splayed sounds of light    And work, I made it dropping slow Bright in the summers swoon, I was adorned in forest eves By rings that rang from tree to rook, and flung the wingèd down,        Brambled in bay, garland in violet    When blades could ***** and not make bleed, And I was brindled by the moon’d many shades, that liken To a brook, and mottled in my main, noted among moss    In that glow, once knighted we must serve        Wood, let me comb in peace! Colored in the mantled cloth of leaves And bonny and red, I was the brave and the boon, the deer- Ants learned me, and herons stood muck, on stands spearing all mite        And the vernal song sang lowly    Swaddled in azure’s unfolding dream. At each turn was a season, nascent life charming in marsh Forays that brimmed the hollow rood, in clover yards, I saw    The lilt of bees, sallied in clearings        Brown as the yellowed beech    Colored in sounds that beat the heart. And forth into the field I sprang unto that shedded loam And high was the sail that bellowed the raft that raked my pond,        Bullied by the har-umph of frogs    I rippled, rowing cat o’nine tailed tunes. Windy and free in the hollowed bark round the ****** bay I trailed the bear sniffing **** heard the hoo of a swooping vowel    And wild in hare, dug the fox-hole up!        Damp fires hailed the rising    Moon, as fire-flies dinted the troutling pools And nothing I saw in my drowning sun could nettle or thorn My piney ways, nothing could rot my wood-craving ears        For the kestrel’s qweet-a-quee rang holy    In the skunk-flowered fields of Bolivar Pond.
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36
And dreaming of Inisfáil, I was raised on Bolivar Pond. Sheltered in my wake, I’d coo as the dewy’d morning dove And fern in my bed, I rose to greet The song-splayed sounds of light And work, I made it dropping slow Bright in the summers swoon, I was adorned in forest eves By rings that rang from tree to rook, and flung the wingèd down, Brambled in bay, garland in violet When blades could ***** and not make bleed, And I was brindled by the moon’d many shades, that liken To a brook, and mottled in my main, noted among moss In that glow, once knighted we must serve Wood, let me comb in peace! Colored in the mantled cloth of leaves And bonny and red, I was the brave and the boon, the deer- Ants learned me, and herons stood muck, on stands spearing all mite And the vernal song sang lowly Swaddled in azure’s unfolding dream. At each turn was a season, nascent life charming in marsh Forays that brimmed the hollow rood, in clover yards, I saw The lilt of bees, sallied in clearings Brown as the yellowed beech Colored in sounds that beat the heart. And forth into the field I sprang unto that shedded loam And high was the sail that bellowed the raft that raked my pond, Bullied by the har-umph of frogs I rippled, rowing cat o’nine tailed tunes. Windy and free in the hollowed bark round the ****** bay I trailed the bear sniffing **** heard the hoo of a swooping vowel And wild in hare, dug the fox-hole up! Damp fires hailed the rising Moon, as fire-flies dinted the troutling pools And nothing I saw in my drowning sun could nettle or thorn My piney ways, nothing could rot my wood-craving ears For the kestrel’s qweet-a-quee rang holy In the skunk-flowered fields of Bolivar Pond.
0
Jan 26, 2013
Jan 26, 2013 at 1:55 PM UTC
Bolivar Pond
And dreaming of Inisfáil, I was raised on Bolivar Pond. Sheltered in my wake, I’d coo as the dewy’d morning dove And fern in my bed, I rose to greet The song-splayed sounds of light And work, I made it dropping slow Bright in the summers swoon, I was adorned in forest eves By rings that rang from tree to rook, and flung the wingèd down, Brambled in bay, garland in violet When blades could ***** and not make bleed, And I was brindled by the moon’d many shades, that liken To a brook, and mottled in my main, noted among moss In that glow, once knighted we must serve Wood, let me comb in peace! Colored in the mantled cloth of leaves And bonny and red, I was the brave and the boon, the deer- Ants learned me, and herons stood muck, on stands spearing all mite And the vernal song sang lowly Swaddled in azure’s unfolding dream. At each turn was a season, nascent life charming in marsh Forays that brimmed the hollow rood, in clover yards, I saw The lilt of bees, sallied in clearings Brown as the yellowed beech Colored in sounds that beat the heart. And forth into the field I sprang unto that shedded loam And high was the sail that bellowed the raft that raked my pond, Bullied by the har-umph of frogs I rippled, rowing cat o’nine tailed tunes. Windy and free in the hollowed bark round the ****** bay I trailed the bear sniffing **** heard the hoo of a swooping vowel And wild in hare, dug the fox-hole up! Damp fires hailed the rising Moon, as fire-flies dinted the troutling pools And nothing I saw in my drowning sun could nettle or thorn My piney ways, nothing could rot my wood-craving ears For the kestrel’s qweet-a-quee rang holy In the skunk-flowered fields of Bolivar Pond.
