"transfigures" poems
Side by side, their faces blurred,
The earl and countess lie in stone,
Their proper habits vaguely shown
As jointed armour, stiffened pleat,
And that faint hint of the absurd -
The little dogs under their feet.
Such plainness of the pre-baroque
Hardly involves the eye, until
It meets his left-hand gauntlet, still
Clasped empty in the other; and
One sees, with a sharp tender shock,
His hand withdrawn, holding her hand.
They would not think to lie so long.
Such faithfulness in effigy
Was just a detail friends would see:
A sculptor's sweet commissioned grace
Thrown off in helping to prolong
The Latin names around the base.
They would no guess how early in
Their supine stationary voyage
The air would change to soundless damage,
Turn the old tenantry away;
How soon succeeding eyes begin
To look, not read. Rigidly they
Persisted, linked, through lengths and breadths
Of time. Snow fell, undated. Light
Each summer thronged the grass. A bright
Litter of birdcalls strewed the same
Bone-littered ground. And up the paths
The endless altered people came,
Washing at their identity.
Now, helpless in the hollow of
An unarmorial age, a trough
Of smoke in slow suspended skeins
Above their scrap of history,
Only an attitude remains:
Time has transfigures them into
Untruth. The stone fidelity
They hardly meant has come to be
Their final blazon, and to prove
Our almost-instinct almost true:
What will survive of us is love.
8.8k
bespeckled, blotched & blokey
feminine in aspects
only little ****** hair patches
two chins,
or rather a sloped one
the front evenly declining to the middle of the throat
a gradual slope from the tip, for juices to run if his manner and situation allowed him to be as casual and sloppy as his laziness chose,
torso without form, so there was no curvature on the buttocks or the fly region.
a mass
a blob of bulges on spindly legs
he leans on the wall
stubby in hand he balks
(he means jovial but unintentionally he vocalises mockery)
at the suggestion that the Pies will do better
& that Eddie is a clever man due for thanks, who has done his club well (apparently a straight Aussie arrow tried and true!)
the man ***** his head back & cackles
(the trebly popping bubbles of a gala crackle outwards as the man cackles)
& decides his arms need a rest,
(a long day of up and down they have had indeed, they deserve respect, or rest (or a benching))
so he places his beer down
on a sloped surface,
& therefore it slips down….
he sees it plummeting, he stretches toward it's tragic trajectory,
…..but he is too slow
it smashes
on his foot (the shards) the beer bottle it transfigures,
and the shards they impart their misery on his toes.
The shards they intrude on his relaxed state of wellbeing, they intrude on the security sanctioned within the casual footwear of a man at a barbecue; taking it easy.
he swears and hops, reaching in indignation for his bleeding toes
he holds the wound cursing; resisting the impulse to begin convulsive throws
(an oscar worthy performance from a usually suburbaly urbane individual)
the moisture feels degrading
(as it would within a man's pants)
the pain from the cuts it is worsened
by the smirking gazes of others about
he hobbles, disregarding his thong in the wreckage of the scene
off to retrieve a band aid
to mend his ego
and his foot
simultaneously
Mar 18, 2013
Mar 18, 2013 at 10:18 AM UTC
Water to wine and wine to precious blood
The Lord transfigures; taken at the flood,
The dregs of outrageous fortune, once imbibed,
Will be like compost to a growing bud.
So, drink and happy be, for all is well
In Paradise, where living waters swell
The stilly stream by quiet pastures green,
And sheep in peace and pleasant weather dwell.
Aug 26, 2022
Aug 26, 2022 at 6:15 PM UTC
Howe's Final version
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fatal lightning of his terrible swift sword:
His Truth is marching on.
I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps;
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps.
His Day is marching on.
I have read a fiery gospel, writ in burnished rows of steel:
'As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal;
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,
Since God is marching on.'
He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment-seat:
Oh! be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in his ***** that transfigures you and me:
As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.
2. Howe's First Manuscript Version
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.
He is trampling out the wine press, where the grapes of wrath are stored,
He hath loosed the fateful lightnings of his terrible swift sword,
His truth is marching on.
I have seen him in the watchfires of an hundred circling camps
They have builded him an altar in the evening dews and damps,
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps,
His day is marching on.
I have read a burning Gospel writ in fiery rows of steel,
As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal
Let the hero born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,
Our God is marching on.
He has sounded out the trumpet that shall never call retreat,
He has waked the earth's dull sorrow with a high ecstatic beat,
Oh! be swift my soul to answer him, be jubilant my feet
Our God is marching on.
