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Mudcat Poetry Corner

Amos 14 Feb 03 - 09:44 AM
GUEST,Foe 14 Feb 03 - 10:59 AM
*daylia* 14 Feb 03 - 11:42 AM
*daylia* 14 Feb 03 - 01:38 PM
Wuzzle 14 Feb 03 - 01:51 PM
*daylia* 14 Feb 03 - 01:57 PM
Rustic Rebel 14 Feb 03 - 02:08 PM
limejuice 14 Feb 03 - 03:19 PM
limejuice 14 Feb 03 - 03:28 PM
Deda 14 Feb 03 - 04:11 PM
Amos 14 Feb 03 - 06:17 PM
Micca 14 Feb 03 - 07:03 PM
Amos 14 Feb 03 - 09:49 PM
Amos 14 Feb 03 - 09:59 PM
CapriUni 14 Feb 03 - 10:34 PM
Amos 14 Feb 03 - 11:32 PM
Neighmond 14 Feb 03 - 11:37 PM
harpgirl 15 Feb 03 - 01:52 AM
darkriver 15 Feb 03 - 04:06 AM
Sandy Creek 15 Feb 03 - 08:05 AM
Amos 15 Feb 03 - 08:52 AM
Deda 15 Feb 03 - 01:36 PM
Deda 15 Feb 03 - 02:15 PM
Amos 15 Feb 03 - 11:17 PM
Micca 16 Feb 03 - 07:52 PM
Amos 16 Feb 03 - 09:48 PM
Amos 16 Feb 03 - 09:55 PM
Peg 17 Feb 03 - 04:25 PM
Deda 17 Feb 03 - 04:51 PM
GUEST,vorblesnak@yahoo.com 17 Feb 03 - 08:08 PM
Sandy Creek 17 Feb 03 - 09:48 PM
Amos 17 Feb 03 - 10:17 PM
Sandy Creek 18 Feb 03 - 11:53 AM
Metchosin 18 Feb 03 - 01:07 PM
Sandy Creek 18 Feb 03 - 01:30 PM
katlaughing 18 Feb 03 - 02:05 PM
Sandy Creek 18 Feb 03 - 02:30 PM
Metchosin 18 Feb 03 - 02:48 PM
Amos 18 Feb 03 - 03:40 PM
Dexter 18 Feb 03 - 09:53 PM
Amos 18 Feb 03 - 10:49 PM
Dexter 19 Feb 03 - 10:50 AM
Sandy Creek 20 Feb 03 - 07:50 AM
posterchild 20 Feb 03 - 02:46 PM
GUEST,stone 21 Feb 03 - 08:55 AM
Amos 21 Feb 03 - 12:51 PM
GUEST,Promises like pie crust by C Rossetti sound 21 Feb 03 - 12:57 PM
Rustic Rebel 21 Feb 03 - 01:43 PM
Schantieman 21 Feb 03 - 01:54 PM
GUEST,stone 21 Feb 03 - 02:38 PM
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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Amos
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 09:44 AM

Beautiful, Sandy!! Beautiful, Chip!



A


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: GUEST,Foe
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 10:59 AM

Once a composer named Bach
Said he'd heard some wonderous tach
In the future I'm told
There'll be music that rolls
And also sometimes will rach





All those who would mess with the Sioux
Should find someting better to dioux
Or like George and his friends
You'll soon meet a sad end
Toodle-dioux, Toodle-dioux, toodle-dioux (to the tune of Taps)


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: *daylia*
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 11:42 AM

WAR

War is for neanderthals
who brandish bloody clubs;
and roaring insane battle calls
smash kinder hearts to pulp.

War's roots lie deep in avarice
in hatred and in lies
and suck the bile of ignorance
that their deathly fruit survive.

O hither come the blokes of war
See how they foam and rage!
They're howling just outside my door
"Join the tyrants of this age!"

And though the wisest of the wise
teach war is obsolete;
Still we march toward that vile dawn
on shameless, guilty feet.


daylia

PS - sorry about the negativism folks. :-(

This was inspired by reading a couple of the Mudcat war threads (too early in the morning?) today.


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: *daylia*
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 01:38 PM

"And though the wisest of the wise
teach war is obsolete;
Still we march toward that vile dawn
on shameless, guilty
BLESSED feet.


