Nightly thoughts invade Missed chance blooming Once a year Beauty and opportunity Keeping me awake How long till next opening? Keeping me grounded Expectantly waiting Indefinitely Crowds gather round me Knowing Queen of the night Stood over me Displaying her colours For one glorious moment From then on became More like myself Each passing day
Image source New York Botanical Gardens Est. 1891.
Take you with me Everywhere I go Wherever I stay Yet pieces of you Will be strewn Carefully Tenderly As I speak out A love that dared As I shed scales Off laden wings Turning transparent Emptying Evolving As we all are Portraying colour Residing within Becoming again A heart That sings
Doubts like spaces Between numbered dots On blank page Each time I skip Over the chasm Leaping in well-known Logical progession I slip and start again Until one day Dots and lines gone Hand guided by eye alone No longer fall But fly on
A massage Smoothing over All hard places Flooding in Joints and sinew Touching pain Bringing healing Warm movement Entering in Tentatively Slow moving statue Rising up again Brought to life Ready for anything
Artist Margaret Stephenson, ‘Annie’s Nails, No Mermaids’ ~ City of Parramatta Art Society
Stay Not long enough To admire your Kaleidescope of colour Drifting away On the next breath Of wind as I exhale Disappointed Yet inspired To have known you In the first place Lie in wait in case She returns to our First meeting place Wondering weather Does lightning strike In the same place? Random encounters Rouse hopefulness Capture the infinite Beauty of a moment Chance encounters Of your kind
Butterfly by Katy Bhogal, City of Parramatta Art Society
Shedding her skin Never knowing when To see her lover again Ebony arm band Holds and keeps her From unravelling When catching glimpse Of one just like her Close your eyes Imagine Light is dim Colours dancing Not easy to Give in Somewhere else Someone else Minds clasp fingers Across the distance Constant surrender Night lights win
I am no blank canvas Her voice carries Over exhaled droplets Float on chill air Chiffon stiffens Over her breast Pertinent news Traded for lashes Poignant painter Strokes her curves With tip of brush Dipped and licked Tip of tongue Flicks with gossip Gleaned from models Like this one But not All the stories Laid out to honour The delicate shape Of her ear Dripping with pearl drop Lungs fill suddenly Then stop As a fine hand decorated With a spectrum of splatter Adjusts the neckline Then dabs another Skin colour Deep and divine
Portrait by Lily Allport, State Library of Tasmania
Count the stars of heaven 