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36
Across the blistered gibber plain where flies die in the sand Through swamps of prickly sago where rotting death is planned, To stride in windblown tussock hills where wind vanes carved their say To saunter groves of green tree fern where moa giants did play. In clearings cut with alkali, tusked elephant would loom With crevassed hides, Methuselah, once aged in terms of doom. Whilst high above the rocky crags of ancient mountain high, The keening screech of kestral soaring up to deep blue sky. Heavy boots in crusted sand where tiny lizards flee Amidst the rust red rubble of volcanic rock and scree, To clamber up the ignimbrite, great Vulcan's steps of stone, Encrusted with thick epiphyte in lichen's mossy home. Up into the altitude where dark cloud clusters here And the threat of rolling thunder indicates that rain is near, Torrential in it's downpour with sudden squall of gale Surmounted, all quite suddenly, with a blinding blast of hail. Staggering to shelter in a tiny alpine hut To find hot coffee on the woodstove and a curvy, hot young **** To find us frollicking together beneath a patterned patchwork quilt Was quite beyond my imagination's comprehensions built? And afterwards in slumber through the curtains of our room I watched, in fascination, at a hanging, frozen moon And wondered, in amazement, at the doings of the day And speculated, sleepily, where tomorrow's prospects lay. Blearily I stretch out from the covers, nicely warm To nullify persistence of that alarm's intruding horn, Yawning into morning I remove myself from bed With panicked realisation....all dreams evacuate my head. Vanished are the alpine hut, the dolly bird, the caves The crash of rolling thunder and the plunge of mighty waves, Gone are those phantoms which dwelt inside my mind Devestatingly dismissed until re-dreamed another time. M. Pukehana Paradise 13 December 2014
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Dec 13, 2014
Dec 13, 2014 at 10:09 PM UTC
Adventures of a Sweet Dreamer
Across the blistered gibber plain where flies die in the sand Through swamps of prickly sago where rotting death is planned, To stride in windblown tussock hills where wind vanes carved their say To saunter groves of green tree fern where moa giants did play. In clearings cut with alkali, tusked elephant would loom With crevassed hides, Methuselah, once aged in terms of doom. Whilst high above the rocky crags of ancient mountain high, The keening screech of kestral soaring up to deep blue sky. Heavy boots in crusted sand where tiny lizards flee Amidst the rust red rubble of volcanic rock and scree, To clamber up the ignimbrite, great Vulcan's steps of stone, Encrusted with thick epiphyte in lichen's mossy home. Up into the altitude where dark cloud clusters here And the threat of rolling thunder indicates that rain is near, Torrential in it's downpour with sudden squall of gale Surmounted, all quite suddenly, with a blinding blast of hail. Staggering to shelter in a tiny alpine hut To find hot coffee on the woodstove and a curvy, hot young **** To find us frollicking together beneath a patterned patchwork quilt Was quite beyond my imagination's comprehensions built? And afterwards in slumber through the curtains of our room I watched, in fascination, at a hanging, frozen moon And wondered, in amazement, at the doings of the day And speculated, sleepily, where tomorrow's prospects lay. Blearily I stretch out from the covers, nicely warm To nullify persistence of that alarm's intruding horn, Yawning into morning I remove myself from bed With panicked realisation....all dreams evacuate my head. Vanished are the alpine hut, the dolly bird, the caves The crash of rolling thunder and the plunge of mighty waves, Gone are those phantoms which dwelt inside my mind Devestatingly dismissed until re-dreamed another time. M. Pukehana Paradise 13 December 2014
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35
In ancient woodland this child roamed, lost in nature, briar & loam. Mapping clearings, badger setts, the places where the deer had slept. Picking berries hops & flowers, lying under stripling bowers. Until evening's amber gloam, with twiggy hair racing home.
