Fire the candle
Crack the day
Light of life
Lift and sway

Up step up steep
Up there lit
Up to where
Archangels sit

Make ready song
Septets and airs
A vital throng
To catch our cares

Make ready step
Make ready light
Make peace within
Give love with might

Call an angel
One then two,
Call to bring
The world anew

Fire the candle
Crack the day
Bring love alive
Make love the way



Martinos © 2017

for Daniel*



the country singer has gone to the city

packed all his chords and a harp

how the voice of love sings

in New York

his part in the harmony

stepping between tramways

along avenues

he finds a new stanza

picked like a flower, put

to the lips of new promise

and her meeting with

soft-eyed recitals in cafes and bars

the tenderness

singing

awakening each heart



Martinos © 2016

the first line of a poem is a window,
to let the light in
across the sill

through each imperfect pane
swirls in the glass
amend perception

to look in
alters the view

the next line of a poem enters further
into a room, many rooms
where light falls diffuse;
to pass down a corridor and touch patchwork, or

thread edges of fabrics
of lived in textures

and in so touching
alters the view

the third line of a poem makes a home
for the heart
to take up residence,
to visit where spaces and shapes partly familiar,
alive at the peripheral,
perpetually shift

and most importantly,
alter the view.

Martinos © 2016

Had I been kinder

She thought of her love

Long passed


In the fading light of

Our last circadian rhythm

An epitaph might ask

Had we all



Martinos @ 2018

Your thoughts are your prison
Or your prairie

Your body is a signature
Of the decisions you make

Your family
Is humanity

The expanding universe
Is a metaphor for your consciousness

Breath and space in your heart and mind
Becomes an infinite resource


Martinos @ 2017

when the child comes to you as the voice of disquiet
will you sit with him? will you hold his heart in yours?
will you say to him – you are loved and i will hear you?
and will you tell him that he can come again
as often he needs – until a time when he does not?
will you show him love and kindness, and have him know
emerging from that new quietness
you are sure to find the solace and the guidance
you both seek?

martinos © 2017

You have outstretched arms
You are on the beach
You are receiving the towel
That will wipe the sting of salt and glare away
You are relieved in the moment this occurs
And look back to the waves that have just released you

Later that day after bathing
You recall the moment
Your skin
Your nature
And what has washed away

Martinos @ 2018

she said
of his passing

'You know
nothing is seen to change
and yet,

everything does’

Later at the window

She spoke with the wind

Sharing her invisible

Sweetly to the end



Martinos @ 2018

I put my author
On the bridge,
(There's going over and
There's crossing),
He will say that
I'm looking for starlight
Or direction,
Of a place to find
The voice between worlds

In the event of success
He imagines Einstein,
To live longer in the question
He foresees Ghandi, wishing
To converse upon ruthless compassion,
He will seek the mother also,
Her cradle and her rock,
To speak of that which has gone unsaid
(As a special favour)

All this and  
To fix at the intersection
The elements of a story:
Beginning, middle and end.
He will return with insight
With composure and understanding
To write the mind upon the bridge
Under which, life flows.


Martinos @ 2016

for J

she has a heart of light
she will touch you
with her radiance

when you see this
you will realise
your own illumination

who is she?


Martinos @ 2017

Our words were mesmerised, unable at
each attempt to describe the end of day
the sun took its story - the spectacle of hues and ribbons between gold fire and greyblack crimsons - beyond Wolumbin - reclining grandmother - crag head facing skyward - omniscient - pausing inbreath grandeur

Taking our gaze, the cloud hummers went westerly - tribal souls migrating in unison -
their mentor and guide a following breeze
and curiously the stars appeared above them
as if flying in formation against the trend
missiles or satellites - not afraid - in awe - we saluted the spectacle - swaying in silence and wonder
Martinos @ 2018

I climbed down through coastal scrub
Sandstone nub and turkey scratch,
Purposefully counted into the hundreds
And then became distracted for caution
And for possible misstep. On safe arrival
The foreshore held its mysteries
Within the wash and cliff and ancient sands
I did not inquire or pause to study, yet committed and turned again to climb knowing afore each rise I would descend

Martinos @ 2018

'First fire'
She wrote
At winter's edge
Setting pine cones
Twigs and kindling alight
Yet I would tell her
Ours is the first fire
First and foremost
Alive, bright and
Inexstinguishable

Martinos @ 2017

In the homecoming

joy

in the barring

regret



of letting go

freedom

of craving

imprisonment



at the welcome

belonging

at the termination

abandonment



with waking up

insight

with shutting out

ignorance



in kindness

compassion

in aggression

self harm



upon reflection

knowledge

upon dogmatism

blindness



with helpfulness

endless option

with ill-will

limitation



and

remarkably

within each experience

the possibility

of discovery





Martinos © 2017

Rarely as I recall, in truth,
Did she speak expansively of herself
Or tell us stories of her young adventure
She reserved the detail and the admiration for others,
others who were remote to me, in interest and in caring,
I never knew, and always assumed she thought them more compelling or entertaining or greater than herself

And now I wish I’d asked her
And told her that this was for me
Furthest from the truth

Martinos @ 2018

In the morning
You say good morning
And the heart
Lights up!
Go figure:
A light heart
To lighten the day
And the strongest beacon
To find the way home

Martinos @ 2017

I am real

You feel this

Hold me
If only for a moment
To set me free

I will return

You will and do forget me
Until the moment
When I'm all you need

Like love
I am that viscera
Essential and unseen


Martinos @ 2017

in the sea

of night

each star

a flood

of light

and the

milky way

a riptide

of delight



Martinos @  2018

In our house
Is living a house
for life - a home
fixed entity with
space under roof
and shelter for love, with
the life that arrives
each day we say
I'm so glad, so glad to
be home

Martinos @ 2017

If I am an eagle
Then I have landed

If I am an only
Then you are an also

And together
We're one

On the shape of that
We're set for takeoff

Martinos @ 2017