May 2013
2 posts
Oh golly, Miss Molly
Oh golly Miss Molly, how sweetly now you lie
With dreams to softly rest upon your brow
And lead your slumber, ne’er to wonder why
Tonight the maddening fuss has played till now
No gentle Angel here to come upon
Your rest and wake you, set aside the myrrh
and frankincense, defer the Kings anon
And stay their humble greetings, lest you stir
When you awake, though all your cries and tears...
March 2013
3 posts
4 tags
When a good man dies
When a good man dies, the World will make its turn
The Sun shall mark its rise, the Moon still casts
A wan and silver light through clouds of thrones
That drift through whispered nights until their last
When a good man dies, the rains will break and fall
And flowing rivers bear petals afloat
The oceans heave, and still the tides will call
The sailors and fishermen to their boats
When a...
4 tags
To Francis
My glasses and my rosary shall mark
My sleep and stillness, only then to lie
This moment hence, for soon I shall embark
On nameless journeys, when and when not I
A promise then, a colour to the breeze
Heralds my passing, yet I shall not know
From dear departed shores, no course will ease
My kindred’s sorrow, through dusk and earthly yaw
Before the dawn, those white-tipped wings will...
February 2013
1 post
4 tags
Goodbye
I thought I heard your laughter at the door
I left it open just so on the chance
The wind would play again, just as before
And lead this Summer’s leaves into a dance
I thought I saw your smile, I think, perhaps
It was the sunlight though, I may have stared
Too hard upon the space where you had sat
Beneath the window on your favourite chair
I thought I felt your touch upon my heart...
January 2013
3 posts
3 tags
Where to has love but gone?
Where to has love but gone? A fresher face
Departed from old promises anon
To new and unfamiliar shores embraced
To seek and bide exquisite torment ‘pon?
That love which flirts, a love which has its youth
Holds in its palm the envy of the world
A radiant beauty, ne’er to be uncouth
For lovers love, and so new love unfurls
My love will age, for surely it must cede
To time, as with all...
December 2012
6 posts
4 tags
Butterflies
The butterflies which flew upon the breath
Of memories awoken by the Sun
‘pon gentle breezes rose unto their death
And chose the blessed Earth to fall upon
The fluttering of wings seemed endless till
The moment when their glistening scales would hide
With falling clouds their rendered vision filled
The final fading shadows of the sky
Then swift, the rain of wings would have...
Haiku (30.12.12)
live-love-be-fearless:
We all have our roots
but often do not know how
vast our branches spread.
6 tags
The cry
Within the womb the blood of hearts entwine
and dance, until each secret is revealed
Then to this covenant, as from the vine
Is born our blood and with our blood is sealed
Beyond each labor’s suffering, a breath
Seems as a prayer as yet to be fulfilled
From birth until the greeting of our death
Yet in this moment hope shall be distilled
May gentler angels come to walk this Earth
To...
5 tags
The shell
Soft were the waves that lapped against the shore
And in the prints they left just as a thumb
Had pressed, those sandy ridges shaped before
The whim of ardent winds and moon and sun
There as the tide rode out to vision’s end
From thence the bare backed seas were seen to arch
And carried in, the sands were churned again
The treasures ta’en, the sea had sought to part
A shell that...
Smokeinatin: A few things to say →
smokeinatin:
Firstly, I would like to say a warm thank you to the editor(s) who have featured a couple of my recent poems. It feels good to receive a blue tag on some words of mine. I’d also like to say a welcoming hello to some of my new followers. I am looking forward to follow up on your pages and find some…
4 tags
Dust
Where lies the beating heart? The blood which flowed
Is nought but dust within these ghostly veins
Now shadows creep across the walls and roads
Meandering through the last of what remains
Would that the words spok’n here could have endured
These susurrations never came to be
The whispers from the walls Time had immured
Nor echoes from the wind across the trees
This crumbled ruin,...
6 tags
Trinkets
Take down the boxes from their dusty shelves
And gently pry apart the folded leaves
Unwrap the secrets so to timely delve
Into the murky depths of soft deceits
Amongst the scrawled misgivings and the shades
Of faded smiles that wander through the years
Across the ageing faces, till the page
Is turned again to mask their vagrant tears
These cardboard mausoleums that would hold
The bolded...
8 tags
Remnants
Time peels away the layers of my life
To watch my clothing fall upon my feet
And naked now I stand and filled with strife
I’m at a loss for who I ought to be
My garments all, my shirt, my shoes, my coat
The socks I wore until they were too thin
My friends, all parted with their stories tote
To dust, to leave me lost within my skin
Take up the brush, I beg, and paint upon
Those mystic...
