poetry

Africa Calling

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I hear you calling
I know your arms are wide open
There is no stepping
This must be a dive
Closing my eyes
I feel my free fall
As there is no fight
Against the draw of your call
From endless landscapes
With blistering deserts
Placid salt lakes
And daunting forests
Where Man is of no consequence
Where beast is the king
I will come as your guest
And leave as your subject
The Queen of this Earth
You give birth and house to the wild
You show how it was
You teach how it can still be
No matter the challenge
You survive feast and famine
Uprisings and peace
You uphold your regal name
And with reverence I say
She is Africa

Bird of Paradise

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Distinctly present

With colors unadulterated

Definition unquestionable

With geometrical challenge

What creative precision

With beauty spectacular

As adorned with grand stature

Claiming humbled respect

Bird of Paradise

You inspire a freedom

Exotic and rich

Yet sprout amongst us

Feeding from shared sun and waters

What wise lesson you teach

That wherever you are

With whatever colors and form

We too can unfold

Majestic and magical

She II

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Embodiment of woman
Quietly she does not come.
Announced by her presence
As delivered by Mother Nature.
Curvaceously bold
Cool, calm the exterior,
Awaiting the unleashing
Of her beholden fire.
Lips do not to part
As her words never matter.
She speaks with a rhythm
Even nature can only but listen.
Gently she commands
Entwining her partner,
Inseparable, indistinguishable
One made for the other.
Allowing the forum
Her energy comes forth.
Her softness, her pains
Her fury, her surrender.
Each woman her own.
Yet mirror you do
That ‘she’ spirit of ours,
Dear sister of mine.

She

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Not all will see her
Lifetime of scars
Colors adorn her
Painting pictures hollow

Performing her rituals
Loads carried high
She integrates into the fabric
The thick societal weave

Her face speaks silence
Her heart cries wild
Breath she stifles
Suffocating alive

Ahead lay dry arid lands
Dusted with desolation
Yet seeds of passion, fire, love
Await the raining days

This spirit of woman
Has never come and gone
Without a mark
Upon at least one soul

Sisters of mothers never known
Bloom in past and future
Some blazing trails
Some leave treasures buried

So Sing and dance
Like nightingale and lark
Or roam and glide
As swans of the lake

Embrace the gifts
Of all that make the ‘her’
Rise to your part
As designed by nature’s Mother

 

 

 

Pain

Tears flow
Empty space,
Tears drained
Empty space.

Heart aches
Lonesomeness,
Heart hardened
Lonesomeness.

Eyes search
What futility!
Eyes beg
What futility!

Can I
Be consoled?
Can anyone
Be consoled?

Memories
Flood with pain.
Pain
Slowly lapped by sweet memories.

Deep within
Strength feels stolen,
Deep within
Strength yet stirs.

Embers rustle
Fire re-ignites,
Embers stoked
Life rekindled

Life, my one companion,
Please hold me
So I feel held.
Perhaps only then,
Pain may subside.

Law is law!

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A law is a law
Is a law
Is a law!

Or is it?!

‘Every law has an exception’
Has it not?!
Or is it just a loophole?
A smart ass lawyer?
A way not to comply?!

But wait!
There is one law
Undeniable
Irrefutable
Just damned unbreakable!

Here name is Morticia
She readies herself
As soon as you arrive,
As she knows one day
She can sweep by
And swoop you away!

Or can she?!

Taught by the saints
The pandits, the mystics
The lot!
‘The day you came
Seals the deal
To the day
You must go!’

Infusing the fear
The concepts
The traps.
The great dichotomies
Of there is heaven and hell
There is life
There is death!

But wait!
Is there not the ‘circle’
The ‘circle of life’!
Just as the sun rises, it too sets
And as it sets so it rises.
The tide flows and then ebbs
And ebbs so it flows.
The moon waxes and then wanes
To wane, then wax.

Is Man, this human life, the exception
With such finality as death!
Is this all the greatness
That the mind
Can give?!

Death, disappearance of form
Leaving corpse, leaving dust.
Are we to trust these eyes?
Just because
They see me no longer,
Means no longer am I ?!
Does the earth get lighter
With every departed soul?
Heavier with every
Arriving babe?!

What nonsense is death!
Given mighty stature
Given mighty rule,
Making you cower and crawl
Leaving you shallow and small.

Death is merely opposite to birth
In this circle of life.
As roses are to mulch
Mulch is to roses.
Great icebergs to water
Water to ice.
Mountainous cliff sides to sand
Sand to cliffs.
Think a little further
What happens to Man!

‘The departed never leave,
They live in your remembrance, your soul’
This energy of life
Is omnipresent for all.

Like it or not
Understand it or not
We are all but one,
And of the grandest of One!

No law to defy
No law to prove
Ask of yourself the answer
And truth shall be yours.

What Possibilities!

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Stride of a stallion
Bridled with passion
Energy magnetic

Endowed with stamina
Forging forward
Racing ahead of the curve

Strength of an army
Yet soldiering solo
Battles conquering

Here is a man
In tune with his mission
Breaking conventions chains

To be that man
To be that woman
Takes more than presence

Yes you are here
Yes you do yearn
To be your authentic self

So silent walk
Or forceful charge
Be sure of direction you go

As it is for sure
That moving you are
Question remains
Do you know where you go….

Thanks for Giving

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At the end of each day
Before the eyes close.
And as the dawn breaks

Before the eyes open.
You’re marketed.
Drawn by the glitter
The glamour, the clatter.

You’re hounded like prey
Trapped like the stray!
Heart beat races as if by a thrill.
But poorly differentiated
Is this pleasure and pain.

Are you the consumer?
Are you the consumed!
Are you falling or climbing?
Finding goal or demise?

Yet confused at the summit
As oblivious to this play!

Look, listen and learn
The way of the world,
And rote cloned you’ll be churned
Like manufactured humanoid!

Upon the pages of your heart
Your mind, your soul.
Erase, erase the messages
Allowed in by the gull.

The self talk,
The ego
Reinforce the convictions.
Drown out the pound
Of your screaming heart,
Gateway
To the tethered soul.

To escape the cycles
The conformity, the pressures.
Takes a presence pristine
A perspective reborn.

Slow, to feel the calm
So breaking the chains.
Shift the focus
Perspectives can change.

Challenge the noise makers
For phantoms they are.
True joy is no acquisition
It’s a gift of the Divine.

Weave in your kindness
Your currency of love.
Such priceless commodities
Stock market left dumb founded!

Let the changing light
Take you deep to your rest.
So fully, you can embrace
The quiet of the night.

Then rise each dawn
With the voice of your heart,
Saying,
“Thanks for Giving”
The wholesomely completeness
Of your being
Upon this earth.

 

Autumn 🍂

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Spring came and she was but a bud,
Full of eager promise.
Green in every torturous way
Simply daintiful and delighting.

With the summer heat
She strengthened with turgor
Resilient to the power of the beaming one,
Enriched by each dawn.

Now with the sun distanced,
Shadows and chilled air govern.
She flaps and fights
Hanging on with brittle stems.

Bursting or bruising
Colors brimming,
Amber to terra cotta
And every shade between.

As departure arrives
Her cabaret is at its height
Her glow, her draw
Never greater, never stronger.

Either gentle float
Or sweeping dive
She brushes downwards
Landing with crisp grace.

Piled in with company abundant.
Crumble awaited
To merge once more,
And merrily feed Mother Earth.