Georgia Station 1943

This summer night so softly calls, beckoning hearts to stay one more, as coyly baited anticipation pulls her past the station’s doors. Upon the platform, stalled in silence, the blue rails disappear through trees that hold this summer’s boundary, that hold this town where loved was pleased. For here life slowed its errant rush and dreams suspended moment’s splendor within the kiss of true love’s blush and all that truest arms can render. Slow and pointed, every kiss, so softly laid in Georgia’s moon, eternal, every moment’s claim, yet still this summer passed too soon, when through the southern pine the call, the orders came and he was gone. Stemmed along these rails of chance, their lives, their hopes, in whispers long.

In full moon’s fire the clouds broke bright in iron blue and angel white. The scent of pine and clay’s red rust held her captive as it must. A long low calling whistle echoes o’er some distant hill, shuddering her stoic courage, flirting with her iron will.

The platform mostly empty now, her one lone bag next to her side. Gabardine in blue and pressed, the rose he gave her tucked inside the fold at hat’s fine piping, that as she stood there still, its fragrance mixed in Georgia pine, stirred by full moon’s hope and will.

And so with time, as time does bend, her fleeting moment’s grasp did rend an echo along the steel railed tracks, that in each passing second stacked each moment spent, each sleepy kiss, each spark from every ember’s bliss, to well a tear divine.

The steam in angry spurts and spouts softened hard the whistle’s scream, as pounding out eternal hopes and stretching long arrival’s dream. The quiet night escaped the scene in unfamiliar porter’s rush, yet… from steeping recollection’s blur, one steam bound sigh reduced to, “hush!… feel the Georgia moon pull strong upon this liquid steel and night, blue in hopes and promise, red in love and blessed in white… hush!”

As she stepped aboard the sighing angel’s bluing heat, she heard her true love’s whisper, faint, “hold my kiss upon your lips until again we meet”…

Slowly left in silence, the platform stark in summer’s moon, as distance dims the pullman’s lantern, this summer’s bliss returns to June.

2 Comments

Filed under History, Poetry, True Love, Universal Soul

Posthumously

How do the fleeting moments slide beyond this desperate errant grasp?
How does this waning life of rhyme find a single point to clasp
within the hopes of purpose lain, within the humble want
that dreams of words in echo there
among the flaxen hopes, that haunt
the fabric of every day?

They dance in ether’s lacquered musk,
seduced by what the poet knows,
drunken in their wanton lust
that to the world, designed to show
that every day is bread and wine,
every day mundane,
repeated work in value’s void
is stiff and slanted highway rain.

But there the motivation comes
in anger of such wasted schemes,
that force eventuality paused,
suspended near the hopes and dreams
that greater purpose pricks the poet,
greater purpose pulls his soul,
greater meaning meant for others,
posthumous drifts ‘tween the poles
of temporal lines in lingering,
gestalt wrapped cross the evening sun
that folds a sinner’s dusk in death,
that drives the length toward when it’s done.

Are there points reflected in the mirror of what is God?
Are hints divine across the fabric strong in even, weak in odd?

Is it just too much to dream that sacrifice and duty’s truth will open doors while living?
Or is it just that what is blessed, is best when long since gone, it’s giving?

Oh! How my aching heart decries the hateful mourn of working day!
Oh! How the empty echoes pain the tasks that for tomorrow stay!

How can the soul in living form adjust to less than spirit,
when robbed of moments fleeting points, that ears left passed are few to hear it?

Sad the poet’s recompense that draws the bitter coins to purse,
leaving only two for crossing’s price and dues to pay the hearse.

Yet there upon the rippled Styx the faintest whispers heard,
repeating every lay and rhyme, repeating poet’s every word…

…posthumously.

3 Comments

Filed under Perspective, Poetry, Universal Soul

Midnight’s Terror

Softened through the echoed streams
of dream I so redeem
the instance of my calling,
and there within I scream
a silent howl ne’er set from lips,
stolen midst the ether there
in grunts and anxious sips
of what I dare to shout about,
of what I dare to stop,
then through the veil of stardust lacquer,
awake!
and back on top.

Darkened room, shadows lost
to hollow corner’s keeping,
drenched in midnight’s sweat of terror
and sandman’s wicked steeping.

Blended affirmation
of the haunt that cast me out,
quickly fading from my mind,
forgotten pricking to the shout
that seemed so dull and death like,
that crept from deep within
to hold my helpless hapless soul
enraptured, left to not defend
the missing piece of what it was,
what was it?
was it?
Was!

Don’t know, just empty dreaming now
through sleep bound eyes and yawning.
Safe within reality, yet
just enough to run from dawning’s
day ahead of midnight’s keep,
to sleep,
to sleep…
again I sleep.

Leave a comment

Filed under Dreams, Perspective, Poetry

Eyes of Soul

What do I see behind these eyes,
enrapt in living’s echoed timber?
What source in strength of spirit, I,
that burns the questions from mere ember?

What of these eyes that come to me,
in passing daily actions bent
to find their own known mal-affection
that from their living purpose rent?

See do they? See do I?
or do we think we see?
When yet our soul’s sweet purpose rings
in spirituality.

Unknown to me each presence.
Unknown, the purpose each heart seeks.
Unknown, each soul’s sweet resilience.
Unknown, each journey’s triumphed peaks.

Yet to their eyes I look each day
and try to bring approval,
or maybe just a passing smile
for souls behind each pair’s perusal.

I feel the great connection,
the fabric spun from God in life,
in which we bend reflections to
the solving of each other’s strife.

I know sincere inflections stand
in spirit, soul, and human hand.
I know we blend to form the truth
of what is truth, of what we can.

