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 ~

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

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)

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

A distance divides us

What the blood moon stirs, contains you  
a pearl oyster against the lilac clouds

What the sky silvers, turns the past
to water of memories and foam

What the maple trees bare, skins the
night to fragments, fragile by time

The cold wind sands, awakening
me, frozen in our memories

I watch dawn unfold, its fingers threading
a spider web, marbled in infinite blue

To the deepest of the wells
I draw you, scent of shadows & pines

Your image smiles in its pure circle*
But what of your face as I reach to touch you?

It wavers, growing old, belonging 
to another*

Title and line inspired by E. Montale's poem, The Well

(Cigola la carrucola del pozzo)

The pulley of the well-shaft creaks,

water rises to the light and dissolves you.

A memory trembles in the refilled pail,

an image smiles in its pure circle.

Touch your face to evanescent lips:

the past wavers, grows old,

belongs to another…

Ah, how the wheel groans

already, returns you to the dark depths,

vision, a distance divides us. 

Frozen in Water

Photography:   Brooke Shaden

Posted for Imaginary Garden with Real Toads - We are getting inspiration from by 
E. Montale's work and Poets United - Thanks for the visit ~ 

When your voice is like rain

The sky is a single brushstroke
of aquamarine 
Though many voices speak

Yours is like amber
Yours is like saffron
yellowing my tongue of spice

Even above glass floor 
the wind sweeping the leaves in
tiny islands  

Yours is like violin
Yours is like bow
piercing 
clouds
streak of fire,
veins careening open
pupils dilating in rushing tide

catching me
in autumn's early shroud 
How can I forget your voice?
You ripple all my memories
like whispering birds with nowhere to hide
you
who fly with them

you
who always come back with bluest of plums

Many voices speak.*
Through them all
I hear only yours
falling as a night rain.

     
Inspiration and lines from Karin Boye:   Many Voices Speak

Posted for Imaginary Garden for Real Toads - Sunday's Challenge:  Swedish Poetry hosted by Bjorn Rudberg - We are writing to the poems by Swedish writer Karin Boye

and Poets United

Picture credit:   here

Summer storm

the night bursts
a tinderbox on my hands -
      what was closed, dilated

&

           leaned forward  
defying lines & customary ex-
     change of words

rain seeps
a dark splinter in my bones -
      what was keyed up, flayed

&

struck, firebolt
dripping down my thighs, turning everything
              fresh wound

Posted for Imaginary Garden for Real Toads - Word List from M (grapeling):  fresh, burst, defy, chain, struck, forward, exchange, customary, prefer, close
& Poets United - Keys

Summer sky

is a halved peach,

swelling of sugar, red  

on your tongue, rain 

We keep watch of summer fireflies
Flitting of orange red
Dazzling of lights, a symphony
Cloaking night with silk threads 

       Let's stay

               under the stolen sky

            twining

As two seed pods, marking
Time a bandit, for come sunrise
All too soon, we're parting 


The above poem follows Robert Herrick's stanza form:

x x x x x x x a
x x x x x b
x x x x x x x c
x x x x x b
x d
x x x x x d
x c
x x x x x e
x x x x x x x a
x x x x x e 


Posted for Imaginary Garden for Real Toads - Play It Again
& Poets United - Thanks for the visit ~

Picture credit:   here

Black and white

Noell Oszvald

Is where sky & road
meets

&
collapses

Salt chafes my back
Where

he rides me hardest

The weight of him in my grain
His kisses

land on my hands
like two small birds 

I can barely rise

above burdens that weigh me

down


I write this poem 
to put an end on this curse.


Posted for Imaginary Garden for Real Toads - 55 Word Challenge
and Izy's This Poem is a Curse

Shared with Poets United

Resuscitating Ophelia

                                                       Ophelia, by Odilon Redon


I gather her - limped hair & pale bones
Out of the water,  bedraggled as washed-

out page, skirted & flamed
by love's complicated twists & turns -

I brush the wild flowers from her cheeks-
Scrap away dead leaves & tangled roots-

Gently, I press on her lips- sip this brew
Stirred with orange & yellow seeds

Mixed with tea leaves & sea-
weeds,  stained with effervescent salt-  

Hovering pollen dust swells
Into pools of blue sky-  

Open your eyes & hear the murmurings
Of cinnamon trees, of red-song birds

There's a place for your dreams, sacred
& untouched by anyone but

you
Beautifully shaped by love & will

There is the garden
Where you can run freely & be

My hands will guide you, a step at
a time, until your voice grows stronger

Again,  Love is madness
But you are braver than you can imagine-

War & peace, ink & sword 
Your hands can birth & hold them, fiercely as sun-

There's a murmur, I hear -
There's another beat, I see you

Rising once more,
My beautiful daughter


Posted for Imaginary Garden with Real Toads - Play it again
& The Art by Odilon Redon
and Poets United - Thanks for the visit ~

half-awake, half asleep

Everywhere is rain, colored of iced tea
And I'm sinking, half-awake, half-asleep

My one hand cuts thunder,
while another hand turns the door closed

My one eye is weeping willow tree,
while another eye wants to get rid of bees

My lips insist in replaying each word you said
while my tongue lingers over your name:

a sweet fruit, melting of dark chocolate -
embers of long kiss, sweat from your brow & back -

There is madness in having two moons
speak in broken proverbs & torn sentences

All words are lost in translation
Except this fevered war on nerves & bones  

I curl deeper into this woman, foolishly
believing she can tame a wildcat of a man 
 
The cold strangles my throat, I want to escape
But I'm in limbo, floating in your perfume

Posted for D'verse Poets Pub  - Emotion in Poetry Hosted by Claudia 
and Poets United - Midweek Motif - Fool for Poetry - Hosted by Susan C.   

picture credit:   here

Love has its own language

I should speak, but you are quick to the draw

Your face lighted in ardour crimson blush

Your fingers fold words like origami

Palms open & cup, a letter hangs glued 

My hand catches wild roses, unzipping

Our secret signs, never-ending tales

It's not yet spring, but buds are in riot

Spouting honey-gold ears, lavender scents  

When your verses twine my own, cheek to cheek

Our tongues inhale rain drops after the storm





Posted for D'verse Poets Pub - Blank Verse
and Poets United:   In two or more languages

This is based on my train experience of seeing the couple communicate in sign language.

picture credit here                                     

Sonnet: The blue garden

Between brushwood & yellowed walls, she tends

wild daisies peeking with eyes like hers, old.

