Love (Remove filter)
Grimalkin
A grey shade in the cottage shadows
a paw lick of sinuous silence
a tail flick of smoke
a pounce on time's toll
Like a smoke devil escaped the chimney
she inhabits the lounge at night
never settling
she drifts across the hearth
Like the umbral weight of her past
she settles beyond my sight
I sense only the leak
of light left by her passing
Like th...
Wednesday 14th June 2023 10:37 am
Life Tercets
1
A story about
an old poet
and his cottage
2
A dream of an old mariner
lost in Wales
adrift on his words
3
A memory of
a young boy
on his maiden voyage
4
A memory of
innocence
lost at sea
5
A line on a chart
between a girl
and loneliness
6
A communion
...
Thursday 16th February 2023 3:26 pm
Winter Love
memories taste
like snowflakes on my tongue
and melt in my soul
love remains
like ice on the garden pond
in the memory of water
Monday 10th February 2020 1:48 pm
Sub Rosa
Where once her warm and sanguine heart
fell ashen grey to rest in cold base dirt
high over the familiar bush and shrub
proud crimson blooms pine for love
Where their sacred beauty sings to my heart
they call forth the lovely nightingale
high in their cloudless summer sky
to sweetly sing their longing song
There, I too confess a secret yearning
silent hidden d...
Friday 17th May 2019 1:39 pm
Past's Prologue
The trees still sentinel stood
their green leaves whispering
rustling gently in the wood
in the same soft breeze
and I know some summer birds
sang in their canopy
a requiem without words
'neath the same blue sky
that through every passing year
quietly watched over me
safe within Ceredig's sphere
It has been too long a time
since our firs...
Tuesday 9th April 2019 2:20 pm
The Old Field Gate
I rejoice to see that old wood five-bar gate
that still stands guard beneath the ancient beech
to a field sloping gently down the hill.
The gate from an old farm track - now lost to time -
has seen so many seasons, so many harvests pass
and must have known an age of scythes and stooks
of horse drawn harrows, ploughs and wooden carts.
What could it tell of the village...
Wednesday 6th February 2019 12:08 pm
One Last Frozen Tear
"Heavy Snow in Wales": 30th January 2019
A sheet of pure white covers her face: that land I thought I knew
frozen beneath its covering, buried ever deeper in its icy tomb
the contours I know so well:
every dip and valley; hill and gully
smoothed by this mantling shroud that descended
as time slipped slowly away, locking us in its white eternity
One last frozen tear d...
Thursday 31st January 2019 3:00 pm
Harvest Memories
Glorious was that day:
Star rich the summer sky
Amongst the sun warm hay
We stole a sack on which to lie
Warm was that night:
Grass framed the starry gems
Below the hov'ring kite
We kissed amongst the tall grass stems
Heavenly was that tryst:
Grass rough the bed we made
Below a dusky mist
We took our love as grasses swayed
Fierce was that lust:
...Friday 11th January 2019 4:01 pm
Division
Because I can no longer kiss you
no longer feel your skin
beneath my fingers
or hear you in the night
Because I can no longer call you
no longer sound your name
beneath my breath
or hear you whisper soft
Because I could not stop time passing
could not return time's sand
beneath its glass
or heal the wounds of time
Because I could not hold you here
could yet y...
Friday 28th December 2018 2:18 pm
The Siren
In silence
She stole his soul
In love
He gave his heart
What took him from his course
What gentle zephyr force
What brought him to the isle
What beauty did beguile
In silence
She sought his mind
In sorrow
He felt her tears
What held him to his aim
What subtle noble flame
What kept him on his deck
What held his lust in check
In silence
She tempted ...
Thursday 13th December 2018 3:57 pm
The Love Token
The withy cross now gold!
An interlace of old,
That endless pleter braid
Beautifully arrayed:
An ornate gem to show
That love will always grow
His token glows through time
An endless poignant chime.
Wednesday 12th December 2018 3:41 pm
Conversation in a Harbour Cafe
It was all in her eyes
When he said
I
He saw the tear
When he breathed
L
O
V
E
He knew her mind
When he stopped
Outside the mist rolled in
As ropes slipped off bollards
When he left
He heard her say
M
Y
When the door slammed
He hoped she said
L
O
V
E
When he heard
It was all in his mind
Outside the engine sta...
Sunday 9th December 2018 12:35 pm
The Scribe and his Lover
I weep for his skills:
the perfect crafting
of the calligraphy
She sighed, "Forge me the seal of our love"
She sighed, "Render yourself to me"
She sighed, "I am your vellum"
I weep for her artistry
He saw the curves, the loops, the cursive strokes:
flow smoothly from his nib
harmoniously
...