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Wuzzle
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 01:51 PM

Autumn mist is love enfolding golden rays of wonderlight
leaves are kisses gently falling fading into night
winters cold a rugged beauty blood red berries mistletoe
ice cold tears of love unfailing falling into snow

springs fresh day brings hope and freedom
daffodils and tulips gay
rejoice today sweet life has risen turning night to day
summer life with love indwelling far above the clouds of time
smile the gentle smile of peace upon our lives come shine


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: *daylia*
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 01:57 PM

Oops, hit the wrong clicky ... just needed to brighten up that last line a little ... Cuz it's Valentine's Day, and

* LOVE RULES *


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Rustic Rebel
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 02:08 PM

Blue Generation


It all just popped into my head
everything I've said
and done.
My existence doesn't revolve around yours.

Yours is from a planet of somewhere
unknown to most.

My belly crawls
Flesh creeps
Eyes weep.

Blue generation

General feelings of anticipation
New creation

Mother wails, in comparison
Compassion left.

Walls abound
My eyes well with tears
Body shivers with fears
Look into all the mirrors
Reflection disappears

With the blink of an eye
you appear once again
and we start over.


Peace. Rustic (2000)
ps. Great works from everyone!


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: limejuice
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 03:19 PM

It was so cold that night
but there was no wind
and it felt like the air would never move again
the porch light forgot to turn on
as I creaked open the door
and padded across the grey carpet
when I finally reached the bathroom
the light was too brittle
and it smashed against the faucet as it fell
but it kept on falling
I didn't feel the water on my hands
and I'd swear it never touched my face
although I saw my cheeks were wet in the wavering mirror
I wanted to see the stars
but I thought if I opened the window for sure I'd fall out
so I stood there
and clutched the curtains tightly closed

just in case


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: limejuice
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 03:28 PM

*laughing* And a little ditty inspired by the charms of our BC ferries...

O, the grimy blue carpet crunches under your feet
and the ceiling-beams rattle to an unsteady beat
the cheap vinyl chairs peel off of your back
as you struggle for comfort (of which there's a lack)

The lights up above are a skull piercing glare
so you vacate your seat 'cause your nerves are rubbed bare
the scent from the head just adds to your mood
as you stumble down hallways a' looking for food

The galley is crowded with tables galore
and ketchup packs squished all over the floor
The quality vittles availible here
would make the most hardened of men shed a tear

I'm sure some more verses will come to me the next time I have occasion to ride that majestic craft we call a ferryboat!

Cheers,

~lime


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Deda
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 04:11 PM

Wow, these are all great, and such a rich feast. Amos, way to go. You have always had it and you always will. I haven't written much lately so I'm going to post an old one. It is not from my kindest or most enlightened time, but for some reason I have always considered it my favorite poem-child.

Bonnie's Solution

If my clothes were real silk, bright, and new, and rich,
Then I'd be well.

If I re-did my kitchen, muted, modern, subtle,
Then I'd be well.

If I tidied my room, hung black and white photographs --
Tastefully chosen, artistically framed --
Then I'd be fine, I'd really be fine.

If I lined up brand-name bottles in the bathroom
And folded fat, clean towels in neat rows,
Scrubbed everything, fixed the screens,
Then I could stride out and take command.

If I got expensive haircuts and sexy little shoes,
Then all the world would love me
And I'd love me, too.

Then my heart would stop leaking out of my gluey ribs.
Then my slithery bones would re-gel into immobility
(Icy toughness, like hers)

And no one could hurt me anymore. I'd be as crimson
and as memorable as a staple through your thumb.

I'd be smarter than a speeding bullet.
(But not by very much.)


-Rebecca Jessup
(c) 1995


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Amos
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 06:17 PM

Aw, Deda, that's a puredee winner. I love it. :>)

Bro.


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Micca
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 07:03 PM

TRAP

                     Snap!
                     The non-existent trap
                     closes
                     on the non-victim,
                     makes solid
                     bars and walls,
                     dungeons in the air,
                     from fears.

                     We talk,
                     explain,
                     defuse the bomb,
                     and show the hinges
                     where the
                     trap
                     door
                     once hung.

                     But now
                     you
                     watch,
                     waiting,testing,
                     searching my eyes for the inevitable
                     lie,
                     poised
                     for flight.

                     And I,
                     closing the doors,
                     draw in,
                     slowing
                     actions spontaneous no more,
                     pause
                     listening,
                     for the beat
                     of your
                     wings.

Copyright Micca


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Amos
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 09:49 PM

Loverly work, Micc!!

A


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Amos
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 09:59 PM

The Long Problem                


I.                        

