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Wednesday 30 April 2014

Zested Fibre

Another of Kyle and Em's photos












At the end of an incredible month of posting a new verse each day, I can think of no more fitting end.  I can think of so many people for whom this poem is a reality.  To those who love, this, then, is for you...


Each Zested Fibre

When Love overflows
Each petalled caress
Transforms
Into a perfect rose

When desire deluges
Each whisped bouquet
Perfumes
The treasured words you say

When yearning cascades
Each satined ascent
Embraces
That cherished occasion

When love overflows
Each zested fibre
Savours

My you-kissed awareness



Tuesday 29 April 2014

You Gave Me Life Again

























Goodness, how time has flown by and here we are on the second-last post (not counting 'Reflections').  I've only managed to visit so few people - no more than 100 at most and haven't even been able to visit my favourites more than a few times.  This is quite sad but, given my current working hours, I hope I'll be forgiven for not visiting more.  The list is still available though and there are another eleven months for me to catch up and pop over for a chat.  I'm ending my A-Z with love because that really is what life is all about, isn't it?

The photo for this post is a poem by Lang Leav who so well expresses my own feelings.

You Gave Me Life Again

Thank you
For giving
Me
My life
Back
Again

As I wish You goodnight

My mind races
Leaps
Retreats
Between
Utter joy
Then
Chilling turmoil

What could have possessed me

To
Expose
Myself
To
Become
Vulnerable
Once More?

And then my Soul knows

My essence
My being
Whoever I am
Whatever I do
Has meaning now
Is only alive
Since I've known You

If my life depended on it

I would
Never
Give that up
Because
My life
Does
Depend on it!



Monday 28 April 2014

Xerophyte

Keetmanshoop in Namibia -  A Dry Desert Wasteland


















The name of this poem is actually 'The Wasteland' but I needed an 'X' so it now has a temporary name which was the meaning as near as I could get to the original name - Xerophyte 
(able to withstand drought)  :)


Xerophyte (The Wasteland)

It grunts
It spits
It throws up an arm
Thinking it’s in command

It shouts
It screams
It causes confusion
To create a diversion

It shrieks
It howls
It tears at its mane
This progeny of disdain

Yet

One glance up
One glance out
One glance ahead
And it’s dead

And gone

To feed the wasteland
From which it fed
To pay for the lives
Of those it bled



Sunday 27 April 2014

Holocaust and Heroism Day - 27 April 2014

It's Sunday and a Holy Day and in an expectant yet humble spirit I Thank The Lord for it.

It's also 27th April, which is Holocaust and Heroism Day.

Sourced from Benjamin Netanyahu's Facebook Page



I could get very emotional, for no other reason than that I was born fairly shortly after the end of WWII when people's memories of the war were still vivid.  My grandfather fought in both WWI and WWII and, although he never discussed what happened to him personally, he did emphasise to us how important human  life and dignity is.  Part of what he used as emphasis was the Holocaust; something he knew about intimately as he was part of one of the deployments which liberated the death camps in Germany.

However, I will not get emotional because anecdotal stories are easy to discard as exactly that - stories. Islam is already trying to expunge the history books of what happened with the Holocaust in WWII as mere anecdotal hysteria by the Israeli Nation and by Jews in general. What I will do for today, as I thank Jesus Christ and My Father God for guidance, is to give factual information about the Holocaust in the form of a film made during the liberation of the concentration camps but only shown to the public in 1985, forty years after it was filmed.

Today is a time of reflection and memory so that the atrocities of the past will never, ever be repeated again. Yet, even as I write this, my heart is breaking because all signs point to a repeat of that terrible time.  Anti-Semitism is once again rampant in many countries. Apparently, there is even talk now that the Jews in Ukraine (in the past couple of weeks) are being forced to register their nationality and other personal details with the government (open to question as to who has been sending out the registration flyers but the fact that there are such flyers is worrying indeed). (Warning - graphic content).  I believe in my deepest being that this 'registration' is the first step towards a repeat of the WWII atrocities which were orchestrated in large part by islamic jihadists who worked in cahoots with Hitler to perpetrate the worst ethnic genocide ever known.  

In one part of the film, there is a discussion about the dehumanising of people by, at the time, forcing them to remove their clothes and walk naked amongst one another; shaving their heads; and tattooing their bodies with numbers.

While I was listening to this discussion in the film, I kept getting a vision of TSA agents, stripping people naked through the use of their body scanners and by patting people down in the most intimate manner in front of other passengers.  This, to me, is the modern-day version of what happened in the German concentration camps and is exactly what is meant by 'dehumanising' of people.

I pray that another Holocaust-like genocide is not about to take place in America.  Europe has its own problems in this respect but so far I haven't heard about such dehumanising activities taking place.  

