"silvered" poems
In my little-boy town up north
rivers were not yet plugged.
Poled men came down and watched
for silvered flashes.
Pink would be inside and make
a mouth want to melt it down.
The river power we would sing
Guthrie-style in grade school,
how rolling power and darkness
were misaligned, how wild
river and light was such empty logic,
and little boys learn to forget.
In school, where poor men send
the next young nation, a new
nation conceived in hydrodamnation
and simple salmon ******
Little boy rain from Rockies
going near my door, and whipped
whirlpools spinning funnels of
quick deadening swim traps,
so stay so far from bad river,
doing nothing more than
running off to sea. Stay near shore
and enjoy the new electricity.
Apr 29, 2015
Apr 29, 2015 at 12:37 PM UTC
A woman drew herself up from wrecked wood at the bottom of the ocean;
whispered sea-songs into the wistful ear of a long lost love;
shook her locks 'til his heart beat faster;
looked longer than she should into the deep pools of his pleading eyes.
"I will call you when I want to;
I will call you when I want."
Cooled his temples;
breathed her watery breath
as silvered beads streamed down his shocked skin.
.......
Rumors rock an empty drifting boat;
a glazed shell faced with priceless pearl
broken from its moorings,
strangled by a knotted rope.
"You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you"
Hold fast the bestowed gift,
your Quinquireme of stowed treasure.
Protect its precious structure.
"Who are you, the one who stripped my soul?
Who is the third who stole yours?"
.........
Broken from netting I lie
a beached starfish on burning sand,
wishing the waves to wash me
back through Time's receding current
to find the silence that once was;
to turn away before the sacrifice,
before the Eye of the storm.
copyright © Caroline Grace 2010
May 20, 2010
May 20, 2010 at 2:05 AM UTC
Stretching and shouldering night away a sun crouches
to birth black's ousting
by one more empty circle of dark's hollowed pouches
then outs in sparkling showers.
Spangled with myriad star-labour unfolding membranes,
like numberless leaves
dreamers listen to soft serenades as the universe favours
lullaby-songs to deep breathing.
Silvered surface shivers with night-eyes as glittery dust
follows with dart-swift
flight each soul's winged journey while murmuring such
mysteries to those sleeping still.
Glimmers on sightless horizon reveal light's celebration
while untrodden dew
newly writhing in close-capped life waits inertia's frame
stirring to shake before rising.
Piercing the brain time's needle regathers worn threads
and remembers that more
sown seed means now-grown grain needs re-collection
in daylight's mind-aware storage.
Open-eyed, naught is over as hinging on less or more,
sun, with slumber done,
now hurries to open the thin partition between yawns
of torpidity to more hours won.
Mar 4, 2017
Mar 4, 2017 at 5:12 PM UTC
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Infinity's Mirror by Nat Lipstadt
Two mirrors, set in opposition observe created notional blending,
a reflecting pool of bonding's of unglued, contrary compositions.
Mirror to mirror, his imagery, fuses to Sylvia's images, hers,
faintly recollected, now living face, face to face, with his past insurrections, alters his future visions.
From cold water lake she's drawn, impaled by refracting regrets,
retrieved, drawing her words upon him, an awakening slap to drink,
beloved, tragic magic, infinitely captive. But this old man's tiddlywinks, land-locked words, blunted instruments, needy for release & salvation, are neither silvered or exacting, just stains on a dulled, tarnished brass spittoon, except for the brunt'd bunting of lines across his roughened terrain'd face, black and white, pen and ink etched illustration of howling agitation.
His words worn down, hardened, red faced, purloined speckled pellets, damp to roll on down her rutted, almost ancient, tear streak paths, disbelieved superstitions, sacrificed for one of her living morsels of words.
Man, here to her, pledges allegiance, audaciously defiling her poetic sanctity, a visage endless repeated, delivers her shiny poem-poised countenance, even though no forgiveness from time can a mirror afford for either, from her words, confession born, terrible truths beyond, beyond the finite.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mirror by Sylvia Plath
I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
What ever you see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
I am not cruel, only truthful---
The eye of a little god, four-cornered.
Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.
It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long
I think it is a part of my heart. But it flickers.
Faces and darkness separate us over and over.
Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,
Searching my reaches for what she really is.
Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.
I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.
She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.
I am important to her. She comes and goes.
Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.
In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman
Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.
Apr 25, 2016
Apr 25, 2016 at 4:17 PM UTC
+
A bed-sits high and dry,marooned on a sandbank of night.
As radio 4-casts its nets to isolated ships like me that rudderless drift on into the light.
Still dark outside,no sounds,save the distant echoing bark of a hungry fox ----streets away.
Another dawn ripped blackbin bag of a day creeps and ouzes in
Heavy unfocused lids fogged in the steamy smokeyness of tea and a first fag
plenty of time plenty of time.
Time before the world wakes to the morning pips and its flushing, brushing, rushing sounds
A greyness gathers just beyound my pained curtains, as with a silent sigh a roosted blackbird clears its fasted throat.
Then as if by magic I 'm carried, scimming high above and beyound this mooring set in a silvered sea,on a welcomed mantra known to all.
As if a calling pray at day break,following each word in a moment subline
Un angle vole un angle vole.
Rockall - Malin - Hebrides
Humber - Fisher - German bight
Thames - Dover - Wight.
Each single secert understood and noted only by a few as I glide over in paced, pausey surf rolling words
North northeast - 994 - Falling slowly - Low pressure moving away - Gales 8 very poor - Backing 3-4 later - Mainly good - Becoming variable - Syclonic later - Increasing 6-7 mainly west - Swally showers for a time - Fair - Good.
Oh so good, each pure English comforting sounds heard over lapping waves of air.
The bushy wet nosed fox sulks and cowers away from the breaking sun, as the blackbird draws a dewdropped breath though golden nib and tapping gently, call a hidden choir into song just for me.
Reminding me of the things I'd for gotten I care about.
Sharp timed unwelcomed pips flood the ears to prise open sticky eyes from promised dreams and spoon-cuddles warm
As I set forth on wetted pavements, ready to decline into my charted day.
Yet smiling as if blessed and no longer alone
But filled with early morning salty thoughts of strangers
I
have
yet
to
meet
Feb 24, 2011
Feb 24, 2011 at 7:47 AM UTC
GRANDMOTHER
A singing, child, a singing
about the great stallion,
who would not drink the water,
the water in its blackness,
in among the branches.
Where it finds the bridge,
it hands there, singing.
Who knows what water is,
my child,
its tail waving,
through the dark green chambers?
MOTHER
Sleep, my flower,
the stallion is not drinking.
GRANDMOTHER
Sleep, my rose,
the stallion is crying.
His legs are wounded,
his mane is frozen,
in his eyes,
there is a blade of silver.
They went to the river.
Ay, how they went!
Blood running,
quicker than water.
MOTHER
Sleep, my flower,
the stallion is not drinking.
GRANDMOTHER
Sleep, my rose,
the stallion is crying.
MOTHER
It would not touch
the wet shore,
his burning muzzle,
silvered with flies.
He would only neigh,
to the harsh mountains,
a weight of river, dead,
against his throat.
Ay, proud stallion
that would not drink the water!
Ay, pain of snowfall,
stallion of daybreak!
GRANDMOTHER
Do not come here! Wait,
close the window,
with branches of dream,
and dreams of branches.
MOTHER
My child is sleeping.
GRANDMOTHER
My child is silent.
MOTHER
Stallion, my child
has a soft pillow.
GRANDMOTHER
Steel for his cradle.
MOTHER
Lace for his covers.
GRANDMOTHER
A singing, child, a singing.
MOTHER
Ay, pround stallion
that would not drink the water!
GRANDMOTHER
Don't come here! Don't enter!
Go up to the mountain
through a sombre valley,
to where the wild mare is.
MOTHER gazing
My child is sleeping.
GRANDMOTHER
My child is resting.
MOTHER (softly)
Sleep, my flower,
the stallion is not drinking.
GRANDMOTHER (rising, and very softly)
Sleep, my rose,
the stallion is crying.