November 2012
2 posts
5 tags
Gods and their machines
Amongst a thousand olive trees that kept
A dream of fragrant breezes and the waves
The harvests failed, and all the children wept
When swallows fled the remnants of the day
For now the Sun is spent, its garlands fall
The petals cast as floral sacrament
To Earth and weary feet that fled the walls
That shook and tumbled with the sky’s lament
Into the mouths of wolves, how could it...
4 tags
Painted spirits
The painted spirits hide ‘midst ochre dreams Meandering ‘tween the waking and the dead So lost, yet immemorial markings seem To lure the whispered memories from their heads
Like shadows caught within the piercing gaze Of eyes endowed with power beyond the light And so entombed, the ministries of days Forget the fateful coming of the night
In stillness, can you hear the Dreaming’s song? It...
October 2012
1 post
5 tags
The Hunted (Whispers)
The whispers spread, till burdened branches crack
And break, to scatter claws and padded feet
Their soft percussion lifts the hooded black
And gleaming eyes to wake, this night to greet.
A fluttering of feathers, that once were
The arrows ‘gainst the brutal world, assail
A broken chaos made, till all a blur
With chilling breezes now become a gale
Oh ride the winds, and heed the...
September 2012
3 posts
4 tags
Lament
The skies will open
Until the preacher
Casts
A hymn
Across this darkened valley
Hence
And through the rain
The voices carry
Thin
To bring her home
This broken day to
end
Oh sing, oh sing,
May yet the music
Drown
The sorrows
Seeping through the lonely
hills
As echoes rattle branch
And root, while
down
the stream will
float the blooming flowers
still
My tears, my tears...
7 tags
500 hours
From birth, through the decay of Time will cross
The void to catch a keener eye to gaze
At eons past, the fields of moments lost
These remnants of those first and final days
In dimming clusters burnt a million Suns
Who sent their ghosts across the breach of space,
To wander as a paradox, that once
uncovered, yields their lost and hidden face
As now we seek those galaxies that were...
5 tags
Feynman's flower
What beauty lies within a flower, born
Of radiant light beneath the turning Sun,
While drinking from the Earth, and bathed at dawn,
As rains across the meadows dance and run.
Yet what does lie beneath that beauty, be
Much more than that will ever grace our eye,
This life’s created complex chemistry,
Shall bear it ‘yond this brief intemperate sky.
For soft encounters met with...
August 2012
5 posts
5 tags
One small step
A wingless Eagle silently would soar,
Beyond the far horizons of a dream,
Above a dusty sea and rocky shore,
To reach a promise in Tranquility.
Just one small step could seemingly belie
The sacrifice for this one moment’s worth
And yet this simple majesty conspired
To send a tremor felt upon the Earth
A consecrated stage in time in space
Held greater meaning, far beyond our sum,...
4 tags
Accolades of Gods
What shadows lie, companions to the last,
That cool rescinded mockery of doubt,
Now to the line, await the stormy blast,
Will expectations break, and all for naught?
One day, one time, one chance, all this may be
A lifetime played in fractions, all the while
This measured moment’s harsh reality
Becomes the mark where reason is defiled.
Remember swift the path that you have trod,
Olympus...
8 tags
Echoes
The God of War from Virgin’s breast shall pass,
To meet the serpent’s gaze and glance the crow,
What weary tales, your secrets borne to last
A lifetime’s fire, and bitterly cold sorrow.
Was there a time when richer plains did seem
A grander country, while an ocean swept
Cross furrowed canyons, before a ruined dream;
And life seemed to escape with every breath?
What...
3 tags
I am Caesar
Before the dusty streak a raindrop crawled,
The painted face that hid behind the glass,
Would have its wounded tear now after all,
And taste a human sorrow till its last.
A broken oratory sounded out,
Across the fading streets now desolate,
A greying Caesar stood, or thereabouts,
And on the gravel pissed to consecrate.
“Veni, Vidi, Vici”, was heard the cry,
That rang in empty spaces,...
6 tags
The early buds
A glistening drop suspended from the branch,
Becomes a tear that falls on Winter’s shroud,
Yet in this moment paused, all are entranced
By tears in which such quiet beauty’s found.
What lies in death, that which the heart has sown,
Those memories from the Spring and dreams to come?
Nay, mourn not, for the dreamer’s dream will show,
Both folly and the rising of the Sun.
...
July 2012
3 posts
4 tags
Dancing three-step
Standing on a stone, I heard the song-bird
Cry and warble skyward intimations,
Until the bleak and black clouds overheard
Furtive, broken, whispered, revelations.