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Jun 3, 2019
Jun 3, 2019 at 1:22 PM UTC
After the Bluebells
And dreaming of Inisfáil, I was raised on Bolivar Pond. Sheltered in my wake, I’d coo as the dewy’d morning dove And fern in my bed, I rose to greet The song-splayed sounds of light And work, I made it dropping slow Bright in the summers swoon, I was adorned in forest eves By rings that rang from tree to rook, and flung the wingèd down, Brambled in bay, garland in violet When blades could ***** and not make bleed, And I was brindled by the moon’d many shades, that liken To a brook, and mottled in my main, noted among moss In that glow, once knighted we must serve Wood, let me comb in peace! Colored in the mantled cloth of leaves And bonny and red, I was the brave and the boon, the deer- Ants learned me, and herons stood muck, on stands spearing all mite And the vernal song sang lowly Swaddled in azure’s unfolding dream. At each turn was a season, nascent life charming in marsh Forays that brimmed the hollow rood, in clover yards, I saw The lilt of bees, sallied in clearings Brown as the yellowed beech Colored in sounds that beat the heart. And forth into the field I sprang unto that shedded loam And high was the sail that bellowed the raft that raked my pond, Bullied by the har-umph of frogs I rippled, rowing cat o’nine tailed tunes. Windy and free in the hollowed bark round the ****** bay I trailed the bear sniffing **** heard the hoo of a swooping vowel And wild in hare, dug the fox-hole up! Damp fires hailed the rising Moon, as fire-flies dinted the troutling pools And nothing I saw in my drowning sun could nettle or thorn My piney ways, nothing could rot my wood-craving ears For the kestrel’s qweet-a-quee rang holy In the skunk-flowered fields of Bolivar Pond.
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Sep 22, 2014
Sep 22, 2014 at 4:04 PM UTC
Bolivar Pond
And dreaming of Inisfáil, I was raised on Bolivar Pond. Sheltered in my wake, I’d coo as the dewy’d morning dove And fern in my bed, I rose to greet The song-splayed sounds of light And work, I made it dropping slow Bright in the summers swoon, I was adorned in forest eves By rings that rang from tree to rook, and flung the wingèd down, Brambled in bay, garland in violet When blades could ***** and not make bleed, And I was brindled by the moon’d many shades, that liken To a brook, and mottled in my main, noted among moss In that glow, once knighted we must serve Wood, let me comb in peace! Colored in the mantled cloth of leaves And bonny and red, I was the brave and the boon, the deer- Ants learned me, and herons stood muck, on stands spearing all mite And the vernal song sang lowly Swaddled in azure’s unfolding dream. At each turn was a season, nascent life charming in marsh Forays that brimmed the hollow rood, in clover yards, I saw The lilt of bees, sallied in clearings Brown as the yellowed beech Colored in sounds that beat the heart. And forth into the field I sprang unto that shedded loam And high was the sail that bellowed the raft that raked my pond, Bullied by the har-umph of frogs I rippled, rowing cat o’nine tailed tunes. Windy and free in the hollowed bark round the ****** bay I trailed the bear sniffing **** heard the hoo of a swooping vowel And wild in hare, dug the fox-hole up! Damp fires hailed the rising Moon, as fire-flies dinted the troutling pools And nothing I saw in my drowning sun could nettle or thorn My piney ways, nothing could rot my wood-craving ears For the kestrel’s qweet-a-quee rang holy In the skunk-flowered fields of Bolivar Pond.