3.2k
I will walk with you in dreamland,
and verdant trees will brush our brows
with hoary leaves,
and silvered fish will swim in untouched seas.
The sun will warm our hearts and kiss our cheeks
as does the doting father.
I will walk with you in starlight
while the incandescent crescent marks the ground
with dappled light,
and the night watchers will peer at us through leaves
up, up away where they are secreted and safe
from sun’s harsh glare.
I will walk with you in meadows
where the peonies and bluebells prosper,
soft and slow,
kissing sweetly as their petals brush our skin.
And the meadowlark shall sing for us, her song of joy
sent forth in notes of gold.
I will walk with you forever,
down the path untamed and tangled up
in brambles,
and also down the road so clear and straight
and gilded by the sun with bricks of gold.
Wherever you shall go, my darling,
I will walk with you.
Jan 23, 2012
Jan 23, 2012 at 1:11 AM UTC
My heart like the ocean
Ebbs & flows with the presence of the moon
Aye, the inconstant moon
In all it's silvered graces
Shimmers only of it's own accord;
Like yourself
While you light the sky
Life's burdens are but jetsam
cast away
The ship of my soul is lightened
to freely follow loves wind
where ever it does catch my sails
But in your absence
I am lost on a tumultuous sea
Likely to sink
In the wake of this tempest
I seek solace in the stars
But flotsam am I,
As I know you shine not for me
Apr 21, 2014
Apr 21, 2014 at 1:20 AM UTC
A lily-girl, not made for this world’s pain,
With brown, soft hair close braided by her ears,
And longing eyes half veiled by slumberous tears
Like bluest water seen through mists of rain:
Pale cheeks whereon no love hath left its stain,
Red underlip drawn in for fear of love,
And white throat, whiter than the silvered dove,
Through whose wan marble creeps one purple vein.
Yet, though my lips shall praise her without cease,
Even to kiss her feet I am not bold,
Being o’ershadowed by the wings of awe,
Like Dante, when he stood with Beatrice
Beneath the flaming Lion’s breast, and saw
The seventh Crystal, and the Stair of Gold.
2.9k
Poetry is often made impossible
and forgotten it dribbles away
Experiences begot are dried
in dusty memoriam of thoughts
Locked in chipped ornaments
pictured emotions die framed
in an old letter's sentenced pain
Decorative wordy entrapments
cannot fool or command love
however many silvered words
try to stir or grab at thine heart
Whereas times every moment in
your observed, captured thought
does cradle this beating heart
"*We shall gift thought it's
touch and bites of freedom
then love it's sustenance*"
Fun's giggling thrashing bushes
of living sweating poetry
David x
Jul 19, 2010
Jul 19, 2010 at 3:55 AM UTC
Twilight's melody rises
mournfully dressed in lilac hues
she grieves for the glory of the primrose sun.
The rise and fall of waltzing starlings
mirror the final breaths of the day
as with glorious mirth they beckon to the silvered chill of the moon.
Mar 25, 2015
Mar 25, 2015 at 2:13 PM UTC
The world is resting without sound or motion,
Behind the apple tree the sun goes down
Painting with fire the spires and the windows
In the elm-shaded town.
Beyond the calm Connecticut the hills lie
Silvered with haze as fruits still fresh with bloom,
The swallows weave in flight across the zenith
On an aerial loom.
Into the garden peace comes back with twilight,
Peace that since noon had left the purple phlox,
The heavy-headed asters, the late roses
And swaying hollyhocks.
For at high-noon I heard from this same garden
The far-off murmur as when many come;
Up from the village surged the blind and beating
Red music of a drum;
And the hysterical sharp fife that shattered
The brittle autumn air,
While they came, the young men marching
Past the village square. . . .
Across the calm Connecticut the hills change
To violet, the veils of dusk are deep —
Earth takes her children’s many sorrows calmly
And stills herself to sleep.
2.6k
Autumn flares out, its flame burst clouds
strewn about misted cliff sides, loam whites
of winter taking their place. A stiff willow breeze,
ten thousand things withdrawn to burrows and immortal
pine heights. First snows stream down, duckweed carpets
of August fade, jade peeking through white. I embark
on the seasons final sail in hardening ice waters.
