The perfume of moon

The ache is a susurration
pounding my chest with oxygen-fire
Let us put down these arrogant masks

And bid midnight to come, wine-
spilled with our tempest secrets,
Our eyes starved with possibilities

Not even our families at war, can define
Our words find each other
like threads to needle's eye, spooning like velvet storm

Each touch is mercury's fever
Marking time like panther chasing a wild harmony
Let's begin our own dancing, slow

sipping the perfume of night-blooms
Gripping us with passion's forbidden fruit
Thick with cups of spice

The full moon moans 
at the back of my throat-
I say your name
                           over
                                     & over

LILY JAMES AND RICHARD MADDEN IN ROMEO AND JULIET

Posted for D'verse Poets Pub - Synesthesia hosted by Victoria C. Slotto - Thanks for the visit ~

I dream of the mountain & its gift of fire

All the light of the Caucasus falls on your body

as though into a little vase of glass, infinite,

where the water transforms itself, by dressing, by singing

at every transparent move of the river.

‘Through the mountains you pass like the breeze’

XVIII  From: ‘Cien sonetos de amor’

- Pablo Neruda

I dream of it

like an arrow of wild fragrance

drowning the autumn air

with stains of spring's first awakening

pushing, forming 

it arrives not as raindrops slowly 

trickling but sudden piercing flash 

of thunderstorm

pouring like honey

all the light of the Caucasus falls on your body

dusty golden, you are dawn

unpetaled, blazing 

rising above mountains, weaving the earth

with new watercolors

I dream of it

like symphony's 

unbroken melody

recochetting between our bones 

intimate as thinnest filament

as though into a little vase of glass, infinite,

love, with its immeasurable weight of sea,

is sailing through all the continents

seeking you

seeking me and all my words

fragmented as lost diamonds   

I wait between harvests, spinning

music on this wet earth

I dream of it 

like silkworm cocoons, of beginnings

where the water transforms itself, by dressing, by singing

through every season

flamboyant and effervescent 

on my lips, cinnamon wine

on my skin, burning kisses

I dream of this

under the night sky as it shimmers

electric purple

ringed pregnant with silence 

your every memory stabs the darkness deep that I shiver

at every transparent move of the river.

Posted for D'verse Poets Pub - OpenLinkNight, Hosted by Bjorn Rudberg ~  
Attempted to do a glosa (draft) ~ Join us starting at 3pm EST ~  Thanks for the visit ~

If I should forget

Turn me towards the sea
Where nacre of morning is pure ivory

Kiss me with your liquid tongue,
with your words, a whirlwind's blue fire

I trace the gull's ancient flight
nadir to where you are, map of thousand islands,

sweet bread of corn, a journey's home
All the trees will be fragrant with dark honey of spring

And I would fly straight
to your arms, dripping with naked flowers from sea

Photography by Brooke Shaden

Posted for D'verse Poets Pub - OpenLinkNight - Hosted by Gayle ~

A Sonnetina Due, a poem in 10 lines, with 5 couplets, no meter.

Thanks for the visit ~

Ode to Summer

The Red Eternal by Brooke Shaden 

Blue wind
where is your nest & soft feathers? 

I am cold
as fallen pears on moonless night

Where is your kiss ?
A quickening sand, a storm lightning

Swelling the auburn fields to harvest  
ripening fruits to bloom

Heat is a perfume   
you rustle with each breath

Potent as chili spice 
Succulent as amber wine

I haunt hills for your tempest songs
Dazzling as mid-morning upon fainting earth 

The sky is a prism 
scattering gorgeous tendrils of sun's radiance  

I search for my love's voice
From tree to tree

Not silent with copper-burnt petals
But warm and loose as red-wild flowers 

Love,
I wait for your return




Posted for D'verse Poets Pub - OpenLinkNight ~  Thanks for the visit ~

Eve's garden

you turn my ribs
stone to water

with every kiss
a tendril is born unto the garden

where yellow tongues of sun
taste of overripe tangerine

soft moss and purple maple leaves
grow out of my mouth

every part of me
is alive & fragrant as lime wood

twined in your nakedness
I am a season, replete with your knowing

your name
smolders under my chest

majestic
flowing through the streams of my veins

then why do I 
bleed over the lines of your palms?

