Give me a solid rock to cling to
I will not stray from
Its foundation
Build a home upon
Its firm terrace
Until then I float
Downstream
Looking upwards
To the sky
Taking turbulent rapids
With courage
Until I land on river bend
Becoming a platform
For those sinking
Downnstream
To cling to
Lights out
Across treelined
Contour lines
Iridescence glow
Whites of eyes
No TV screen
Pins of light come out
Across sky canopy ceiling
Hands slip round sides
Holding gently sigh
Head falls forward
Cradled in nape
My nightly escape
Panorama backlit
By swell of moonrise
Stage is ours alone
Close your eyes
We are home
Really much
Heaps of tons
Stacks up high
Supersized
Ginormous
Monolithic
Gargantuan
Lots times
Googolplex
Words not
Summing up
Confounding
Astounding
Insomniac
Manic train
Catch me
If you can
Love
I'm always welcoming its glorious rays
Until such time when it burns
365 days of waiting for change
Unable to take lesson
From the ever-revolving earth and sun
The distance is necessary
For any closer and I will melt
Into a mess of apologies and pleads
Regretting everything and nothing at all
Can't live without her yet small doses daily
Long months absent cause my bones and all to ache
No quick pill taken on a particular date can replace
The life-giving moment
When I see your face
It takes more courage
Than a thousand men
In arms
To tell someone
You love them
Like a bugle sound
On cold morning
Never more defeated
Than when the colours
Touch the ground
A slow burning begins
An eternal flame
That never goes out
When the trumpet sound
Not repeated
Standing waiting pacing
Peering out windows
Ticking in time
Percussive ache of heart
Noise all else silence
Pensive
Anticipating
Even furbabes watch
In wonderment
Excitement contagion
Tilting heads towards
Open doors as latch
Unleashes the wind
She comes in
For a moment we are
The only ones
In the world
Thinking the same thing
If only this wasn't
Also the way they leave
Me alone again
Their body warmth leaves
The air a few degrees
Easier to breathe
Tucked up to nose at night
Lips sigh
Eyes still savouring
The sight of them
Closed
Latent offerings
In seeds thousands
Of years old
Gifting us with
Time capsule
In flower now
Coveted secrets
Love long-held
Won or spurned
Walks with strut
On city streets
Still hopeful hides
In country towns
Here is my flower
On show socials
Screens, streets
Cafe cakes movies
Magic roundabouts
Lit up like spaceship
Everywhere gifts
Of love like
Familiarity
In hands and lips
Smooth as silk
One long missed
Rarest flower
Blooms behind glass
On show, set apart
Seeds never sown
On her own hearing
You are loved
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
Count the stars of heaven 