Til spring my sails will be folded, my raft in idleness.
~~~
Rafting on moon drenched river, avoiding cascades and crash of
rapids and falls. Silvered driftwood a warning. Silent glide of
mulberry oar through dark azure, another crafts sail in silhouette.
From the deck a black spectre dives below, stillness follows
splash, re-emergence, beak wrapped around a dazzling rainbow.
From my raft dangling lantern sways, trout swiping at
gathered moths – scatter and return, some from a far off realm.
Some trout in the net, others not. Luck or the way – who can tell?
~~~
Dusk colour gorge sheathed in
emerald blankets, rising into sheer
cliffs of auburn cinnabar, all
underpinned by the fathomless
flow of azure clarity. Snowy Egrets
nest in pine top heights clear of dust.
On white sand shores gibbons howl
towards squawking beach gulls, squabble
over landlocked trout – debate without end.
Peach blossom petals swirl on spring breeze
over carpets of jade inter cut by king
fisher blue zipping over duckweed. Oriole
song weaves in and out of mulberry branches.
In these vast and vague waters -
coves, creeks and streams all one,
a river dragon lives an undetermined
existence. Mud stirs below, merely a
catfish airing grievances.
Red tail flares in dirt,
my mulberry oar rows me back home.
Jan 15, 2012
Jan 15, 2012 at 8:13 AM UTC
[Las Meninas, Oil on Canvas, 1656, Prado, Madrid]
I am the first proud pronoun I
against the fear of my invisibility
each morning rising from
minor nobility like my parents
(no son of a converso – lies –)
into the light of mastery;
now as a Knight of Santiago
- the king himself painted the cross
you see in Las Meninas -
nobilitas is in the faces
royal with ancient lines
(you understand I did not
trade
am Moorish of Seville
and Portugal).
Not from the mind but back
into its expectation.
I see the work reflected
into the lens of sense
to supplement the work into the real
express itself by what
a slavish love of detail cannot supply
it was the power
to give them what they did not see
the scorn in lips
from ****** generations
bought by my brush
among them into monarchic trade
and what they thought as glory,
dwarves and all larger than life.
that painted me so high
those royal portraits by the score
keyed to the colour of fame
silvered and golden
mine.
Jan 25, 2012
Jan 25, 2012 at 7:11 AM UTC
The city arrives peels
of silvered bird laughter
Acrobatic chords frost
death train November in
Girl Pure Sugar and
Day of the Dead lavender
The streets are burning
The names of ghosts curl
on tortured papers
Beyond the slithering ruin of
the skull etched Yucatan
ball court
Your voice burns in my
pulse as I hunt
The jaguar
Nov 25, 2011
Nov 25, 2011 at 9:46 AM UTC
A sin of darkness, buries silvered waters, where breathing is as tangible as a caress;
The circle turns, unceasing, around my feral heart,
Unfettered as the tides, where desire ebbs and flows;
Through rainbows, spun with roses, swaying beneath shadows...
Crystals of feathered lace sense his rhythm; like whispers
Drifting past things I dared not dream,
Clinging to misted breath; cradling me unconditional;
Wrapped in strands of tender, I discover him,
In a sacred place, where cheek meets chest,
And bodies find recognition...
His shadow across satin, the pattern of my emerald draped desire,
Coating my silhouette in a musky promise, cocooned in timeless abandon,
My eyes sing with the gentleness of baby's breath, lips fill with the softness of rainbows,
Of cloudburst kisses, trailing tenderly from forehead to cheek, to moistened mouth;
His darkness, drinking deep, a black satin desire...
Eyes of fire, burn my skin, searing into me,
Demands; as heat wraps, twining through me, gazing past absolution
Expressions of want, shine radiance, reflecting need;
My breath brushes against questions held in his eyes,
His murmurs tightly thrusting a foreplay sliding in cushioned madness,
In crescent moons that bleed....