Adam and Eve,

by Gail Caulfield, Villa Montalvo (Italy)

Posted for D'verse Poets Pub - OpenLinkNight Hosted by Mary

Thanks for the visit 

Woman to Man

This is the soil that labors 
beneath our feet, growing damp
with rain, with seeds
In late summer, a red blooming
that catches the sky's opal eyes

This is the leavening our bread 
seeks, the grit our veins inhale
when our ribs twine
petal & spine
imagining light spilling over us

This is the river-sap that seeks
our bodies, every valley & groove 
at rest, or rocking to birthing tides
The bones that shape your thighs strong
The fire that makes me arch my back

In the moonlight
This is our hunt & chase:
That we give & take
Each other's fruits, our tongues
running along this quicksilver blade-

Oh hold me, my fearless love- 




Title & poem inspired by Judith Wright


Posted for Imaginary Garden for Real Toads - Sunday's Challenge: Judith Wright  
And Poets United ~  Thanks for the visit ~

Two Summer Tanka

you fill summer nights
with cicada songs 
tempting all my fruits
i settle beneath your moth wings
ribbed with moon's ardor, dazzled-



-~-~



in sudden hailstorm
seeded black as ripe plum 
your tongue is ice
on my heated skin, a snowflake
drifting, light as cotton seed-




Posted for D'verse Poets Pub- OpenLinkNight ~  Thanks for the visit ~

You

Summer heat frog-leaps
under ginger-shadowed moon
My lips are on fire-

Posted for OpenLinkNight - D'verse poets Pub - Hosted by Anthony Desmond

Summer rain

we made the customary   
days into tangerine sky over the marina  

when we sailed away on your birthday  
I gifted you with  

summer kisses
wet with rain 

you came back
purring with nights bursting of fireflies

there were no roses & chocolates
but pebbles & seashells carefully picked & bottled

what can i give you
of our times together

but chains 
silk velvet, fingered by mistress moon  

but words lashing
your skin restless, swelling with longing  

over the years
our distance stole your memories, ebbing with tides 

but i am cursed with perfect one 
defying time's savage currents 

every summer, 
i recall your kisses when 
                                                      rain 
                                                                        f
                                                                               a  l  l 
                                                                                           s
                                                                                                

                                                                         


Posted for Imaginary Garden with Real Toads - I chose M's word list:
fresh, burst, defy, chain, struck, forward, exchange, customary, prefer, close

And Poets United ~  Thanks for the visit ~

Chocolate

You are the chocolate cake
kept hidden in the ice box

Your skin is rain-moist, 
petals plump as ripe apple cheeks 

My vegan tongue plied me
raw crunchy baby carrots & celery stalks

I nibbled on baked salmon with lemon & dill
But the meat of you

roasted fat,  juicy, pitted with spicy herbs,
wells up from my deepest belly

making my canines 
itch

longing for burn
of your kiss

                                                  From Maya Lukash


Posted for:   D'verse poets Pub - Theme is Food hosted by Kanzensakura ~ Thanks for the visit ~

Five ways to make perfume

I.   Blade the neck of flowers
     Distill oil, soft as vanilla
     Musky as sandalwood
     Imagine words
     dripping
     lashing
     their own distinct
     perfume
     on your fingers

II.   First bite into apple 
      Tangs your tongue
      crisp as morning rain
      Bottle it- 
      spring's perfume
    
III.  Wound the tree
      repeatedly until myrrh gum
      bleeds
      darkens the parched bones-
      The perfume of sorrow
      
IV.  Witness the pearl
      growing a thin amber of silk wings
      upon another layer, threads
      mirroring light
      deep
      into roots-
      The harmony of music
      is perfume     

V.    Moonlight on your arms
       Fire in your eyes
       The fruit of my desire
       There is no perfume
       headier than
       you

Posted for D'verse Poets Pub - Meeting the Bar - Hosted by Anna

Thanks for the visit ~  

Cherry

Photography by Totomai

Bid the sun to rise soft as dew
On my skin, rain-fragrant trail
And I will bloom, pink and new

Where the knot tangles cold residue
and turns kisses to fading memories 
Bid the sun to rise soft as dew

There's sap on my palms, honeydew
on my lips, bees on my knees-
Soon, I will bloom, pink and new