Here now my day light passes,
that from my walking presence lay
a spirit down to sleep in me,
and through my lips in conscious pray,

“Blessed I am through kindness given
and that which I return.
Thankful, as I am in living
for what’s been granted, and what’s been learned.”

2 Comments

Filed under Perspective, Poetry, Universal Soul

I Write

I write between the fleeting moments
where time subsides in crescent waves,
lends me just my shadows earned,
collects my penance paid.

Here amidst the scattered moments
thoughts of day joust through my mind,
tarry contest for the bidding
of what attention I’ll give in kind.

But alas –

Denounced, these wayward fleeting thoughts
fall away in disrepair,
die among the gladiolas
rooted ‘long this road’s despair.

And to my heart and settled mind
I lend this ebbing patient song,
to find the words to catch me,
to seek some peace and hold it long.

Leave a comment

Filed under Perspective, Poetry

Poet’s Night

Quiet does this moment lie
when dusk surrenders to the night.
Soft the shadows gather ‘round
to blur the focused edge of light.
Subtle does the scent arise
from blossomed spring in calling.
Slow the breath of life unwinds
into this moment’s pleasure, falling.

Here the day’s repaired,
the tasking rendered ghost.
Here the soul drifts free from care,
granting what is needed most…

Cello… piano… wine… cigar…
silent in release… reflecting…
moonlit clouds… revealing star…
free to dream, heart selecting
memories of love and youth,
rolling through suspended truth…

…until the music fades…

with only blood dripped stains of wine
to count the scattered ashes,
to count the precious moments played,
mixed throughout the ink’s dark splashes
in what this heart has spilled
upon this page in poetry filled.

8 Comments

Filed under Perspective, Poetry, Universal Soul

One Meadow

What distance does the meadow grant when o’er its lay the anvil sounds in single hammered pings?
What journey does this plea incant as from this village home and ground the smithy’s hammer sings?

Ah!

Such bliss is this sweet pealing kiss of home and all I love.
Yea! My heart, in longing start, carries on the wind as dove.

For there my sweet, in song’s repeat, sings to my soul and to my mind,
that I may soon return to her and in our cottage garden find
her blushing in her quiet song,
singing soft and singing long.

Rapture! Cross this meadow long that carries length upon my stride,
as coursers swift in covenant, will bound me home unto my bride.

Till there upon the garden gate, my longing will no longer wait!
Unto my arms, in blushing charms, our hearts and souls in bliss,
witnessed by the meadow’s cheer, held in love’s eternal kiss!

… beyond it all, a simple call is carried on the wings
of anvil sounds cross meadow’s grounds, whereon the smithy’s hammer sings.

Leave a comment

Filed under Poetry, True Love

Passion’s Tide

Stalled in waves of motion,
seduced in grace of ebb and flow,
called to shore’s sweet passion
while caressed in wanton’s undertow,

stacked in silver lines of strand
held free in jealous prison’s hand,
marked by courage fear had won
recalling futures yet to run…

Sordid space between these poles
where earth and time dismiss
the temporal call of love’s red blood
to grant this weightless moment’s bliss

that draws the arc from then and there,
suspends the dream in thoughtless care,
entreats the mortal soul with peace
exposing heart in sweet release…

Bound in breakers, pain of life
demands our courage take us there,
to trust that hopes defined in strife
remain as faith in tatter’s tear,

that we may yield to freedom’s tide,
harbored in the ebbing wide,
beyond the rocks at danger’s peak,
to find the love and truth we seek…

Leave a comment

Filed under Perspective, Poetry, True Love, Universal Soul

Above the Alpine Rill

High amid the summer fir,
engaged to overlook the rill
of winding valley’s rising mist,
one moment captured, standing still.

From the shadowed night behind,
swept a feathered rush of wings
just beyond the tall pine’s reach,
aloft this breath of morning, king!

Stoic eagle, timeless brother,
perched on valley’s rising din,
purveyor of this latitude,
great servant to the truth within.

There, by grace of silence
midst summer’s green of sweetened pine,
beheld the hushing heart of nature
in whispered words spoke true and kind…

“Here my sweet beloved
have you come to rest your soul,
where through this moment’s treasure
find the truth that bathes you whole.
Yet for you, in thankfulness,
return the kindness that you share,
in hidden whispered thoughts of God,
aloft this summer’s morning air.”

Not a single breath, took I,
entranced through every stretching beat,
as grace and time converged to still
this captured silence sweet.

… till I …

… till I …

… till I …

Embraced in mountain’s love and home,
adrift in summer’s thermal thrill,
returned His gentle whispered thoughts
suspended ‘bove the alpine rill.

Leave a comment

Filed under Mountains, Nature, Perspective, Poetry, Universal Soul

The Poet’s Eternal Blood

When ink no longer flows from wells
through pens that bring the poet’s tale –
When stars decline to shine through nights
of bible black and moonless heights –
When breezes fail to stir the musk
of woodland’s stagnant summer husk –

Tis then my heart will write in blood
by candle flame of passion’s flood
drawn sweet across my sweating skin
to bring it all to life again!

When fate denies the hands of time,
freezing metronomes in rhyme –
When strings and bow default to mute,
failing note’s enamored suit –
When carol and the chorus gone
from symphonies’ now retched song –

Tis then that I by stomping foot
will raise the rhythm from the soot,
howling loud with dog and cat
to mount this music strong and fat!

When life blood dries and I have gone
to brighter pastures, green and long –
When heart beat thrums have left my chest
and drift in ashes final rest –
When hands are cold and voices dry,
when worldly sparks deny my eye –

Tis then that I will rise again
through souls of ink and nibs of pen!
Tis then this poet’s art will thrive
and through the ages come alive!

6 Comments

Filed under Perspective, Poetry, Universal Soul