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36
And dreaming of Inisfáil, I was raised on Bolivar Pond. Sheltered in my wake, I’d coo as the dewy’d morning dove And fern in my bed, I rose to greet The song-splayed sounds of light And work, I made it dropping slow Bright in the summers swoon, I was adorned in forest eves By rings that rang from tree to rook, and flung the wingèd down, Brambled in bay, garland in violet When blades could ***** and not make bleed, And I was brindled by the moon’d many shades, that liken To a brook, and mottled in my main, noted among moss In that glow, once knighted we must serve Wood, let me comb in peace! Colored in the mantled cloth of leaves And bonny and red, I was the brave and the boon, the deer- Ants learned me, and herons stood muck, on stands spearing all mite And the vernal song sang lowly Swaddled in azure’s unfolding dream. At each turn was a season, nascent life charming in marsh Forays that brimmed the hollow rood, in clover yards, I saw The lilt of bees, sallied in clearings Brown as the yellowed beech Colored in sounds that beat the heart. And forth into the field I sprang unto that shedded loam And high was the sail that bellowed the raft that raked my pond, Bullied by the har-umph of frogs I rippled, rowing cat o’nine tailed tunes. Windy and free in the hollowed bark round the ****** bay I trailed the bear sniffing **** heard the hoo of a swooping vowel And wild in hare, dug the fox-hole up! Damp fires hailed the rising Moon, as fire-flies dinted the troutling pools And nothing I saw in my drowning sun could nettle or thorn My piney ways, nothing could rot my wood-craving ears For the kestrel’s qweet-a-quee rang holy In the skunk-flowered fields of Bolivar Pond.
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Oct 14, 2013
Oct 14, 2013 at 1:29 PM UTC
Bolivar Pond
And dreaming of Inisfáil, I was raised on Bolivar Pond. Sheltered in my wake, I’d coo as the dewy’d morning dove And fern in my bed, I rose to greet The song-splayed sounds of light And work, I made it dropping slow Bright in the summers swoon, I was adorned in forest eves By rings that rang from tree to rook, and flung the wingèd down, Brambled in bay, garland in violet When blades could ***** and not make bleed, And I was brindled by the moon’d many shades, that liken To a brook, and mottled in my main, noted among moss In that glow, once knighted we must serve Wood, let me comb in peace! Colored in the mantled cloth of leaves And bonny and red, I was the brave and the boon, the deer- Ants learned me, and herons stood muck, on stands spearing all mite And the vernal song sang lowly Swaddled in azure’s unfolding dream. At each turn was a season, nascent life charming in marsh Forays that brimmed the hollow rood, in clover yards, I saw The lilt of bees, sallied in clearings Brown as the yellowed beech Colored in sounds that beat the heart. And forth into the field I sprang unto that shedded loam And high was the sail that bellowed the raft that raked my pond, Bullied by the har-umph of frogs I rippled, rowing cat o’nine tailed tunes. Windy and free in the hollowed bark round the ****** bay I trailed the bear sniffing **** heard the hoo of a swooping vowel And wild in hare, dug the fox-hole up! Damp fires hailed the rising Moon, as fire-flies dinted the troutling pools And nothing I saw in my drowning sun could nettle or thorn My piney ways, nothing could rot my wood-craving ears For the kestrel’s qweet-a-quee rang holy In the skunk-flowered fields of Bolivar Pond.
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36
what was it that the wind said? what was it that the wind said when it ran itself through your hair and pressed its face against yours; a foreground to the watercoloured sunset? was it the poetry whispered by lovestruck boys and girls who kissed, forbidden, in the clearings of enchanted forests? or was it the hissing of embers setting eachother's souls alight in an **** of crackling fire wood? was it the ***** chiming amongst divine silence; only broken by the tears of joy in a stained glass cathedral, as she walked towards you in her wedding gown? or was it the morning rain as you woke up to an empty bed with the lingering scent she left the night before?