Friday 7th December 2018 3:07 pm
My Lady of the Beeches
To wake lit by that lunar light
Toiling from the depth of dreams
Misty minded from the night
So the distant land below the window seems
Illusory
To see beyond the shaded hedge
Hear again the whisper soft
As bedewed we walked, that ghostly pledge
Those lovely echoes of a distant past yet waft
Silently
To sense again her presence there
Knowing how we walked at ease
...Friday 23rd November 2018 2:55 pm
The Promise
It has been so many years
since that moment of truth
when finally you were truly alone
It has been so many years
since you flew with the flames
as the organ played
something
and I looked out at the distant horizon
seeing you there drifting away
into finality
It has been so many years
since I made you a promise
I could not keep
You said
Do no...
Monday 19th November 2018 11:46 am
Three Poems in Tana
1: An Old Transformation
Her body
cold
as sea ice
lay before me
broken
by life’s swell.
I remembered
the pull of her currents and tides,
her surging waves and deeps
And I knew
I could no longer navigate
the course
we had set
so long before
As she lay before me
still, pale, cold
I wept:
for ever
becalmed
2: Lovers
Naked
...Saturday 10th November 2018 5:33 pm
e-Love
Those words we share
and those we don't
The ones you use
what do they mean?
So much is lost between the lines.
That inflexion or joy I might have heard
is mute
Those words we share
and those we don't
The anger I feel in you
what do your eyes show?
I can never know as I read the lines.
The thoug...
Sunday 14th October 2018 4:14 pm
ENDINGS
A series of 11 short poems
End of a Galaxy
A blink
In the silent depth of night
As the last leaf of the beech tree
As the silent tear of my love
End of Harmony
I see her dancing on the sands
I see her as she sees me
and in that moment
sand, sea, sun, surf
vanish in the vortex
until
...Saturday 14th July 2018 7:59 pm
Who breaks a Butterfly upon a Wheel?
In that first perfect summer, that summer of love
when rifles bloomed and we turned on
and so nearly dropped out
in that year we met
and in the sun
we loved
despite clouds
that threatened us
and sought to break our love
a sad weight of parental love turned on
our first perfect summer, our first summer of love
In that first perfect summer, that summer of love
whe...
Saturday 30th June 2018 3:39 pm
Time
It is so many years
since I felt some part of me wane:
all those thousands of days
since we spoke of nothing -
could find no words;
and even many more
since there were whispers
as we lay naked in the night
or in the cottage garden
beneath the harvest sun
It is so many years
that I have known that dark void:
deep within my very soul
and in all those long ...
Thursday 28th June 2018 3:04 pm
The Summer of Love
Wandering through the sunlit trees
on grassy bluebell banks, brackened
by the unfurling of softly sensual shoots;
strolling in the tide turn rippling sea
as toes sift soft sea sand, silted
and lost to the advancing wave weft;
striding across bare barren felltop
on sheep shorn Spring sprung sod, surrounded
by haze horizoned hills and hills and hills;
standing by the quie...
Friday 25th May 2018 4:36 pm
All the Years [revision]
In my mind
buried deep
a golden grain
of Welsh
beach
In my mind
our impressions
in the hot sand
where we
lay
It is there
buried deep
that single second
that moment
in which our
minds
...
Friday 4th May 2018 4:19 pm
All the Years
In my mind
buried deep
a golden grain
of Welsh
beach
In my mind
shallow dips
in the hot sand
where we
lay
It is there
buried deep
that single second
that moment
in which our
minds
...
Friday 4th May 2018 11:46 am
The Young Lovers
Their voices harshly clash
and will not lie calmly
or rest in our ears
in peace
They rise loud over all else
and do not fall to our key
but strike out at us
in dissonance
Our song is raised joyously
and the harmonies sing
of the love we know
in concert
We have our air so their words
smash and fall to the ground
they do not stay in sight
o...
Thursday 26th April 2018 4:16 pm
The Navigator
Once I plotted my course
on nautical charts -
I used the sun and stars
to fix
my position in the world
Once my ship sailed the seas
by my compass course -
I drew lines on a map
to guide
me through far off seas to port
Once I was the pilot
steering from the bridge -
But she altered my course
loving
m...
Thursday 26th April 2018 12:24 pm
Soft Spirit of the Night
As I leave my home behind
To walk the far farm fields
The spirit of the land enfolds me
Its silence becomes my mantle
While I alone hear
Those wafted word
As the wind caresses the treetops
Whispering englynion
To lure me on
Through woodland and moor
Beyond fences, ever deeper into a land
Clothed in swirls of radiant mist
Rising from plashy pools and tarns
Amo...
Tuesday 17th April 2018 2:32 pm
The Garden
I step out
Into that mystic choir
That holds my heart
Where time, standing still,
Moves with the seasons
Quietly changing my world
With its elemental tune
While my song is barely heard:
A contrapuntal whisper
Struggling for harmony
For my land is my chancel
Hymns hum soft on its breezes
And prayer rises in its stillness
In this quiet place of remembrance
...Saturday 14th April 2018 11:43 pm
Pastoral
For Gwen, Anne and Eryl
In that happy heady grass-green Spring of my years
A time of lambent lamb slow lamb full days around a whited cottage
Lent us space and ease beneath the sun long sky
Golden glorious hours together in a single thought
With close chicken scrape and distant herd
When the swallows dipped to the fly buzz
When the kite climbed to a gliding speck
...
