Sun-burst braid of nerves
Melding thoughts chased
By gut reasoning
Breathe in deeply
Sense its signal
A visceral axis
When I see her walking
Down yesterday's pathway
The sun inside lights up
Warms the belly
Tingling spine
Heart stops a beat of time
Left speechless, still and wanting
Solitude seems socially unacceptable
Depending on the setting
Is it mysterious to wander along the beach
In interminable solitude?
Not a single bark could break.
Or solo cinematic scenes
Where similarly independent
Movie-goers give
Knowledgeable nod
No crime of post-show criticism to endure
Obnoxious conversation and laugh-out-loud bores.
No, the only antidote to such affliction
Of unmet needs in company left wanting
To explore the world through these eyes
No intolerable distractions
To sense, feel alive again, to learn and pay attention
Solitude a saving grace
For the tender hearted
So easily bruised by heated exchanges.
These warm grey days
Staccato rain, occasional
Blasts of wild west wind
Drop down the lee of the mountain
Resonating with inner barometer
Warm, still body
Turbulent thoughts, occasional
Gusts of the past kick up
Sting the eyes, dry the mouth
Waiting for a warm spring downpour
Persistent trill, soft beat of drum on skin
Melds with melancholy strings
A Symphony of meteorological sounds
Without and within
How does one commune
With one who is loved
When there is no 'us'
Surely, the trees agree
To touching leaves
While twit, thrush and sparrow
Alight Cupid's arrow
Marsupials stare longingly
While chewing on yearnings
A copperhead rises high
To consider taste of thigh
How would one know
Which love is delight
Without venturing wild
Avoiding its bite!
Reminiscent rising sun
Resplendent moon
Vast world undersea
Forest songs swoon
Affectatious orchid tongue
Pungent earth
Fungi throne
Faeries peeping through
What can one do?
When one love elevated
As a mountain peak high
Eyes clear blue sky
Hungry for taste
Salt licked face
Ocean spray
Ride her wave
Never to reach shores
Castaways
In all my sweet thoughts
Of riding shotgun
Words caught on tongue
Music at your fingertips
Where shall we go from here?
To the coast, surely?
The mountains, sublime
Some cabin where we can hide
Gather imaginary adventures
Cast them on the wind
Like a flock of shorebirds
Headed to the North Pole
The only passenger, am I
Is one of time
We have journeyed years
Apart, words odometer of miles
A mother's breast turns
Feeding the only release
Lest she weep in tune with child
How long will it last?
Interminable desire
To hold fast the nest
In contrast to view ahead
So wild sea eagles
Soar solo surveying over
Rocky shores, pebbles trickle
Vast dolomite column cliffs
Veering skyward - eyeing one another
Young ones too large for nest
I run errands to tick of time
Care package a respite
For a friend whom I like
Caring for other than bloodline
Though I forgot the soy milk
Now it's all I can drink
The taste of it like a chance meeting
Next time I will say the words
Until then, thoughts brew
Like a heady spiced chai
While tea turns tepid
At least, the sun and I.
We are enamoured by
Ever changing aspects and moods
Of mysterious face of the sea
While vast deep is changeless
Storm, wind and tide hurry
With advancing seasons
Turbulence magically awakens
New life on shores, wet and highlands
Nothing is wasted
Rich minerals freighted upon rivers
Every particle useful, deeply stirred
Ready for new forms of life
The stark problem of survival
A problem of keeping alive
The spark of life, a matter of existing
No demands made, a dormant state
Take these blue fathoms and pair with blue space above
A steady cure-all, surely, for human race
Yet, do not deny need for one blue pill daily.
Poem derived from the text of ‘The Sea Around Us‘ by Rachel Carson, Oxford, 2021, pp. 32-33: Chapter title ‘The Changing Year.’
We descend upon oval of scattered sunlight
As if fistfuls of diamonds strewn onto bay
Blinking back at us
Squinting into perpetual horizon
Butterfly shells lain on trail along shoreline
Lapping frothy edge of greedy sea, clutching
Tumbling ripples moulded in sand
Careless gums shed layers
Strewn about like discarded dresses on stage
Leafy mops nodding heady on ocean air
Glittery path meets tentative toes
Kelp gulls call
As a muse, eye of longing
To tread naked and wanting, swallowed whole
Bodacious curves held alight by restless tide
Fondle of chill sting, burn, then numbness sets in
Retreat up winding course a captive to comforts
Imprint of this place
Jetty Beach, held more deeply in thick skin than acetone on paper print
Seeds of dreams planted deep inside
Named will to come alive
Words escape upon the wind
Tucked indoors
Eyes peer through panes
Battered by seering rain
All her fears surge
Down storm drain
Journey to join anxious seas
Hurts float like sediment
Drift kelp forest freed
Ocean view, bare gum
Arms outstretched to glimpse of sun
Stripped of leaves, bark and shoots
Holding on by ancient roots
Hollow nests for threatened birds
When nature speaks revealing words
Humble nature's power grows
Shelter for the lonely ones
When sun returns and moon is clear
Nestle in the stillness here
For poignant day when tempest beats
A friend or foe one cannot meet
Rest in folds of downy fields
Tiny wings aflight will heal
