If a rare spotted handfish
Washed up on my beach
Barely alive
Would one recognize
How special it is?
If happened upon
Such a find
It would mark my days
Stories and spare time
I'd seek to remove
Every invading sea star
Threatening its home
Plucking them from
Jetties, wharfs
Sea bottom floors
Just to make safe home
For one whom
We only touched hands
Once
A word from you is like
Shock of a cool waterfall
After climbing over canyon
'You are always
In my heart and
In my longing'
An embrace swallows me
Like a river finding
Ocean home forever
'Never possible to leave..
Love-anchor held me there'
Waiting as long day night
Anticipating rare flower
In dense forest blooming
'I had just found
The long-desired way
To your dearest heart'
Staring at stark blue sky
Years wondering weather
Turns so quickly like you
'Of course I want to
Come to you very much as I
Want to come to Heaven'
Mimicry parades in hundreds
Different ways though
Never whispers to you
'Sweetheart I always love you
More dearly than you know'
~ letter by Katharine Lee Bates to Katharine Coman, 1891. In The Love that Dares, by Smith & Vesey, 2022.
Shade gives depth perception
Necessary when deepest ocean
Turns to shallows
Define the wreckage, rocks, cliffs
Tone brings more indifference
A wintry holiday by ocean
After reclaiming lost
Treasures awash with jetsam
Tint a whitewashed
Glossy smile and glint
Not knowing whether real
Seeking substance
Hue is true and steadfast
No turning black to blue
Once seen believed
Richness not felt before
Nor again, but you
Love is looking up
Telling us always
Who to and where to go
Telling feet to point
In right direction
Or else stumble aside
It's the glorious view
From below that inspires
To keep going
Taking everyone with you
If eyes are glued
- Try it some time -
Wherever you look
Others look there too
So grateful to spy
A beautiful soul
Chin up to pinnacle
To show me how too
The last time I ever
Saw her face next to mine
My chilled fingers wiped
Warm tears from her eyes
Shed for another lost
Lover long ago
Sometimes it's shared losses
That waters new growth
If time lasts forever
We'd live in that moment
Rather than swimming
In thoughts of our own
Giving voice to our stories
Of long lost loved dears
On the seat right beside
Their bodies appear
While two are a couple
Absorbed in own world
A gaggle of lovers
Surround sound divide
So keep them in storage
Where they safely belong
Saved up for those moments
When long dates are done
Why speak alone when
The lives of many
Resound through telling
Decades of stories
Adventures spanning
Continents flourishing
Details lived experience
Pictures of the mind
Old time movie reel
Spinning behind eyes
Us watching the reveal
Based on non-fiction
Told with endless love
When people and places
Elude you now
Take a solitary bow
For work of fiction
Vicariously through
Imaginary friends
No less delightful
On the hearing
Though how marvellous
To have dedications
On front pages
To those who wielded
The wand of pen
Beside you
Vain attempts skimming
Over and over same lines
Soothing brain waves while
It recounts the time
A fair medusa lured me
Completely innocently
Its venom only treated
Wounds still weeping
So intoxicating was she
There is no end to it
Body addicted
Making no moves
To cure this high
Elixir of life
Administered swifly
By the touch
Of her eyes
Nice new homes popping up
In large backyards
All around me
Mine old on the outside
Renovated as new inside
Like me
Homes like their owners
Yet, like a hermit crab
Shell expired
Looking for another
Sea floor bare sand
One day a house
To call mine
Somewhere deep
Earth and wilderness
A share house
We cannot divide
Freely dissociating
In a world of harsh reality
Walk through iron gates
Guarded by gargoyles
Fairies and nymphs
To catch a glimpse
Take up the chase
Exploring ways
To alleviate
Burden of waking
Upon realising
Where we all find
Ourselves at once
My wonder makes
It easier to wish
Live, dream, reminisce
The idea of her
Is quite something
To believe in
In the absence of
All else
In a time
Not of our own
Making
Love is all
We need
Shape shifting countenance
Colours refracted over time
Telling me all I wish to hear
And yet only one line
Stands out from others
Unsolicited
Happy Solstice
How a mountain is revered
Upon holding a stone
Between my fingers
How tunnel vision
Peering through confetti
Glitter tattooed
Like spots appearing
After staring at the sun
When the view in front
Is clear and cool
As the wintry sky
Count the stars of heaven 