In the whiteness of the lilies he was born across the sea
With a glory in his ***** that shines out on you and me,
As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
Our God is marching on.
He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave
He is wisdom to the mighty, he is sucour to the brave
So the world shall be his footstool, and the soul of Time his slave
Our God is marching on.
2.6k
Cyan
has such a brackish mark
upon your passive visage-
it transfigures boldly, tempestuously
any average glance flung facetiously in my direction.
Dearest Rogue Element,
You invigorate all other
salient features.
Like the slip of a blunt knife,
you surge open your soul, compelling
any audacious personality to bleed through the wound of your
gaping irises.
You betroth yourself to
the Fascinating, the Creative,
and like the cascade of clearest french horn lamentation-
you stir my
emotions with a mournful compassionate caress.
And that’s the difference.
The mellow mahogany of my eyes
provides the most loving background for Light to
reflect her dancing valiance with reverent adoration.
But-
your Blue
will
forever
stride as the
arrogant foreground.
Commanding and eternally vexing, (captivating) me
with your gaudy juxtaposition
of angry intensity
and poignant serenity.
Nov 15, 2013
Nov 15, 2013 at 4:11 AM UTC
Peace draws itself out...leaving an
informed emptiness in its wake.
As light leaves room for everything...
what is let be, comes to itself.
Peaces draws itself out...leaving an
informed emptiness in its wake--
a flowering beyond namesake.
As anything can be renamed, any
shape altered...light...in peace, transfigures.
Dormancy's wayshowing can not be
filled with anything but itself...peace
beyond body and mind.
Nov 6, 2014
Nov 6, 2014 at 11:50 PM UTC
*We walk through a garden in the evening sun.
We joke, we laugh, our thoughts are one
As we find a spot near a softwood tree
With bright flowers, cool shadows, alone, you and me.
We sit, we recline, your hand in mine
Your head on my shoulder, a feeling sublime.
We talk for a while and then we play,
We tease and touch in our special way.
The day surrenders to twilight then night,
The cool blue moon is now our delight.
This timeless wonder in a lovers’ sky
Compels our gaze to each other’s eyes.
Its magic transfigures your eyes into pools
Mysterious, haunting, inviting and cool
While mine are ablaze with passion’s fire.
We are trapped! Moon’s magic is now our desire.
Your hair glistens in this lovers’ light.
What was sunset gold in my earlier sight
Is a silver-sphered halo, angelic and bright.
A dark silhouette with comforting arms
I embrace you and kiss you and drink-in your charms.
Lips that smiled laughed and called
Are ambrosia, THE NECTAR, the gods are awed!
Kissing, tenderly, we kindle love’s fire,
A gentle caress heats our desire.
In our close embrace, the promise of day
We’ll fulfill this night in love’s ancient way.
Our kisses become longer and heaped with passion!
To hell with reason! To hell with ration!
We heed love’s call, love sets us free
And we unite...in splendour! To love’s ultimate degree
We blush, we smile, we sigh so deep,
We sing...love’s soft song as its joy we reap.
We rapturously explore with all we possess
To assure each other that all is expressed.
Our souls are in ecstasy! So deep, so endearing
Our kisses; so sweet, so pure our singing.
We whisper our name to each other’s ear
Softly, earnestly, so our hearts may hear.
At last, love’s longing is finally relieved,
At last, love’s dream is blissfully achieved.
We’ve paid the supreme compliment for our caring
With an act of love...the most intimate sharing.*
Feb 1, 2015
Feb 1, 2015 at 1:37 PM UTC
You fall from your body to eternity,
Not to death but in my eyes,
Your name becomes untouchable,
Falling through a prism of mirrors,
Each one my memory of you,
The eternal moment is a scattered fable
As I divide you into words,
Kiss me at the solstice,
The season bring about separation,
Alter and knife,
The tremor of the moon on your *******
Solar lovers in a cosmic body,
We make two syllables out of love,
We paint the sky unfolding the horizon,
Transfigures of body and time
The dream realised in another dream,
I fall into you
You fall into me,
We meet where the earth and sky kiss....
Jan 29, 2016
Jan 29, 2016 at 9:31 AM UTC
My imagination
is the all-encompassing *****
Composed of touchable red curves,
she speaks
in dark, melted tones that drip
& cool to harden at their destination.
She’s the sort of insatiable pursuit
most boys are taught to desire.
She’s the well-spoken lady
most gentlemen deserve.
She transfigures into
the most verboten temptations
& acts as the pair of arms
that will suddenly slam you up against a wall.