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Jul 17, 2014
Jul 17, 2014 at 6:03 AM UTC
her whispers in the wind
Flesh adventures in noon-lit meadows Wrapped deep in the brushed embrace Lips plant hushes on pale moaning skin Coupled love locked up in soft asylum Crushed together, lost, looking for more Banana slugs and innocence Wooden figs carved into decadence Forgotten clearings now overgrown With brambly memory and seeds long sewn Another chapter, the page now turned Only photos remind us of bridges burned Set-down love poems can't be unmade The ink may hollow but it never fades
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Aug 3, 2013
Aug 3, 2013 at 10:00 PM UTC
The Clearing
Hiking in a musty wood, A path is laid in mulch and fern, Dark and canopied, rung evergreen And deciduously rooted.  My one goal Set to plateau, reach of hilltop meadow, Others had told me, lay a pond in the sky, Was there to experience a peek, where tall Grasses and dry luster of flowers wild, sang In highland clearings of golden lace and tarn, Set with sun to fly and by sharing the long ocean Straights, beyond the wildest, white horned mountains Of the moody pacific and with eyes casted once more of Youth, after sanded sleep and then to steep in wandering Cloud, as eagles, robed in light and gleems of night, drift, Careening wistful and free as running dream or simply roam A foot as the wise, bearded, mountain goats sure and snowy As they ruminate and forage.                                                    At elevated breaking point, Of storied, pristine clearing, a smoking, lone marmot knotted His voice in plead and alarm as I was about to breach, As brigand, the sun clad forbidden, citadel unbidden, Home of pious souls, of cerulean still waters, intact Peace, untrampled sanctuary.  As made, that day, Unwashed interloper, I gazed through threshold Ends of trees and respectfully circled, Reverent in spectacle and joy, Back, down, earthwards.
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Mar 4, 2015
Mar 4, 2015 at 6:48 PM UTC
Narrow Highland Pathway
. Hiking in a musty wood, A path is laid in mulch and fern, Dark and canopied, rung evergreen And deciduously rooted.  My one goal Set to plateau, reach of hilltop meadow, Others had told me, lay a pond in the sky, Was there to experience a peek, where tall Grasses and dry luster of flowers wild, sang In highland clearings of golden lace and tarn, Set with sun to fly and by sharing the long ocean Straights, beyond the wildest, white horned mountains Of the moody pacific and with eyes casted once more of Youth, after sanded sleep and then to steep in wandering Cloud, as eagles, robed in light and gleems of night, drift, Careening wistful and free as running dream or simply roam A foot as the wise, bearded, mountain goats sure and snowy As they ruminate and forage.                                                    At elevated breaking point, Of storied, pristine clearing, a smoking, lone marmot knotted                           His voice in plead and alarm as I was about to breach, As brigand, the sun clad forbidden, citadel unbidden, Home of pious souls, of cerulean still waters, intact Peace, untrampled sanctuary.  As made, that day, Unwashed interloper, I gazed through threshold Ends of trees and respectfully circled, Reverent in spectacle and joy, Back, down, earthwards.