Fingers encircle, tracing the wet I create, hands grasp tender submission,
My body given, raw, arched, grasping darkness within his eyes,
Rampant...and forbidden, my unwoven breath....shatters
Upon the mastery of his moonlight storm.
A suckle flush against a throbbing womb,
Swept away against passion's throes...
Cradled, in ache, chaos spilt between us in rivers,
Swirling within the scarlet spill, I am strung out,
Like the lights I have found , eternal, in his eyes entranced;
I weep for the beauty he pours, lips bleeding his crimson name;
I touch him, touching me, in the weave of promise, stained upon his smile...............
Aug 8, 2012
Aug 8, 2012 at 5:36 PM UTC
In triggered droves
a deafening hum
is birthed,
millions of
metallic wasps
venture,
on silvered wings
an invasion begins
to a minds corner,
roaming.
Oct 25, 2011
Oct 25, 2011 at 2:01 PM UTC
Sleep, pretty lady, the night is enfolding you;
Drift, and so lightly, on crystalline streams.
Wrapped in its perfumes, the darkness is holding you;
Starlight bespangles the way of your dreams.
Chorus the nightingales, wistfully amorous;
Blessedly quiet, the blare of the day.
All the sweet hours may your visions be glamorous--
Sleep, pretty lady, as long as you may.
Sleep, pretty lady, the night shall be still for you;
Silvered and silent, it watches you rest.
Each little breeze, in its eagerness, will for you
Murmur the melodies ancient and blest.
So in the midnight does happiness capture us;
Morning is dim with another day's tears.
Give yourself sweetly to images rapturous--
Sleep, pretty lady, a couple of years.
Sleep, pretty lady, the world awaits day with you;
Girlish and golden, the slender young moon.
Grant the fond darkness its mystical way with you;
Morning returns to us ever too soon.
Roses unfold, in their loveliness, all for you;
Blossom the lilies for hope of your glance.
When you're awake, all the men go and fall for you--
Sleep, pretty lady, and give me a chance.
2k
*i.
He told her
That mathematics was too
Sombre.
Too, too
Linear
To be poetic.
She said that
He had only seen himself
In a mirror,
A reversed hologram
Of his external self
Burned into his retinas with
His subconscious filling in the gaps.
But she had seen him
The rays reflected straight off him
Into her eyes;
Not some half-assed reflection
Off some silvered surface.
ii.
She said that
His jawline was
The slope of a curve
Pencilled on a graph sheet.
His candlewax skin
A wavelength
Quantifiable on paper.
His spine
A number line with
Dashes, to show real numbers
The set of which was infinite.
She said that
A Fibonacci sketch was
A minimalist rose,
A post-modern bouquet.
And that
The reflected pale morning sun
In a half finished cup of camomile tea
Was a cardioid
With fixed coordinate values on the axes
And an algorithmic tangent.
And he
Was a negative infinity
A paradox not sorted under
Quine's classification system.
iii.
She had
Recorded his heartbeat and blood pressure;
Measured the distance between his lips with her own;
Tried so hard, so very, very hard
To put him down in a numerical form
And write him off as an equation.
But all she could say was
That he was more
Than the sum total of his meagre parts
And that she
Was his reciprocal value.*
Feb 23, 2013
Feb 23, 2013 at 1:05 PM UTC
Two months ago I saw you alive and happy
two weeks ago I could have seen you breathing
one week ago I could have touched your porcelain cheek
Now all I can do and ever will do is stare, stare at the finite letters etched into stone
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
May you weight be lifted
May God take your load and let you be free
May you flit forever young through death's waves.
no more pressure, the gray shroud has been lifted and you may dance with the angels on silvered slippers
May you glide gracefully through the enlightened void of forever.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What I wouldn't give to see your smile, one last time,
to hear your final laugh and to weep with you at the end,
to hold you near and let you know you are loved by me until the last second,
to be with you one last time, to say my goodbyes: to get closure,
to get rid of the chains pulling me down.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If only the world were perfect and I could meet you, in health, to let both of our souls be free.
but you need not worry, for where you are now is the most immaculate place on earth, but detached from earth
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
May you lie forever in undisturbed harmony
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I say my farewell to your stone now and can only hope you hear me
but if and when you do,
I want you to know
I. Love. You.
May 7, 2012
May 7, 2012 at 2:12 PM UTC
The soft welcome healed me
In this valley of sheltered dreams.