Swirling down the ashen snow-words drifted,
And fell on out-stretched tongues, such bitter cold
A memory stirred, and moments now wakened,
A broken record plays, and we feel old.
Too late, perhaps; it’s hard to judge the time...
6 tags
1969
The face of orbs call out across the sunlit
Gulf that lies between the blue, and so must
We, in tumbling circles drift and tear the pit
Of seas filled deep with water or of dust.
Oh what a journey, to escape the lines
Of helpless canons fired until there
Beyond the falling satellites to find
The breath of giants cursing empty air
In tranquil seas, the footsteps now remain
Of feet...
4 tags
This Unexpected Day (A Simple Gift)
Awaken sleepers, ‘neath your dreary lids,
And greet the dawn that lifts your heavy eyes,
A dream perhaps, illusions that will bid,
You to a truth no slumber will belie.
The darkened clouds have broken to reveal,
An offering which praise ne’er lost for long,
When Winter’s bitter sentence is repealed,
And laughter mingles to yield up a song.
So commonplace, a simple glancing touch,
Of...
June 2012
4 posts
3 tags
Who'll wear my shoes when I am finally gone
Who’ll wear my shoes when I am finally gone,
And put them properly back into their place?
Who’ll dust the mantle, mow the growing lawn,
And give my suffering wife her due embrace?
Who’ll clip the hedges, prune the smiling rose,
Collect the mail and sort out all the bills,
Who’ll wash the windows, make sure that the hose,
Is wound up tight beneath the window sill?
Who’ll brush the fluff...
5 tags
Come Reckless Winter
Come reckless Winter, bring all that you may,
To vestiges of Autumn as they hang,
Consume with cruel breath and bear away,
These notes forgotten when your dirge began.
Come cruel, come bitt’r, come ply your loathsome trade,
To watch with shaded eyes and frozen smile,
Till havoc reigns before your vengeful blade,
Make maiden cowards all, bring all to trial!
Where is the Sun in this...
5 tags
The Transit of Venus
This measured moment’s shadow ‘cross the Orb,
Becomes a silent fracturing of time,
This brief conjunction through which eons pour,
To fill the silent void with light sublime.
Come gather all the instruments that may,
Now play this hidden music of the spheres,
Till soothsayers and mages of the day,
Are deafened by the madness in their ears.
Call out the heralds, let the...
6 tags
Sense of Heaven
Weep, weep, till no more tears can ever fall,
From God’s own cup which sorrow overfilled,
The Angels wail and thrash against the walls,
Till black and bleeding skies are suddenly still.
The thirty two lie sleeping on the ground,
Would be the smallest shrouds be in their beds,
No stories here or mother’s kisses found,
With gentle dreams to salve and fill their heads.
Bite out...
May 2012
4 posts
4 tags
To a falling leaf
How does an Autumn leaf come now to choose,
The moment of its falling from the branch?
Into the void, its nature soon to lose,
When caught within a twisting, shadowed dance.
How queer, its better nature seems to bloom,
In these the final moments of its time,
Beyond the touch of Spring, and Summer’s youth,
An aged beauty, tender and sublime.
So falls the Autumn leaf, a...
4 tags
Only yours to ask
An ocean I will pour into your palms,
And watch your glittering eyes in wunderlust,
The waves will softly break against your arms,
And grind your sorrows into sands and dust.
I’ll tell the Sun to paint the morning tide,
With diamonds set atop each breaking wave,
Your joys will rise and all your sorrows chide,
With salty hymns to harken brighter days.
Look up to watch the...
4 tags
Pray tell
Pray tell, what ails your heart, this open wound,
That stains your livery, and so must change,
Your countenance, once bright, now made to brood,
In ruddy hues, in faded leaf and vein.
Have you abandoned love, and in that jest,
An ocean weeped to flood sweet sorrow’s shore,
Till broken sparrows flee their barren nests,
And steal the song the warms your heart no more?
This ...
April 2012
5 posts
4 tags
Lest we forget
This dreary night will yield, but for the grace,
Of burning flames that dance before the dawn,
These last companions to another place,
Will light the pilgrims’ field this Anzac morn.
The solitary bugler’s frozen lips,
Will crack the air with piercing pure refrain,
The spirits stirred, now woken from their kip,
Shall rise to hear the Last Post played again.
The decorated...
4 tags
Sacred fruit
How strange, the Sun consumed by darkness fell,
And turned the world into perverted night,
The jeering voices rose, yet none could tell,
The hungry crows to part and take to flight.