The long problem, the old problem,

Is not seen in the streets of day.

They have buried, buried, buried it

Put it down, under long hours of passion and of clay.

They have suppressed it, they have nullified

The old problem, the old problem,

So that the wheel may turn and the names be called

They have hidden the old problem away.



Money streets are walled with suits

And the hot sweets calling

That drip syrup on the fingers of men

Twined in the crisp leaf-fall?s scream

And the long problem echoes when it is allowed

In the hour of the dream. Balls

And the cold-climaxed dance deny while flying

Through the long problem?s halls.


Burials fade, and the long problem returns

A deal of well-suited clay cries in it

And the old wheel?s fire burns to its tune

And the crisped leaf crying.




II.                        

Answers are in communication:

The faces will flow

And the plenum reveal

And the denial be known

And the far northern call be heard

And the leaves transform, each

To its own kind of bird

As the wheel runs back

And the burial is undone

And the unspoken, known,

Advises the becoming.

All streets will as rivers

Advance to the delta call

?Auroroa! Aurora! Aurora!? tells

All there is, while the suits are falling.

All balls are cancelled by the flux,

The plenum explains, and the warm river-climax

Echoes the answers when the long problem falls.

Now is the beginning. Tell Edna. She, too, will answer.

Answers are in communication,

And the long problem falling


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: CapriUni
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 10:34 PM

The following was written for and performed for the June, 2001 Art Garden held at the Depot Theater in Garrison, New York. The Art Garden is a night of theater organized like a literary magazine, where writers independantly create pieces on a particular theme, and then perform them before a live audience.

The theme for this particular "issue" was Beaches.

THE TIDES WITHIN

We came from the sea before our days were numbered.
And before our eyes knew light from dark,
when time was kept with the heartbeats of our mothers,
we took our breath through gills.

We hold the sea within us,
like a pebble under the tongue --
a secret charm of protection.
Our passions: blood and tears,
are as briny as the sea.
The ebb and flow of tides within
follow the gravity of the heart.

And at the bone-cold shore,
where dream and duty meet,
the coastline is never smooth,
but, echoing the curl of each crashing wave,
twists upon itself toward fractal infinity.

After we have forgotten the numbering of our days,
after the longshore drift of memory
has swept away our care,
these crashing waves will turn our bones to sand
for a cuttlefish to hide in.


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Amos
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 11:32 PM

Made me grin, ya did, CU!! Thanks!!

A


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Neighmond
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 11:37 PM

I love to hear the multitudes
the people speak and sing
Oh! To hear ten thousand toungues
And hear the voices ring.


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: harpgirl
Date: 15 Feb 03 - 01:52 AM

and some more of hg's doggerel...

Hephastus

Hephastus, so the story goes
Once found himself a wry cuckhold
And to avenge his wife's wild passion
Tricked her love in a clever fashion.
While he was tending the smithy fire,
Mars was fanning his wife's desire.
As they lay entwined on the smithy's bed
They failed to see the net o'erhead.
It was rigged to fall as the story goes
when the flames of passion curled their toes!

Hephastus saved his reputation
And, passion is indeed a conflagration!


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: darkriver
Date: 15 Feb 03 - 04:06 AM

Ukiah haikU

One hundred degrees
by noon already:
too damn hot to write.


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Sandy Creek
Date: 15 Feb 03 - 08:05 AM

Night Flight '67

The dreams come back
when the stars take flight.
Old friends in old places
come around at night
and we ride our dark horses
through the Valley of the Loon
laying waste to Eden
and darking the moon.
Again we are dauntless,
heroes to a man.
We are the last few living,
the last ones to stand.
As the morning hides from darkness
and the images slip from sight,
I lose sight of their faces
as the dawning brings the light.
We are saddened and wizened
as around and again it goes.
We are just old men
wearing young men's clothes.


Dark horses refer to helicopter gunships.
The area is near Khe Sanh, Republic of South Vietnam.


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Amos
Date: 15 Feb 03 - 08:52 AM

Sandy:

Right between the eyeballs, man. Well crafted, too.

A


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Deda
Date: 15 Feb 03 - 01:36 PM

(Written in the late 1980s.)
Autumn

The only divinity I can sense or find
Comes when I regain my mind
After losing it completely.
Human help has failed. Gently, discreetly,
God sends some hopeful message with the wind.