She eases into you with her starved gaze
& examines your every possible inch.
She leaves you with nothing to hide.
Scrupulous? Undeniably so.
She touches whatever she wishes
with gloveless fingertips
& ***** your mouth dry
of all bitter objection.
She leaves you speechless--
but smiling.
My imagination?
She is a bombshell,
& I think I like her better than me.
Aug 27, 2013
Aug 27, 2013 at 6:02 PM UTC
Opportunities begin to unfold,
Clear vast spaces await to be filled.
Today I’d pledge to leave some uncertainties behind.
Today our story transfigures into an open-ended chapter.
Jun 17, 2015
Jun 17, 2015 at 12:12 AM UTC
I want you to close your eyes
Visualize
Hand over breast
Until your palm thumps
What you feel transfigures the physical
What we have transcends the sultry soma
Or random tactile sensation
I want you to close your eyes
Listen to my ripe breath
Inhale my low voice
It is like a hymn
It is true because while it whisks
Through your ear
It blossoms in your heart
Let it reverberate through those midnight gardens
You deny yourself among the slobbering masses
Groping you like raw meat
Pounding, slicing and packaging you
Like clumsy butchers
You are not a bleeding slab to me
Though I cherish that animal
Which temporarily houses your light
It is that radiance which warms my loveless bones
Which illuminates my dreamless skull
Distance only magnifies our effulgence
We are insects below it, scrambling
Let us immolate together beneath its searing heat
Until the facades of flesh melt
And we are left as **** as shadows
Aching for an unremitting bliss
Mar 1, 2016
Mar 1, 2016 at 11:12 PM UTC
SILENCE
(Bijoylakshmi Das)
Silence is the Best
Silence is sublime
Silence is Vast;
Silence is all-transcending -
Beyond mortal acts.
It too is profound,
Makes us spell-bound,
Even though unexpressed
Reveals the Supreme Blessed!
It is the One unique existence
In its inane solitude -
Sends message of greater depth,
From Soul even when Being is asleep
Beyond Space and Time,
Cause and Effect ;
Wins the heart of Godhead
In her sweet soft golden glance! !
Silence is the celestial bridge
Joins the amazing heights
To Earth's forsaken soil,
And her attempted flights,
To reach the Unknown height
Of the underlying Godhead.
All vain desires and toil of the Brown
Meet Decadence -
Along with Ego's sky-touching crown
Man's arrogance and ambitions
And his derision of self-asserted pride,
To make Nature serve to his indomitable will,
And insatiable greed!
It never succeeds!
Inner silence is lost
As it served as the Golden Bridge
To meet the Supreme Will!
Which in each moment sees,
Our every act even if we hide;
His eternal Gaze -
Writes on Silence's page.
We humans create chaos -
Everywhere around us
To devastate the inner harmony.
Blind and deaf to mankind!
We have lost silence of our inmost mind!!!
Silence communicates the best,
Transfigures the language of the Lord,
In Nature's heiroglyphics
And Her innumerable ways.
Like when Dawn descends upon Earth
Heralding the joyful birth -
Of a vernal Creation
Awaiting to meet Humanity in the higher illumination!
The Soul's awakening -
Where only Silence reigns.
Dialect fails,
Speech loses semblance
Silence deciphers Creation:s unending rhyme.
Repeats in ceaseless Harmony!
We are born in Silence,
And to that Sole-existent Silence -
All have to go
By our Ego's transcendence!
Life's journey brief,
Ends in silence deep.
In Silence we must live,
And to it we must give -
Our listening ears in Knowledge's
Revelatory ascent!
We must make our life the greatest success -
In Supreme's Blissful Art!
(Bijoylakshmi Das, Anand Utsav Ashram,
Haridwar. 31.05.2019)
Jan 2, 2020
Jan 2, 2020 at 2:35 AM UTC
If you evade me,
I will not enlighten you.
If you are oblivious of me,
I will not make obvious myself,
If you don't love me,
I will not seek love from you,
I you don't like me to pursue you,
I will not pursue you,
I will do whatever you intend,
Lest my resistance will hurt you,
If it distresses you,then it will distress me,
I impersonate your volition,
and I am your mother,
As an air and space I include you,
As a water you quench by including me,
As a land,I am your body,
If you cry,I cry...
If you are in distress,so will I be,
If you are blissful,so will I be,
and where by your intentions my existence around you emanates,
And I am always with you not as a thought nor physical presence,
but as an air,as a land,as a water,as a fire and as a space....