A mulberry tree stands guard.   She pretends

spring is soft as she pulls out weeds so cold.

Grey clouds saunter above crisscrossed railings

Where this garden hides, a man ascetic

watercolors artlessly 'til ailings

turned his canvas madly poetic.

Her knees dig for moist in dry soil,  here lies

seeds, wrinkled & wind-shaken.   Her unclean

fingers gather mulched brown leaves under skies

piling layers, an altar.   Her heart mean

as whiskey is now crystal.  Blue instead 

of red, she buries it 'neath thorny bed.

                                                            Artist:   Vandy Massey

Posted for: Poets United ~  Mid-week Motif- Hearts~ Thanks for the visits ~

 

The Ballad of Susie

Afternoon sun touches lightly the hair of Susie
As she waits with one suitcase & one way ticket
She is smiling with that light that drive away blues
As she thinks of her love like a secret

A rebel, she's walking away from her family's fortune
As she counts down the time, her hands clasp
& unfolds his letter like flint to her cold hands:
This fire we make,  this love to last

Though Susie is 19 & just out of college,
She knows he's the one she's going to marry first
Dashing & wild among men, she followed her guts:
This fire we make,   this love to last   

No rings nor flowers nor money, but she didn't care 
Here he comes now in an old white car at last
She feels the world bursting inside her, when he said:
This fire we make, this love to last

Though Susie is 19 & just out of college,
She knows he's the one she's going to marry first
After 50 years, she tells me:  she won the lottery when he said:
This fire we make, this love to last

  

Posted for:   D'verse Poets Pub - Thanks for bearing up with my amateur lyrics, smiles ~
and Poets United - Mid-week Motif:   Love  - This is based on my mom's story, who eloped at age 19 with my dad.    

Picture credit:   here

Living with fire

hot volcanic spring 
caresses my back in soothing strokes

sky is smooth as milky water 
peeling my skin like a newly born  

closing eyes, i drift like a leaf
rootless, lost in primordial pool

my foot touches black lava rock 
it reminds me where i am 

small lake, cradled in tempest mountain,
birthed from thirsty fire & vicious gas  

moment's lull is fleeting
sleepless, roaring beast


how foolish of me  
to believe i can tame you


Posted for Imaginary Garden for Real Toads - Isadora Gruye's Challenge -  I am referring to Iceland's famous hot springs which are nestled in lakes of volcanoes.

and Poets United - Newness - Hosted by Susan Chast - in 75 words or less ~

Picture credit:  here

Sonnet: See my love dawning

Aragorn & Arwen from Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Do you recall how we first met, a dream

You thought as you saw me wrapped in silver

blue robe,  radiant crystal by misty stream

Of true love, You made me a believer                          

Do you remember our first kiss under stars

Filled with trees laden of gold leaves & heady blooms

After a long parting, each touch a fever

We sought for peace & love to reign, not doom

Bleak is the land gripped by wicked shadows

Festering darkness, trees & sea birds die

Hammering blows, meadows turn to gallows   

Fight for your crown, your blade is birthed by fire

Open your eyes & see my love dawning   

Eternal as sky, bright as your promised ring

“A single dream is more powerful than a thousand realities.” J.R.R. Tolkien

Posted for Imaginary Garden for Real Toads - Sunday's Challenge - Write a Fantasy Poem
Poetry form:   Sonnet 
Shared with Poets United
Picture credit:   Lord of the Rings Trilogy 

Time is water

The Trouble with Time by Mike Worrall

November makes you thirsty.
      
      You wake up and the room is flooded

      Water is a good thing, you say
      It is part of the architecture & enhances
      the value of the house
 

Water is more precious than gold.

      You peer out the window, oxygen-starved -
      Is it strange that you don't freeze when
      furnitures are rain soaked, elated as clouds-

      You have just french kissed your lover 
      but already he is floating  away-

      seaweed hunting, he says -  

You turn away, a wildflower in second place.   

      Where is this storm that you're dreaming:
      unstoppable tides, sky colored flames-

      Perhaps it only exists in your screen saver     
      Or canvas abundant of salt & departing things   
      

This bottled water is drug.

Posted for Imaginary Garden for Real Toads - Sunday Feature by surreal work of Mike Worrall where I am hosting ~  Thanks for the visit ~  
Shared with Poets United

Tanka poems: Autumn

autumn is like a book
worn, frayed & inked of yellow -
but run your fingers
      along my spine & inhale the words
      they're like flowers, fresh from rain -

Just a Picture:   Blossom

~0~0~0~

petals fading dark edges
leaves bursting in fiery shades
crimson, orange-dusk-

       kiss me like a hungry bird
       ravishing the last fallen apple    
  

~0~0~0~

this moon-stained night 
oak trees are trembling behind clouds
smoky black & grey -
      clock ticks a heavy omen, love 
      stay- even if dawn burns us -  

Posted for Imaginary Garden with Real Toads - Tanka Poems

Shared with Poets United ~
Happy weekend ~