Wrapping away winter's bluff, so blue 
Paint my core-seeds cerise
Bid the sun to rise soft as dew

There's a spell to brew
Ripening petals in quivering tryst
This blooming, pink and new

I want to do with you
what spring does with the cherry trees
Bid the sun to rise soft as dew
And blooming, I am pink and new


* From Pablo Neruda poem's Everyday You Play:  

I want to do with you
what spring does with the cherry trees


Posted for Poets United - Cherry Blossoms
and D'verse Poets Pub - Villanelle poetry form - 19 line poetry form with two repeating rhymes and two refrains ~  Join me later at 3pm EST ~

Our Sun

                                                         Flowing by Artist Gil Bruvel

We let silence
spark
into tension coils

As we firefly dance
Into a semi-circle
Our wings red-flustering

vacillating between
speaking what's on our minds
Or letting things go

Then you slump
bending your sorry face 
knotting your arms into mine

I ash stub any
lingering doubts away
Unribboning
myself
into softest threads

We let our music
shimmer
tattooing our skin bronze
melting
our metallic hearts to
drift with clouds

Finally we let words
fall
surge
quiver
as we sip rain deeply

from each other cup
Your lips sugaring mine
until
sated with forgiving love

We run
to greet the sun
flowering 
                 with wildest 
                                      colors

Posted for D'verse Poets Pub - Verb-ing Hosted by Victoria ~
and Poets United - Sun - Hosted by Susan

Confessions

I am lost with the musical symbols
Mixing up notes from rests

I confess that I don't know the lyrics
of our love song

I sing but a only a squeak comes out 
Words, sheathe your claws 

I make believe that inside me 
is a birdsong, a candle wick 

waiting to come out by dawn
Words, kiss me awake

I am someone else when I am writing
poems about tragedy & pain

I stitch words, half remembering
the woman watching moon rise for first time

I know only of love, steady as flame
Taste of tropical fruits, sweeter than sugar

And sky, cobalt blue, startling the sea
this morning, I hold on to memories

of passion unending
Words, slay me with your tongue

I want to crown myself the tango dancer
but my limbs turn to water

When you steal my gaze
When you make me believe that I can

And when I use this voice,
Words, melt me softer than snow



Posted for D'verse Poets Pub - Hosted by Anthony ~  Thanks for the visit ~

Sonorous

Your hands over the piano keys
are light, a harmony of chemical blue

The rhythm not only thrums
but they grow as words under my breastbone

and leaps to my mouth
I let them out

They bristle soft as nettles & silver green
as sagebrush, the fruit is luscious

As your kiss, charging electric, sudden flame
healing my old wounds

My voice rises with your lyrics
Enraptured by love's musicality 

Your hands over mine
beckons, steady as a bridge

We walk on water, we own the thunder
We are birds feeding from the same sea

The room sizzles with percussion & drums
Then slithers tender as acoustic strings-

Outside the snow melts under sun's yellow fingers
I lean on you, pink-flushed

tangled as delicate clasp around your neck
as our song plays on repeat-

We walk on water, we own the thunder
We are birds feeding from the same sea

Posted for D'verse Poets Pub - OpenLinkNight 

My deepest appreciation to Brian Miller and Claudia Schoenfeld for nurturing my voice and all the other poetic voices over the last 4 years with D'verse Poets Pub ~

Promises

Marble sculpture by Bernini

I won't promise you the apple
My love is not always sweet & ripe
But they're yours to keep like petals

plucked, crowning your golden hair
My words can be thistle & inferno
I won't promise you, the apple

Under sky of summer blue
I live in sea of flames, crimson as my hands
But they're yours to return to, like petals

pressed of lily, violets and white trillium 
Bounded with pomegranate seeds 
I won't promise you the apple

Only its seeds that harbors spring
And comes with steady beat, My love
They are yours.  Keep them as petals

perfumed of devouring storm.    Fear no falls
As I will always be here, your safe landing 
I promise you, not only the apple, but fruits
of all my seasons, yours to keep, unpetalled-

Inspired by ending line of Carilda Olivar Labra's poem:
Eve's Discourse:  my love, and I promise you the apple. 