Thursday 22nd February 2018 12:30 pm
ἀλκυών
O, where roams your delicate soul
Does it yet travel the seas
gliding afar with the Arctic tern
or is its delight in quieter waters
in dappled river pools or streams
Is it content to rest in the cool damp shade of the willow
watching minnows play
diving among the nymphs
and sacred lotus
...
Tuesday 13th February 2018 11:23 pm
Letters
Those love letters from the seventies
I could not bear to read again
and could not bear to throw
Those airmail forms
those tortured lonely twelve page laments
that I read and read so many times
in my cabin off Cape Town,
in Melbourne and Sydney:
So many words
So much love
But in the end
They were just ash
And I scattered them
Ashes to her ashe...
Thursday 8th February 2018 10:21 am
Danse Macabre
Too much was lost in silence
too long the time that winds
between our words of love and passion
with communion only in our minds
Too much assumed in union
of our two souls' mute desires
but I did not see her inmost needs
or hear how quietly pain suspires
I should have peeped inside
while she nightly dreamed in peace
to glimpse her mind's apparel
as it dan...
Wednesday 22nd November 2017 2:14 pm
Parallel Echoes of Love
In the long small hours of dark Through the later time of darkness
I pause and gaze out at the stars As we lay entwined beneath the moon
Somehow the frosted ground The nightly scene now sacred
Sharpens the air and the starlight Welcomes the soft moonglow
Which lights my very soul: Entering both...
Tuesday 14th November 2017 1:35 pm
Earth Treasure
What is that glint
as the sod breaks and crumbles:
a sparkling hint
of discovery
as I dig the dusty summer soil?
This old garden has gained lost treasures
of man, woman and child for centuries -
What lies uncovered?
Teased from the clod
I find a tiny glass heart and this ...
Sunday 15th October 2017 10:26 am
RETROSPECTIVE
i
Innocent
he met a force
Untried
it held him
... and wonder drained the world of substance
re-arranged the pages of his book to give more radiant a reading.
The light of new possibilities
pressed down on time.
The girl sang to him "You can hear the boats go by". He
l...
Saturday 16th September 2017 6:06 pm
Lost
And then
at my source
I was lost to your ocean.
Flowing... your endless bounty stole my direction
your depths embraced
your corals welcomed my load
I drowned in your currents.
My hands caressed
your waves
My body plumbed
your deepest sounds
Your pools
received
Your tides were constant
I sw...
Monday 21st August 2017 10:35 am
Ocean
Restless: my body is your ocean; my limbs the currents of the sea
You float on my waves - sink only a little
I hold your sacred vessel safe - we become one:
A perfect balance of forces
Your body runs its course through my being
I feel you cleave my waves
I know you as we sink
Black waters closing
And I know you as we rise
I hold you to float above the tide as we burst th...
Sunday 20th August 2017 4:53 pm
K.
Ah! I loved you!
Lost to your soul,
I bared my heart
Within your mind
I held my heart...
as if all hearts sang with mine
as if all lips knew
I felt your blood pulse
and heat my soul
as your hair scourged my body
(Ah! I loved your hair!)
...Sunday 6th August 2017 5:49 pm
Beyond Death
I find that I must live in a world
Where, between that desperate dusk and a new dawn,
And between many a dawn and its dusk,
The only reality lies in love.
To be in love in that first dawn
And in the dusk, was to feel the sun
Warm our very passion every minute of every hour,
Reality lay only in the other.
And beyond that dreadful dusk, nothing
but dawns and dusk and ...
Thursday 3rd August 2017 3:37 pm
Beyond
I find that I must live in a world
Where, between that desperate dusk and a new dawn,
And between many a dawn and its dusk,
The only reality lies in love.
To be in love in that first dawn
And in the dusk, was to feel the sun
Warm our very passion every minute of every hour,
Reality lay only in the other.
And beyond that dreadful dusk, nothing
but dawns and dusk and ...
Wednesday 28th June 2017 4:13 pm
Monument
After Ezra Pound and Giacomo Leopardi
And so you were
everything to me, that is now less than dust –
lost, captive of the soil
That surrounds and nourishes my soul.
And so now I –
still stranded, umbral shade of past desire –
left, am guardian of sad recall
watching branch and blo...
Saturday 10th June 2017 5:30 pm
Cariad
Cariad
A word of the heart
Born deep in the being,
resonant with the land's love
Cariad
A word for the soul
Harmonic with soft timbre,
warmed on heart's ember
Cariad
A word from the deep
Breathed only in love -
impossible to deny
Cariad
A word never of the brain
Soft spoke; heart's heat
ea...
Monday 15th May 2017 4:04 pm
Love
There is no meaning
and no sense,
only clarity
I loved you and my heart began -
past years unknown
past pulse forgot
Love created
our heart defined
our lips sang
our hands mapped
love
I loved you with my eyes ...
Tuesday 21st March 2017 1:53 pm
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