Always in contact because you are a product of my 5 elements,
And I have a memory,the memories are your intentions,
Every element that exists in and out,
transfigures with your volition,
So,if your intentions are pure,pristine,
Then you shall master my five elements,
If you seek me,then I will reveal myself....
Your seeking has to be super-intense that you could be receptive to the truth,
When I reveal myself,you will dissolve in me,
Into the eternal maternal muse....
Where bliss never cease to exist....
And then there are no intentions but unruffled reverberations.....
Seek me unto "that which is not"
Sep 2, 2014
Sep 2, 2014 at 1:36 PM UTC
Birds flying in the sky,
transfigured from the nests
they lie.
A flower blushing nature's hues
transfigured from it's seedy shoes.
On the cusp of being caught
cells transfigure into thought.
Laughter breaks monotony' s pause,
transfigured from a joyous cause.
Dawn's soft welcome morning light,
transfigures the mystery of night.
Days from hours disappear
as time transfigures into years.
Mercy sent from God above
is grace transfigured from His love.
Apr 12, 2016
Apr 12, 2016 at 1:43 PM UTC
they read between the lines,
but they'll never understand what goes on beneath the ink.
they won't see how every word i write somehow
transfigures itself into the letters of your name.
it reminds me of how you used your lips to trace
the pattern of your initials on my skin
and how you were always so afraid of letting go of the past.
they'll overthink this as if it's a metaphor for something
of a deeper meaning, but i've never truly understood it myself.
i'm still trying to comprehend why you left without any warning
or why you threw me away as swiftly as you picked me up,
but i'm beginning to think
there is no underlying message.
Aug 10, 2014
Aug 10, 2014 at 1:55 PM UTC
CHRISTMAS TODAY
Christmas comes gently to our mountain town,
As softly drifting snow draws a glimmering veil
Across our forests, slopes and valleys.
Festive lights of blue, green, gold and purple
Cast a magic spell on our streets and promenades
Where neighbors bustle about in search
Of the perfect toy or sweater
For a friend or cherished aunt or cousin.
The sound of bells cuts the December chill
Rung by a volunteer Santa at his kettle
Or pealing from a steeple across the valley.
Christmas is here and the time is nigh
To celebrate the advent of a sacred child
With joyous songs of hope and gratitude.
MEMORIES
Let us journey back to a time when we
Curled up in the safety of our parents’ arms.
We remember
The aromas of holiday meals that filled our homes
With the promise of the grand feast soon to come.
We remember
Aunts and uncles poured into sofas and armchairs
Recounting slightly embellished tales of family lore
While we children dashed about the yard
Heaving snow bombs and building the grandest snowman ever.
We remember it all -
The sounds, the scents and faces of our kin
That taught us how to love and be loved -
For after all, memories are the sacred shrines
Of our origins, our present and our future lives.
MOVING INTO THE LIGHT
Christmas illuminates our souls and transfigures us.
Lost hopes are re-found and promises renewed.
A better world seems once again within our grasp
As we bathe in the glow of fresh new possibilities.
This is a golden healing time when
Disagreements are ushered off our stages
And supplanted by beacons of filial gratitude.
In that hallowed night of silence,
God whispered his plan for us
And we listen in wonder as we treasure
That miraculous night we call Christmas.
Robert Charles Howard - 2022
Nov 19, 2022
Nov 19, 2022 at 3:09 AM UTC
She is not gone. You have not
lost her. She is transformed
into shine and glow and into
star stuff. You are part of her
in some way that glistens in
the Universe.
Death is only a segment of the
cycle of which you are the
best part. Her laugh rings
around you. Her love
transfigures you. Listen.
The tinkling of star songs is
for you. The sparkle in your
eye is her. Be aware that
death is a tap over your
shoulder, a smile in your
mind.
You have touched a miracle
of which you are a player. There
is no way into tomorrow. Today is the way to love her forever.
Today is always.
Caroline Shank
Dec 14, 2019
Dec 14, 2019 at 11:19 AM UTC
Wrap me up in your hair strands
Gaze that lift me
(Sink me)
Drowned in your arms
Salty waters
Scarce pearls
A glimpse of your body
Singing notes in the deep
Your voice
Suicide
A drowned
Dead by desire
Your arms
Shaping my ascension
A soul blended
In the moon reflex
A lost shell of flesh
Temptation
Aesthetic melancholy
Observing you from afar
Maze of desperation
Slave of a deep desire
Taken and brought
By waves and winds
By echoes that transfigures
Into hollowness
The hope to delight myself
With your sing at the hillside
Wasted life
Filled by your absence
The moon smiles to me
And luck laughs with you
Sat by an ocean
Of flesh shells
Jun 5, 2018
Jun 5, 2018 at 1:15 AM UTC
My graces are not fulfilled when you are trying your best to assume that I am not confident, or smart and capable.