Here then is a film which you should back up with your own research on the subject.  Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs has put together an impressive archive of photographs and material from WWII.  That would be a good place to start your research.  In all things, you owe it to yourself to research, research and research some more.  Knowledge is a most powerful weapon.  Ignorance is the ambrosia of ruling classes.

(I've tried to embed the video but it's not working for some reason.  Here's the link.)

WARNING - THE VIDEO HAS EXTREMELY GRAPHIC CONTENT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HAa2p0UnV6k




Saturday 26 April 2014

Without Pause















A surprise return of a beloved is one of the most astounding experiences ever and I have nothing more to say on this...

Without Pause

I gaze at you
Or is it you?
I rub my eyes
Am I deceived?

I stand quite still
I contemplate
Is it you
Or my mistake?

I can’t resist
I run to you
You turn to me
And you run too

We cling together
In bliss and awe
Two souls as one
Our emotions raw

You fill my life
As I fill yours
Forever together
Love without pause


Friday 25 April 2014

Verdant Green

Johannesburg Country Club Garden 2013
















This lovely pastoral poem was written when I was living in England.  There's nothing quite as refreshing and calming as walking across and through English country fields and walk I most certainly did - as much as possible.  The photograph I've used is one I took of a garden I would never walk over but I loved the colours and star shapes of the flowers.  

On another matter altogether - have you visited Alex J Cavanaugh's blogs?  If not, you should.  He also runs the Insecure Writer's Support Group which is absolutely fabulous and a real life-saver when one gets the 'heebie Jeebies' about anything writing-related.  I don't know where Alex finds the time for everything he does for writers and bloggers but I will be forever grateful for that time.


Verdant Green

I walked among the stars today
In their sky of verdant green
Gold and white iridescence
Calmly relaxed, securely serene

I walked among the stars today
In wonder and in awe
Faces radiant, dazzling bright
Illuminated by a glow they adore

I walked among the stars today
Some shy, some brave, some keen
A union of splendour, sharing their sky
Yet each in its own right a queen

I walked among the stars today
Living, loving each moment in time
At once as finite as life itself
Time enduring - aeons overcome

I walked among the stars today
In their sky of verdant green
I walked within the stars
They, well they danced a dance within me




Thursday 24 April 2014

Unite or Fight

Storm  clouds on the drive home from work a few weeks ago - Johannesburg 2014 


What I've done this A-Z is have a set of poems available for each day but, because I really like the daily interaction, all my explanations, pictures and prose are added the night before the post goes out.  It gives me a feeling of connectedness.  I love the picture I've chosen for this poem.  The splash of light really is quite remarkable in the surrounding gloam (and yes, there is such a word from which the word 'gloaming' is derived and it means twilight).

Anyway, tonight is no different and I got to thinking about the poetry I've shared so far.  I've decided that I have quite a bizarre way of looking at the world and life. 

Oh well, I've never been accused of being normal, so I'll just continue to enjoy how I view experiences where other people don't even recognise the occurrence of an experience.  

Talking of which, the picture at the end of the poem provides one of - a different view of Unite or Fight; an alternative ending; or simply an arbitrary picture with no meaning at all... :)


Unite or Fight

Walking into the room last night
I stumbled into a sphere of light
I couldn't look at it
Yet couldn't look away

Within such a dark place
How could there be such light?
As I breathe in the inexplicable 
My mind fills with unspeakable fright

Is this the end of time and times?
Is this to be the end of all?
Will dark and light at last unite?
Or will there be a fight?





Wednesday 23 April 2014

Too Bold a Bridge

Darryl in the foreground framed by a rickety bridge - La Vendee, France













How many times I've wanted to 'get involved' but then I've stepped back and left the hard work for someone else to do.  I'm not proud of this and neither should I be.  We are called to act but too often we find that we've shied away from God's calling on our lives and the loss is ours.

This poem, like quite a few lately, has political overtones because many countries are struggling under corrupt regimes with seemingly no end in sight so we (I) step back and don't even try to do something; anything which may make a difference.  No more!  Perhaps it's an age thing but I've got to the point in my life where,  if I feel compelled to speak, act or otherwise, I now do so.  That's why a lot of my poetry portrays such tremendous resolve sometimes.  Oh well!   :)

Too Bold a Bridge

Not for me the glooming force
Of whorls and swirls within

The coils and swoops
The guttural hate
The gnaw and gnash
The gorge

The power of those
Of choice

Not for me the shadowed way
Of flush and murk without
The grates and grinds
The rasping riot
The crush and chafe
The caw

The law of those
Devoid

Not for me the obvious
Of time and times in time
The clangs and chimes
The crushing grind
The rasp and rub
The clash

The fight of those
For right

Not for me all this
Yet if not mine then whose
The paths and trails
The trying press
The guide and lead
The head

Too bold a bridge
For loss

Tuesday 22 April 2014

Side by Side

Kerryn with Snowbell



























There's not really much that I can say as a preface to this poem.  Perfection is in the eye of the beholder and our idea of perfection is certainly not God's idea of it.