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Mar 16, 2015
Mar 16, 2015 at 5:42 PM UTC
Narrow Highland Pathway ( reprise )
that's how you came, and that's how you'll be paint on a canvas wild, in front of me mind clashing and dancing, feelings from up above, or from the deepest dark gutters of endless belows you are something else and I'm nothing of the sort you'll have me in shackles and bandages in short but a bruised up toothless smile will rest for a while on the drifting dreamer Crawling for miles protons smashing mingling, mingling Receiving in space made in randomness and darnkess's embrace but there's no sense to make of what's happening to me I could go on for hours and you still wouldn't see these things come from nothing, these things soon to be from dimensions unknown, from foreign clearings a fraction of seconds For fractured Moments suspended in time in existing randomness we can't control how we came to be but it's your choice to make, it's up to you to hear me
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Oct 24, 2014
Oct 24, 2014 at 4:03 AM UTC
entropy
The wood was looming tall miserable and old. I too, was sad and felt drawn in. The path wound and wound, past clearings, over fallen trees until it split. The feeling rose inside then, the feeling of something bigger than the wood and me. Round the corner they waited, round the corner I came. Three beings cloaked in black and dark grey. Hoods covered their heads and faces. shadows slid from left to right. Dust, decay, smoke, dirt burned my nostrils, I smothered a cough. The central one stood straight, thin and tall old yet still strong and powerful. The one on the left concealed large wings, once white and full now brown and balding, poking through large tears in the cloak behind his back. A golden beard glinted in the limited light. The one on the right was hunched over clutching onto a staff to keep upright and an almost white beard flowed to his knees. Their faces, from what I could make out through the blurry haze of shadows marred, scarred battered, from wars and fights perhaps. The tall one spoke with a voice, smooth and light yet muffled like somebody who had been recently crying “Try not to look at what we were. We used to be creatures of importance. Significance, magnificence. The elite of the highest races on and off earth, but now our misery has become our religion and who we are.” They pleaded that I join them in the misery and the acceptance of misery. They handed me my own cloak and hood but before I would put them on I had to think. It’s true these things have offered me a way out of the pain of pretending to be satisfied. Here with these creatures, life could be easier. Being able to be miserable without the nagging “is there something wrong?” “you seem upset.” these questions mostly asked without care, emotion, sympathy, empathy. I thought for a long time. They waited, dark and creepy. Garden ornaments motionless, emotionless lifeless. Just staring, more through than at me. No names. Nothing about them could say who they were. a life without identity. A life without goals. a life without purpose. a life without… Would I end up like them? Unable to die but continuously getting older? Scratches on my face and hands, the shadows covering everything that brings light to a life. All these things I pondered while they waited… but could I reply with what they longed to hear?
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May 6, 2012
May 6, 2012 at 9:00 AM UTC
The Hooded Things
The wood was looming tall miserable and old. I too, was sad and felt drawn in. The path wound and wound, past clearings, over fallen trees until it split. The feeling rose inside then, the feeling of something bigger than the wood and me. Round the corner they waited, round the corner I came. Three beings cloaked in black and dark grey. Hoods covered their heads and faces. shadows slid from left to right. Dust, decay, smoke, dirt burned my nostrils, I smothered a cough. The central one stood straight, thin and tall old yet still strong and powerful. The one on the left concealed large wings, once white and full now brown and balding, poking through large tears in the cloak behind his back. A golden beard glinted in the limited light. The one on the right was hunched over clutching onto a staff to keep upright and an almost white beard flowed to his knees. Their faces, from what I could make out through the blurry haze of shadows marred, scarred battered, from wars and fights perhaps. The tall one spoke with a voice, smooth and light yet muffled like somebody who had been recently crying “Try not to look at what we were. We used to be creatures of importance. Significance, magnificence. The elite of the highest races on and off earth, but now our misery has become our religion and who we are.” They pleaded that I join them in the misery and the acceptance of misery. They handed me my own cloak and hood but before I would put them on I had to think. It’s true these things have offered me a way out of the pain of pretending to be satisfied. Here with these creatures, life could be easier. Being able to be miserable without the nagging “is there something wrong?” “you seem upset.” these questions mostly asked without care, emotion, sympathy, empathy. I thought for a long time. They waited, dark and creepy. Garden ornaments motionless, emotionless lifeless. Just staring, more through than at me. No names. Nothing about them could say who they were. a life without identity. A life without goals. a life without purpose. a life without… Would I end up like them? Unable to die but continuously getting older? Scratches on my face and hands, the shadows covering everything that brings light to a life. All these things I pondered while they waited… but could I reply with what they longed to hear?