Time wound it’s way down muddy tracks
And flower streaked hedges shared my pain.
Rivers wove their pebbled course around me,
With every passing day my heart began to heal.
Now, slowly the oak greened night draws in ,
Owls call me to sleep as silvered words
rise to the star spangled sky
Jan 25, 2010
Jan 25, 2010 at 1:14 AM UTC
She's lost in wilds unexplored
Far from dreamers' shining lands
In misty moors where even Sleep
Lets fall his useless magic sands
There is no rest for mortals here
For fools who play where Faeries tread
On Faerie roads, in Faerie lands
The world is turned upon its head
Her stride is sure, yet she is not
Perception is the Faeries' game
Sending visions, glamours, ghosts
Illusions wailing out her name
A fearful girl along the roads
Will bargain for most anything
And here, the threshold of Lost Hope
Is purview of the Raven King
The Raven King! The Raven King!
She fell in wonder at the sight
As castles grew before her eyes
And wild dark turned blinding bright
He led her to the winding halls
She rushed down cobbles Faeries tread
She gulped the dizzying Faerie wine
And took the proffered Faerie bread
They swept her up in swirling dance
For frenzied days, she whirled along
In drunken time, she stumbled to
The beat of Faerie's wild song
And, wilder still, her heart would drum
Excited in the glittered haze
As Fae lay stardust in her eyes
And drew her with their feral gaze
But wait--why did her weary bones
Resist the Fae's beguiling thrall?
Even as her mind was pulled to
Pirouette the Endless Ball
Dissonance--a spell had snapped
She scrabbled at the gilded walls
"Is this to be my cage?" she called
Across the King's ethereal halls
She couldn't sleep; she couldn't rest
Paced and fretted, cried aloud
But she had bargained, drunk the wine
And for the Raven King now bowed
"You made the bargain, mortal girl
You said the words and you were bound
You called out for the Raven King
When you were lost on Faerie ground."
She'd never known the ancient laws
The tricky ways of binding rites
The way the Fae could draw you in
With silvered tongue and phantom sights
The Faeries laughed; the Faeries danced
They brought her back under their spell
She didn't fight--their dazzling daze
Was better than a living hell
So there she stays, a wayward girl
Heartsick, lost, and trapped in Fae
A fearful girl along the roads
Who bargained her whole life away
Sep 14, 2022
Sep 14, 2022 at 12:08 PM UTC
I saw a dancer, seductive
Trail-blazer, paint a picture
Of the future; in the future
There were silvered swans
Gliding the surfaces of mirrors,
Dragons spewing sunset
Into the sky. Later, the moon -
Distant dream-fellow, will rise
Above a plane of promises.
But the dancer tripped and fell,
I was reminded the stars are cruel
To reach with lesser fuel
Than is needed, imagined
Only in a dreamer's desperation
To depart an insensible nation.
Sep 17, 2012
Sep 17, 2012 at 5:15 AM UTC
"where the air was never extreme, which for rain had a little silver dew, which of itself and without labour, bore all pleasant fruits"
After a weary journey
Our faith revealed
The Shining Isle
Where the wounded king was healed
Land of the undying
Their ancient glittering eyes all seeing
All foes long gone
Fear and worry undone
Graceful,quiet, deep browed
Long fingered hands
Stars and jewels chiming in silvered hair
As they walk those quiet paths
Over the water suddenly calm
We saw that glow
A light shining from the highest tower
The bells tolling from far away
Then with regret
Which made our throats clench with swallowed tears
We turned our hulls away
Back to the shadowed mortal land
Where the armies of the night
Struggle in unending battle
Broken plains strewn with bodies
Where the grey faceless men hold weapons
Dark with power
We always knew
Deep Down
This is the place
Where we belong
Where we belong
Avalon
Sep 13, 2012
Sep 13, 2012 at 10:05 PM UTC