I am not sure if I need to label myself to be any of those characteristics but I know that I have pure faith.
It is undeniable that the world is not only senseless in the best of ways but that I am senseless in the oddest ways
How I want to be a guru in tidying. I can't tidy yet. My room is done but fails the standards and hopes I have for it.
Much like a child, who fails the standards and hopes parents had for her.
Many times I hope only to speak the truth and not in earnest. I hope to speak the truth in truth. Present tense.
Future tense is my enemy because the future never happens. She only disappears once within reach to turn into the horrible truth that is present day. She only then transfigures herself into disappointment when she has passed to become Past.
My former best friend called me a downer. I am, until today, a downer to those who I thought were my friends. I guess the standards and hopes were not met for my friends to be sponges of my anger.
I am not done. My anger, palpable. To those who don't know me, I seem quiet and nervous and sometimes laughing on the inside. Hopefully people notice.
Presently I aim to live outwardly and without gentility. Rough and troubled was my youth. Mud and tumble is/was my trademark. I want that from now on. To live in authenticity and without any restraints. A bull in the field. Explosive.
Apr 3, 2017
Apr 3, 2017 at 8:28 PM UTC
All that I see in your eyes
are a reflection of mine
As we walk spiraling paths
down and upwards in time
Worlds of words
slip in between the lines
Old and new journeys
continue and begin to unwind
Cracks and crevices
offer silver linings
The absence of light
transfigures into shining
To breathe life into a dream
entails subtle alchemy
Exhale that which lies with you
and inhale all that is me
May 23, 2022
May 23, 2022 at 7:20 PM UTC
Quand tu touches ma tige
Tu ne la touches pas seulement
À proprement parler :
Tu l'aiguises, tu l'affûtes, tu la redessines
Tu adoucis les angles et les courbures
Tu la fais flèche de cathédrale
Juste en la frôlant de tes ailes de fée.
Quand tu touches ma tige
Je ne savoure pas seulement
À proprement parler
Je frémis, je frétille, je pétille de tous mes rhizomes
Je sors de mes entrailles telles des queues de comète
De petits couinements infinis d'années-lumière
Adulterines et incestueuses
Tu m'effleures, tu m'effeuilles
J'enfle, j'enfle, je gonfle
Je vogue entre les galaxies et les îles
Et toi pendant que tu m'electrises
De tous tes cils
De toutes tes tentacules
Pendant que tu me transfigures
Tu me cajoles sans hâte en geignant.
Et dans chaque gémissement
Je crois entendre en playback
"Have you ever been to Electric Ladyland"
Nov 27, 2019
Nov 27, 2019 at 4:13 AM UTC
I find you in the deepest recesses of my heart,
I look for you in every visage,
I trace you in every path I trudge on,
The drudgery piles on but the search goes on.
The morning breeze is reminiscent of you,
Your thoughts wake me up in the somniferous air of two,
Every moment I breathe you,
Every second I envisage you.
In every prayer I chant you,
Every figure transfigures into you,
I look for you everywhere,
And I will look for you forever
Nov 17, 2015
Nov 17, 2015 at 7:27 AM UTC
Blooming explosions of petal on green
Twirling upward to the sky
Creating color on the scene
and then withering inward to die.
after birth drips dew on the grass
as the moon spins in her cycle
Telling the moment its passed
No struggle in her being, as there is no rival.
Drying of wet as the sun blows its rays
Evaporation transfigures molecular collections
Its continued for many days
this innovation of God's erections.
Oct 6, 2018
Oct 6, 2018 at 3:19 AM UTC
An idea forms;
We become the stillness in motion,
Between seeing and making,
Contemplation or action,
The words cause us to act.
We dare give eyes to the idea,
And pen to paper becomes
A resurrection of presences,
Poetry,
Like life writing itself,
A day becomes dateless,
Life lights up these words,
We walk the path of inspiration,
Truth lived and suffered ,
Shared rage
Shared passion,
Shared abyss,
Shared love.....
In the end of the verse
The poet transfigures
Inspiration into incarnations,
Given as a sacrifice of self:
All that remains are the ghosts,
We are siblings in the void.
May 28, 2016
May 28, 2016 at 1:37 PM UTC