A bitter harvest from this vineyard sown,
With grapes of wrath, so tended, and then hewn,
Come sword and spear, to bring the lie and woe,
To blessed sweetness, and a time renewed.
The cherished drops fell...
4 tags
My shadow flies
This night, this place where moon and ocean meet,
I stand affixed upon the windy shore,
Then with a knife, I’ll cut my shadow’s feet,
To free it from myself forever more.
I’ll watch it fly to dim horizon’s end,
Borne by the winds across the peaks betrothed,
To reckless spirits, then to make amends,
A swift deliverance into the Heaven’s cloth.
There I shall...
March 2012
6 posts
2 tags
Mirror
A pale reflection watches from the glass,
With somewhat disconcerting symmetry,
The last to rise, the eyes appear at last,
To pose a question to the rest of me.
The answers that once I had all prepared,
Evade me but anon, except the place
To which beholden, I could only stare;
The languid verses painted on my face.
A stranger now adorned with my visage,
Made movements that were surely...
2 tags
Into the glittering sea
By the light of the crescent moon,
I shall stand on the windy shore,
And with a paring knife, cut off my shadow.
I shall watch it fly to the dim horizon,
Buffeted by the wind,
Above the ocean peaks,
Until in the distance,
It becomes the dark cloth of the Heavens.
There it shall flit,
Between the dancing lights,
And fireflies above the ocean,
Beckoning me,
To join it,
Far away,
Into...
5 tags
2:46
The walking forests pause and raise their limbs,
To stop and drink the tears of their dismay,
Their heavy boughs will bend, and thence within,
Will crack and weep the coming of this day.
Through empty playgrounds, fields and cities caught,
Within its course, the trains stopped in their tracks,
The flowing rivers of their sorrow sought,
The sea, the sea, to take their sorrows back.
The...
3 tags
Me, We
From Clay he came,
And wrote his name across the skies,
The Fight and the Flight,
Of the bumblebee,
Whose permutations and combinations,
And calculations,
Would dance beneath his soles,
And between his gloves,
Strung hard,
Could write a story in the air,
Beware -
‘Cos “BAM!”
He’d say he’s here,
Then disappear before your eyes,
A magician,
A contrition,...
4 tags
To little books
Belied by size, this door does ever seem,
Too small a conduit to ebb and flow,
To Time’s horizons, lantern to a dream,
These parted leaves are rattled to the bone.
What fingerprints, have graced this tattered page?
A history of eyes made silent pause,
This covenant, this summoning of shades,
Who whirl and dance against the natural laws.
The seeds in faded rows have planted still...
7 tags
Forget me not
This night, in which all things seemed to conspire,
Beneath creation’s arc, with honesty
I stand ‘neath glittering fields, that burn with fire,
This ancient mantle’s joyous artistry.
Yet harrowed thoughts, which lie beyond my ken,
Move me to such a brooding discontent,
The gaze which Heaven burns on works of men,
Will wilt and fade, despite our wonderment.
That we are...
5 tags
The quiet room
The quiet room inhales and holds its breath,
The faceless clap tejime till they rust,
No eyes to watch with mine, no movements rest,
As solemn dancers pirouette to dust.
This moment’s leaving, etches on the walls,
An ancient glyph, forgotten and obtuse,
The plaster crumbles, then the ceiling falls,
Till history born within now lies entombed.
No tongue to speak, no lips to gently...
4 tags
A solitary heart
A solitary heart will often beat,
A somnambulic rhythm to atone,
For natural hurts, untimely, it will meet,
The jarring chaos forced upon our bones.
Against life’s malfeasance, is defrayed,
By weary countenance, so deftly worn,
Beneath the trope, the billings of the day,
Exquisite burdens, soft and nobly borne.
So harken now, to solitary hearts,
The syncopated burdens ‘midst...
February 2012
3 posts
3 tags
A last embrace
So quiet on their beds, a last embrace,
The lovers made no sound, but not from fear,
Their child lay sleeping too, but ne’er to wake;
This solemn solitude, their cross to bear.
A golden light would dance across the walls,
When ‘tween the cracks, Sun sometimes lit this tomb,
The noise of life would drift, as snow would fall,
Ne’er stir the sleepers in this barren womb.
...
3 tags
A Rainy Day
Atop the preacher’s roof, thick with neglect,
The gargoyles laugh for this and moments past,
With streaming tears, they witness Heaven’s jest,
To roll away the stone, and drown the psalms.
The mangy hounds, now shaken from their beds,
Faced up against the Heaven’s ghastly scrim,
That cracks, and sends a blinding, vengeful dread,
To turn their tails, and set them...