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Deda
Date: 15 Feb 03 - 02:15 PM

In this poem I took some liberties with the legends about Merlin, whose end came because he fell in love with a powerful sorceress, in some versions the Lady of the Lake, and in order to escape his attentions she locked him, or tricked him into locking himself, in either a tower or a menhir, one of the mysterious standing stones that are found all around the coast of Brittany. Long before, Merlin had trained Morgana le Fay, a protegee/student magician(ess?) who "goes bad" and becomes King Arthur's magic foe. (Also, Merlin's experience of time was reported in some myths to be "backwards" -- i.e., the future was his past.)
(Dear God, is anyone going to really bother reading all this??? Oh well, here goes)

I. Merlin Considers Mad Morgana

His magic hands could heal her, they both knew it.
But the magic was withheld. She was too mad, mad with need,
Too sick for his taste. He hadn't meant to trigger
So deep and wild a need;
A transfiguring need, that stripped all loveliness,
Muddied all beauty, like some obscene graffitti of the soul.
He took aim with his eyes, coolly so that no light
Might blur his view of that fevered, foaming soul,
That madness which his hands could heal.

But even his hands cannot touch without feeling,
And who could know what that madwoman's skin
Might unleash in him?

Mad though she was, she understood
The wizard's loneliness, his isolation,
The problems of living backwards, and among men.
Once in some other time he had spoken to her often
Of these and many other things, and they had laughed.
He was so fond of her then! She had shown promise and wit,
And her dark eyes were deep to her heart, spilling the heart and hope's
Gratitude, merriment, all at his feet, all in his trust.
But now -- she was writhing mad, and there were risks.
Risks to these primitive men, and his especial ward.
And his own risk. Was she the foretold foe?
That other time was packed away now and he
Must hold his power all alone, must bear
The icy seclusion of vicarious rule
Among this childlike tribe.

She was of his race, perhaps. Perhaps some kin.
But she had bad blood, or bad stars.
He clasped his magic hands behind.
He shook his bearded head.

II. Afterword

"Was Merlin ever slain? And did he die?"
No. Somewhere stands a rock with a quick eye.
He loved to desperation, Merlin did.
The lady had no choice, no way to rid
Herself of his obsequious attention
But to lock him into magical detention.
He's alive and buried by his own spell
In some stone in Brittany. Who can tell?
So many rocks stand sentry on that rock-infested coast.
Any silent one might be his crypt, his silent host.


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Amos
Date: 15 Feb 03 - 11:17 PM

(((((appplause))))))


Bravo, sis!


A


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Micca
Date: 16 Feb 03 - 07:52 PM

This kinda grew outa trying to make sense out of this click here

The quiet descends
The flowers start to wither
In red brick furnace
The ashes slowly cool

The hymn is sung
The eulogy delivered
mourners head home
while Tired children mewl

Pile into cars
Lifts offered and accepted
Then rush hour roads
To go and Wake the dead

Then time to go
And scatter back to places
To far and near
With all that's left unsaid

Hugs and handshakes
After a drink together
bright hollow smiles
As people leave at last

It don't seem much
To tuck away a brother
And close the book
on fifty years of past

copyright Micca


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Amos
Date: 16 Feb 03 - 09:48 PM

Bravely done, Micca.

Thanks.

A


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Amos
Date: 16 Feb 03 - 09:55 PM

This is a piece that grew out of a number of converging forces. It is not autobiographical, certainly, but it reflects part of collective persona, culturally, if briefly:


Western Civilization



On the patio, with wine, she told me that he'd called
"Your brother called," she said, "while you were out."
We'd talked about our calendars, and revenues
And who should paint the halls,
And I said, "What about?"
"He wanted to communicate with you."

"How did he sound?" "Desperate," she replied.
"He sounded as though something loved was gone,
Like someone who learns an awful lie is true."
"Perhaps his favorite turtle died."
We laughed – it was an old, familiar tone,
"He wanted to communicate with you."

Reflecting on the color for the halls,
A contract at the office still in doubt,
A business rumour – hoped to be untrue -
I thought of him a while, and then
Said "Tell me if he calls again."


San Diego
February, 2003


(c)2003 A. H. Jessup


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Peg
Date: 17 Feb 03 - 04:25 PM

Deda: cool poem about Merlin and Morgana! Very incisive.
I include here a long triptych first published in Obsidian Magazine and then on gothic.net, and this same myth makes an appearance herein...
peg



Avalloch and The Tree Fairy: a triptych


Part One (The Fairy Ailinn)

I romp towards Broceliande
a slippery undine
shrieking silent paeans of wood lust
my face smeared with pitch
thighs shining with vetiver, tacky with blood

Where are you?

