Poetry

The Wetlands

Salt marshes 
Teeming with life
Scampering over sand
And between slender reeds,
A dance more graceful
Than I have ever seen:

Fathers with their
Fluff-ball children
(While the orchestra crashes
Behind the dunes)
Weaving tales
Of juicy insects,
Water, earth and moon;
Tucking them in to rest
In downy bed
Beneath the starlight plume.

Gold

True gold, it glitters
Bounding down from solar heights
Off dancing rivers and leaping streams
Between the shadows
Of haloed mountains
Springing into the air with glee
To tell the stars
What it has seen.

Thunder Cloud

I close my eyes and lie
Prone and bellowing in the sky
Crashing, roaring, flashing
Sighing.
My power is within
And all around
Trumpeting, rumbling
Above the ground.
I set alight the darkening sky
And crying, fall till my body dies
Drenches the dampening earth
Until, the sun’s fires
Birth me anew.

The Carven Lands

Rivers of ice, sky blue
Run ancient, ever-changing
Born anew
In my heart, ever-cascading
Torrents of grief
And beauty.

Golden light awakes
Bedecks the shaded mountains
Afar and across
The eternal landscapes within.

A star is born
In a darkening sky
Eyes tilted up towards hope.
I see it and my heart,
It aches,
Surrounded by a loveless game
And city stakes.

Go fly away to the mountains
See pinnacles abound
With love and snow,
Islands shining in the clouds,
As alive beneath my feet
As on the far horizon:

No distance is not near,
No home beyond my Whole.
As once the glaciers ran here
So let sing my Soul.

Stars

Shining islands
Set against
The velvet night
Emptiness
Overflowing
With everything
That ever was.
Warmth
In the darkness,
Full of the light
Of aeons and space,
An endless
Peaceful song.

Snakeskin

How many beautiful,
glistening stars,
as many as there are
scars
upon my body,
which I wear like a
snakeskin
that I cannot shed,
only hide.

If I were a snake
I would shine
like the night sky,
for all to see
the very meaning of the
cosmos
before the stirrings of
feelings 
within me.

But I am a woman
and I keep my
casket-heart
in a box
woven of tears 
and cries of
Eureka!
and daily sundries.

Yet, I wish I was a
star,
shining bold and brazen,
burning up my very
core
in glorious creation
and dying
spectacularly.

Ah, but I am a woman.
I wear a starlit snakeskin,
and I carry a box before me.

Diana

I saw once
The Moon
Shining above
The silent seas.

She scattered 
Silver pearls
Across the ripples
Seeming to dance 
And sway
Seeming solemn
But serene.

There sat
The Lady Archer
Poised
Watching, waiting
Her hair bound back
The dark behind her
Rich and full
Warm and absolute.

I caught her light
In my eyes
Hers seemed to hold
A memory of a time
Long before my own
Speaking straight
Into my heart
A language I forgot
But have always known.

Our gazes passed.

She turned
Her sombre eyes away
Didn’t dare disturb
The deathly quiet
The wind alone
Ruffling 
The silent surface
Stirring up songs
Of longing 
For the lonely lands.

I turned away
And sailed
Where her light
Will cease to follow
My sights set steadfast
Upon the swiftly
Sinking
Sands.

Dark will be my journey
But for the memory
Of her light
Emblazoned
In my heart
A sight
My searching eyes
Will never gaze upon
Again:

The beauty
And the sorrow
Of the Moon 
Above the silent seas.

Meadows of Avalon Lullaby

Sweet little girl, fly away
To the meadows of Avalon,
To lands of undying laughter and play
The evergreen meadows of Avalon.
Roll beneath the pristine blue
Above the meadows of Avalon,
Bring your mother, father, brother too
Among the meadows of Avalon.
The sun is dipping in the west
Beyond the meadows of Avalon,
Rest against your mother’s breast
Upon the meadows of Avalon.
Float away in starry dreams
Of the meadows of Avalon,
Where babies dance upon moonbeams
Over the meadows of Avalon.

Magick

There is Magick in the world…

It is in the touch of the Earth
And in the smell of the breeze
It’s in the blossoms and the birds
And the rustling emerald leaves.

It is there in the dark
It bursts out in the light
It’s in every rain-radiant colour
It sings the song of Life.

There is Magick in the world
It lives within us and freely gives
Hope, Belief, Joy, Love
It sees Beauty in what Is.

There is Magick in the world
Just waiting to be seen
And when we open up our hearts
It sets our spirits free.

Chariot

Oh come, glorious chariot
Drawn by wings of gold
And gilded hooves,
Ivory stallions glistening,
Feathers stretched illumining
A sunrise none has ever seen.

You chase the path
Of the dawning sun
And draw a rainbow 
In your wake,
Trample dark clouds
Of dissatisfaction,
Thunderous roar
Your power and action,
And scatter stardust
With your gait.

Shatter me open, dazzling chariot
And set me shining
Like a newborn star,
Riding among all the colours
Of a nebula,
Galaxy-glittered
And milk-white spectacular,
Landing iridescent
Upon the aurora,
A constellation none foresaw.

So, colour me gold,
Oh glorious chariot,
Open my heart, set me free
And when you see me
Wait for me
To take to flight 
And ride with thee,
Chasing the sunrise
I’ll never unsee.

Baby’s Song

You were born to a world
Where you need only to be Loved
The Earth will feed you
Life is a game you play
Heart and Soul.

You are a picture of Innocence
From before the world was made
The Light shines from your eyes
You are all that you need
And all the world can be.

Shadow Man

You ask me what use
My words and ‘pretty pictures’ are.
Well, you ought to know
Shadow Man
The power of image and illusion
Not for hope and revolution
But for fear and delusion
A power you wield the world and over
Whispering in the dark.

Shapeless and insubstantial
Yet mightier than any force physical
Is the gift of visionary imagination
To bring what is not into creation
The greatest playing field that ever was
Limitless in potential.

This you know
Shadow Man
As you stand scathing and cynical
Lying and inimical
You hide behind the tangible
The ‘reasonable’ and ‘rational’
Yet picked the truest battlefield:
The human spirit
Where every fight is first won and lost.

So, get ye gone
Shadow Man
Trickster, Liar
Implacable
Spiteful, baleful
Insatiable
And go on whispering
Where the bogeymen are.

And let lie in the light
Human hearts
Wondering, marvelling
Imagining, creating
Weaving a world of splendour and art
Wise to just who goes
Lurking in the dark.

Andromeda

When I awoke from dreams
Star-grazed
I saw you in your chariot.
I would call you
Diamond-dusted
For I have no true words
To describe your beauty.

If I questioned my heart
I would ask if you know me,
Or do you still watch
My early ancestors
Blue-tinted?
Or, are you but a reflection
Of my brightest desires,
And if you are my light
Am I your dark?

But no, I needn’t question.
You called to me
Mother, sister, daughter, lover
I have not the word
But you called me home.
I know not the way
But I walk to you
For the path that finds my feet
Is guided by your light
Twinkling in my eyes.