Here's Snowbell, our perfect little rescue furgirl, who was born with disabled front paws and was destined to be euthanased before her rescue by my wonderful son, Ross and his just as wonderful fiancee, Kerryn.

What's perfect to and for me, may very well not be so for you and isn't that the way it should be?

Imagine if we all saw perfection the same way?  I don't even want to begin to contemplate that scenario...

Side by Side

Before my conception
God knew
That I would seek perfection
This life through
He made his selection
When time was due
Orchestrated each rejection
Until there was
You

So
You are
In your living life
As
I am
In my life living
Across
An interminable
Divide

Yet
Beyond
Our life
Living life
In that place
We stand
Side by Side
We are One
Soul









Monday 21 April 2014

The Rending - Updated with Hallelujah!

For my Christian friends - Christ is Risen

Easter, for Christians, is our most Holy time; that time when Christ died and rose again on the third day.  

In honour of this most Holy of times, this picture is the one I chose to represent my poem.  However, in a very real sense, this is a poem which can be understood on very, very many levels.  

At the end of the poem, I've added an extraordinary rendition of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' by Kelly Mooney.  Listening to it, I had goosebumps together with tears in my eyes - quite a combination.

One level (which I like a lot) is the giving over of self to The Lord - as a Christian the rapture of the experience is truly a drain on as well as a spur to one's emotions all in one; another is a process of letting go of people and things which have held one back and the freedom to self which such release brings.  Of course, it could have romantic and physical connotations as well and the ending then has a vastly different meaning.

I've intimately experienced all of these at different times in my life and, although the poem was written specifically for one of the chapters of The Daighacaer - Escape from Mount Vilipend, it remains a valid and universal truth in real life.


The Rending

I have been rent

To the depths of my being
I have been rent

I exist
Within
Yet
Devoid of self

Complete

A tempest of tears
Flowing

To sense
Splendour 
To sense
Fulfilment
In pain
In gloom
In identity
In truth

Power
In sanctity

Sanctity
In power

Release
In all

Alert to
Gossamer rustlings
Fine shiverings
Lightning flashes

A depth of joy
In a flood of light









Saturday 19 April 2014

Quandary

This is the longest of the poems I've included but I really like it, so here it is for you to enjoy as well...

Greek supreme god, Zeus

Quandary

The gods were in a quandary
Didn't quite know what to do
Zeus cried “the world’s a mess
And the solution lies with you”

They convened an urgent meeting
Decided a quiz the only way
Then each retired to a favourite haunt
To gather again at noon the next day

The trials began in urgent haste
Amid a great excitement
The prize, although they knew not what
Would be worth the time they spent

Aphrodite, gentle god of love
Was first to show her might
To all the peoples of the earth
She whispered “Only Love is right”

When all had heard her tender pleas
And listened  to her “notions of love”
They scorned each other that much more
For seeming to hearken to “thoughts from above”

Dionysus, rowdy god of wine
Thought he’d sewn the contest up
He poured out wine throughout the world
And adjured all to “sit and sup”

He should have known better
Have know that hate would be rife
When all had supped past their tolerance
They turned on each other in all-out strife

The last to try his wits that day
Was Ares, god of war!
He took his stand – the last, by choice
As all the gods sighed – said no more

A master tactician, the greatest ever
Who’d never ever lost a bout
He’d planned his tactics in advance
And, thus prepared, boldly set out

Humans, he knew, were very, very strange
Yet, they were all the same of course
He chose his venue – the Arctic Wastes
And began his onslaught – showed no remorse

His lightning struck, his thunder bellowed
Wild wind and water wrestled in wrath
The ice and earth – not match enough
Writhed and struggled in the aftermath

The gods and Zeus sat in confounded silence
Neither daring to question, nor intervene
They felt, and not without conviction
That the earth they loved was to end in ruin

Ares, however, was no human’s fool
And he watched them in silent delight
As all races, creeds and peoples as one
Gathered to overcome their common plight

As each nation’s peoples united at last
As countries and continents cried “détente, détente”
Ares slowly and carefully retreated
Declaring to Zeus “I've achieved what you want”

Zeus applauded and vowed majestically
“I’d never have dreamed that what I've seen here
Could have ever transpired through the god of war
And I have to admit I had some doubts and fear”

“You've won your prize, there is no doubt
I trust you’ll appreciate its worth
Because you understand them and united all people
I give you your prize
It’s yours – The Earth!”