(For Sue).
.
My heart twinkles like the refracted light
on the floor of the rink
from the disco ball overhead.
You hold my hand and we whirl in circles.
I want nothing more than you.
.
The Earth turns.
Time passes.
.
My heart is fractured like the light
weeping to the floor
from the disco ball.
You raise your hand and my world spins in circles.
There is nothing left of you
.
except a folding chair,
the oil stain in the drive way,
and our little girl.
Possibility.
Within each glimmer of it
Dreams are born
Ventures are launched
Hope is the fuel for the journey.
Whether it brings victory or defeat
There is always
‘Next time…’
‘maybe…’
and
‘If…’
Your eyes awaken tender dreams in me
That call across mere lifetimes to the past
Revealed as twinkling stars in skies so vast:
A universe that’s less than we can see.
Beyond the Earth the roof of Heaven glows;
Beneath the ground the molten rivers glide,
Yet in your love securely I abide.
Without you Hell is close, but Heaven knows
That love like ours parades across all time,
Encircling all who come within its arms.
No sorrow can hold long against a joy
entreating me to fill the world with rhyme.
We rise on love above all Earthly harm
For death has lost its power to destroy.
.
.
.
Persona of Ben writing about Grace again. Poor guy. He’s got it bad.
(I really do need to work on proper sonnet structure that incorporates a volta. You don’t see one in this, do you? No? I didn’t, either. Sigh.)
I wished I could.
I thought I should.
then knew I would.
Though doubts amid,
I slipped and slid
fought could, should, would,
and then I DID.
.
.
This is the story of the birth of my writing career, synthesized. Years of wishing and dreaming, slowly coming to believe that I could, and then finally actually writing the novel I’d wanted to write for thirty years. The story was desperate to see the light, and when I got down to it, it poured out at 25 pages a week. Six months later I had a 150,000 word novel. Astonishing. When Grace Awakening hits the bookstore shelves September 2011, it will have been less than 3 years from the time I wrote the first words. Wow.
If you dream of being a writer. Quit dreaming. Get writing.
.End of rant.
.
Now to a poetry lecture:
The ‘eye rhyme’ is interesting here.
Dipthong ‘ou’ makes 5 different sounds in this short 28 syllable poem, and ‘ough’ appears in every second line, teasing the eye into perceiving rhyme where there isn’t.
Beware the deadly hedgehog with its armour on its back
It is sneaking through the linens preparing to attack
Though you may slam the door on it, it’s coming through the wall
Although it’s very tiny, there is no hope left at all.
You will die a gruesome death, my friend, unless you show your fright
Your screams will echo loudly ’til you defeat it with the light!
.
My husband has the craziest dreams. The other night he woke up screaming, so I asked what had happened in the dream. Ya ha. Armoured hedgehog attack. No kidding. I’m still laughing!
Tunes trembling above,
twinkling like a mythic dance
wrapped in memory,
I wish you great happiness
And many years of music
I wrote this poem for my high school yearbook.
I dedicate this blog entry to the class of 2010.
* * * * *
They tell me this is graduation
These people all around us
As we stand in these gowns
Faces and hair immaculate
Smiling outwardly at our
Relatives and friends
While our insides shake
In terror
I wonder if the others are all
Remembering back, like me,
To grade one, and leaving
Elementary school, and
Fly-ups, and award receptions?
They can’t fool me,
This isn’t a graduation,
This is another beginning.
SLD June 6, 1982
(c) S. L. Bird
Celebrate the nationhood of
A land that stretches sea to sea to sea
Newfoundland to British Columbia to
Arctic shores binding land and people in the
Discovery of our communal greatness
Among lakes, trees, prairie and mountains.
listen.
her voice is sweet–
sweeter than any other here tonight.
her voice was squeezed,
crushed,
gasping.
oblivion drew
a thick red line
against her throat,
but today her song is sailing to the sky
and we are wrapped in the glorious miracle
of her melody.
You call me across time
And touch my heart anew
You fill my soul with rhyme
And show me what is true
The sun bleeds golden beams
that pierce my eye with you
While time stretches in dreams
And I am blinded, too
You call me across time
I hear your voice it seems
It echoes like a chime
And reaches through my dreams
‘til all is filled with you
And you are all that’s true
.
.
The persona for this poem is Grace, addressing Ben.
Shawn L. Bird 