Posted for Imaginary Garden for Real Toads - Promising hosted by Karin

and Poets United - A villanelle form of a sort ~  Thanks for the visit ~

Declarations of Love

Photography by Brooke Shaden

The streets are empty of cars & people
Yet the smell of gasoline is lethal
Bombs are coming, war is crossing a bridge
Pressing each day to tight corners. Pistol

Shots ring with red sirens in perfect pitch.
But wait, don't march outside! I am bewitched
with flames in your eyes. Set aside your knives,
your acid chemicals. I am no witch

With a secret room full of honey & chives
I have only this nightfall to survive
The sky will be black ash, a toxic glove
Let's not waste time with apologies!

Tear these pages clothing my skin ice tough
Kiss me deep & long, let's melt by moon cusp
Because something horrible is happening-
and I haven't had time enough to love.


*Title and ending lines by Cuban poet Carilda Olivar Labra


Posted for Poets United - Love is Not a greeting Card - Hosted by Susan
And D'verse Poets Pub - Rhymed Stanza Hosted by Gay (AABA BBCB CCDC DDED)

Eve's Discourse

Venus Verticordia by Dante Gabriel Rosetti

Tonight, I'll draw my spear
& pierce your snow-veiled skin
with fire
with fever

Why are you hiding from me
Like moon last night
Blurring, dissolving quick as smoke

Time has a long memory
when the world is a silhouette grey
with ice
with sleet

Come back with your storm
& unpredictable rain
your swagger
your tempest of metal & light

I will gamble
That our kisses will return
like a fresh sword
like a flaring spell of first day of spring

Your words
will salt my bland food
spice & flavor
my music and canvas 
crisp, textured with hundred nuances

Touch my body like a potter's hands
tempting 
every grain & freckle 
to red
I will open as white flower 
with poison seeds
with savage heart

Come back to me, come back, *
penetrate me with lightening,
Bend me to your will.
We'll turn the record player on forever.
Bring me that unfaithful nape of your neck,
the blow of your stone.
Show me I haven't died,
my love, and I promise you the apple.

*Title and Last stanza by Cuban poet, Carilda Olivar Labra

Posted for:   Imaginary Garden with Real Toads - We are writing to the work by Carilda Olivar Labra
Shared with Poets United - Thanks for the visit ~

The muse with golden hair

With a brush
you draw graffiti 
on my walls, bubbly & gay
sugar pink, yellow ochre, blue sky- 
i bloom -  spring ! 


~0~0~


Draw me gold
bronze, honey, amber
saffron, any shade but grey
I'll lave your feet with oil & kisses
sweet to drown-

~0~0~


Here's your ink
ribbed of river's gleam
but here's the catch - no nets, nor 
velvet chains to bind me as a bird -
(this lady gets up to go to work) 
& i'll stay -

Painter:    WALASSE TING

(DING XIONGQUAN, 1929-2010)

A Kiss, A Kiss (Lady with Yellow Hair)

Posted for D'verse Poets Pub - OpenLinkNight Hosted by Claudia
& (late entry for) Expanded Cinquian hosted by Tony Maude ~ Five lines of 3,5,7,9 & 3 syllables

Thanks for the visit ~

A list of what the flower owns

Pinch of morning 
rain slicking blades green

Remnant of snake's skin
warm & dangerous

Secrets of bees
As they circle as matadors

Devouring all affections,
Making you hungry for stinging 

Kisses.  Perfume. Cinnamon 
seeds.  Volley of crisp winter air 

that guzzles your lungs
flaring your nostrils red

your skin honey-yellow moist
when I am

opening 
to you-

Photography by Totomai Martinez

Posted for Imaginary Garden for Real Toads:   Play it Again - Write a Flowery Poem in a Non-cliched way & Word Count With MamaZen (Hungry in 57 Words) & Poets United

Seducing with TenWords

I don't wear
red
shoes nor lipstick
Only spice
                earthly- 

Fruit

I draw from memory -
      half-dazed moon
      peeling your skin
                                ripening


~0~0~


Spell


Night sky carried you
    between violin percussions
    & electric kisses


~0~0~


Unmasked


With you
    i 
    become midnight 
    fire & oil 
    burnishing golden
    


First post is for Poetry Jam - Shoes or Feet hosted by Mary
And for D'verse Poets Pub - TenWords hosted by Victoria ~  Thanks to Brian for fun form, smiles ~

photo credit:  here