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The storm of life surrounds me. I didn't ask for this.I stepped out in faith, but am left with no faith.I see two clearings. One behind me where I came from. One ahead, but I have to go deeper into the storm to get to it.My body is tense with indecision.If I go back I know I can find peace for a time. Contentment in apathy.What lies ahead? Do I want to know?I'm tired of the storm, so weary. I'm also tired of all the apathy and disobedience.All of the sudden I hear a faint call."Find me." it says.I'm frozen in place. "I don't know, Lord. Help me.""Trust me." the voice whispers."But I did, God. And this is where you brought me." I cry brokenhearted."I trusted you God. I know you will never leave me or forsake me. I don't trust myself to be who you want me to be."I'm on my knees now. The storm beating against all sides of me."Trust me!" the voice is yelling now. "Forget about yourself. Find me. Look to me and then you will find both yourself and me."I start to stand. Unseen forces try and push me back down. The clearing ahead is so far away.I tear myself free of invisible chains.I'm running faster than I've ever run.Head bent down, arms pumping, legs straining, gasping for breath.Then it stops.Everything stops.Everything is white. I made it.I fall.Hands and knees hit first. I stay there trying to breathe evenly."God." I gasp"Yes child." He whispers."Save me." I choke out."I already have. You are free." He says gently but firmly.Tears streaming down my face I raise my head and look up.The clearing has changed. It's not white anymore.It's filled with buildings and there are sidewalks and people.The people are everywhere. Cars too.The smell of the city hits me.I'm on my knees in the middle of a crowd, in the middle of the city. In the middle of life."Now go and tell others of me." God says.I smile, bow my head for a second then stand up.Brush the grit from my bruised and ****** knees and start walking.Walking in faith again.
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Feb 21, 2010
Feb 21, 2010 at 3:09 PM UTC
Struggling
The storm of life surrounds me. I didn't ask for this.I stepped out in faith, but am left with no faith.I see two clearings. One behind me where I came from. One ahead, but I have to go deeper into the storm to get to it.My body is tense with indecision.If I go back I know I can find peace for a time. Contentment in apathy.What lies ahead? Do I want to know?I'm tired of the storm, so weary. I'm also tired of all the apathy and disobedience.All of the sudden I hear a faint call."Find me." it says.I'm frozen in place. "I don't know, Lord. Help me.""Trust me." the voice whispers."But I did, God. And this is where you brought me." I cry brokenhearted."I trusted you God. I know you will never leave me or forsake me. I don't trust myself to be who you want me to be."I'm on my knees now. The storm beating against all sides of me."Trust me!" the voice is yelling now. "Forget about yourself. Find me. Look to me and then you will find both yourself and me."I start to stand. Unseen forces try and push me back down. The clearing ahead is so far away.I tear myself free of invisible chains.I'm running faster than I've ever run.Head bent down, arms pumping, legs straining, gasping for breath.Then it stops.Everything stops.Everything is white. I made it.I fall.Hands and knees hit first. I stay there trying to breathe evenly."God." I gasp"Yes child." He whispers."Save me." I choke out."I already have. You are free." He says gently but firmly.Tears streaming down my face I raise my head and look up.The clearing has changed. It's not white anymore.It's filled with buildings and there are sidewalks and people.The people are everywhere. Cars too.The smell of the city hits me.I'm on my knees in the middle of a crowd, in the middle of the city. In the middle of life."Now go and tell others of me." God says.I smile, bow my head for a second then stand up.Brush the grit from my bruised and ****** knees and start walking.Walking in faith again.
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1
Love gives wings to fly. I find myself beyond reach of gravitation . Love. Is it a bird released from a cage, colorful wings of a butterfly or moth following the light? When I say your name aloud, I feel as if all the stars twinkling just for me. In the spirit I whisper to them my longings . I wish to look at them through ages. Love is exquisite flyer, although she met a routine. Intricate hours are peering into us through the windows of our house but like everything in life they will pass away. Embodied we will rise in the air in unison, although we are different rays of the sun. You are the one that broke through the clouds, I am the one which remained behind. Hot or cold, dry or moist I will fly over seas, over tropical rainforests. I will migrate thousands of miles to discover clearings dotted with romantic desires,    garden thirsty of your admiration, uplands of your filigree body, oceans overfilled with affection, aurora of your thoughts enchanted with my poetry, oranges tasting like your lips, violets with the scent of your body. Love gives wings to fly.
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Sep 22, 2014
Sep 22, 2014 at 12:06 PM UTC
Love gives wings to fly