Cloaked in mist, I huddle beneath pine boughs
breakfasting on fallen acorns.
I wait, and sing.

I have lost you to the dawn
running backwards to daylight
to your city
to timepieces and rough weather
to loved ones and gold coin and sour beer.

How could you have become lost among trees?
You, the huntsman who's plundered every acre of Bretagne?
How came you to the faery realm?
How, if not trapped by magic?

You ran me through
Herne to my Sadhbh
antlers singed in the spitting fire
hot meat juices dripping from your beard
to stain my breast the colour of venison.

You semen swirls in my belly.
My teeth are imprinted on your spine.

I wait.
You won't be leaving.

I could have been a mermaid
could have dragged you over rocks
knotted your fingers in my silver hair
offered you to any or all of my sisters
their combs in hand, cold hips floating.
I could have filled your lungs with salt and pearls
stopped your legs
kept you with me.

But I am alone in this.
I love you. I want you here.

An ageless and nubile forest nymph
I tempt you with peaty scotch and promises
luring you with apples and high sweet music
into the green and breathing temple of myself.


LATER:
In Celidon Wood
nine dryads play at calixte twigs, the old game
dividing the contents of a buckskin pouch
squealing with delight as each receives a bauble in turn:
chunks of flint, silver coins, golden needles,
stubs of tallow candles, black feathers,
oat biscuits, a flask half-filled with honey mead,
a scarlet silk ribbon,
a tine of stag horn carved with Ogham,
a knife blade sticky with sap.


Part Two (The Huntsman Avalloch)

Bitch.
No you never twisted my arm.
I wanted to stay with you.
Twenty years I gave, petrified
in the screaming orchard, choked with ivy and mushrooms.
Twenty years recalling the taste of your mouth,
while you seduced a dozen lovers
and I watched.

The fisherman, called to your side from his bleak rock village,
The selkie trapper, his silver eyelashes frozen to your lips,
The woodsman, his hatchets rusted in your juices,
Even the idiot farmer, with his gifts of barley and turnips.
I saw it all, enslaved as I was among apple trees
their clumsy caresses bludgeoning my stopped eyes,
even as they bruised your greenfairy skin.

But you are not as fragile as you look.

For they, too, have been imprisoned in the oaks,
in the hazels, the hawthorns,
put away, endless forest denizens rooted in the soil of Broceliande,
soil trod by Merlin, another hapless fool,
frozen in transfigured time by a conniving fey doxy
was that your work, too?


LATER (Ailinn Speaks):
What do you mean, you're sorry?
Oh my love, I had such hopes for you, for us.
But in the end, you disappointed--
too angry, too possessive, too too too monogamous.
It's better this way, don't you see?

Patience, Avalloch: our flesh may yet be one.
Think not on the others,
they will wither in six seasons' time.
You are the one I loved enough to stay the flow of your blood.
Your body is yet warm as milk, sturdy as horn.
For now, remain in the grove,
be my shelter and my food,
and remember those nights we loved,
your antlered crown tangled in my hair,
while a thousand colours woke and danced about us
and we named them all forest green.



Part Three (Merlin Speaks)

It is all one.
Frozen I have been, but powerless, no.
Magic has flowered in me, a thorned, odorous canopy
of roses, balm, and rubine foxgloves.
I could crush you like beetles, like dried petals,
and scatter you from the cliffs of Orkney.
I could send you to the heinous bogs of Lindow,
there to drown forever in her peaty stench,
embracing my kinsman there, a late harvest offering,
the stuck-up golden boy, an ungrateful druid
if ever there was one.

Perhaps his withered lips might rouse in you some occult passion,
stir your breast to sugared musings, or move you to pretty tears,
such as I could never wrest from you.
For I do long to see you wed, my dear,
as, in my dotage, I drive roots deep and deep
into river-wet rock beds.
I am become stone, my robes a melted, igneous drapery,
my eyes mere chunks of amber.
I have been in the unhewn dolmen,
and I have been in stag horns, and sea salt,
and my hard, gnarled roots have plumbed soils
richer and moister far than yours, my darling.

Stuck? Petrified? Mudlogged?
I am in my element, you might say.
A tree in the earth, a stick in a hole,
my arms forever raised,
my head forever bent, in benediction.
I forgive you.
Your time is almost done, you know.
And when at last red fire rents the air
and all save the Eternal Ones must die,
your blood and sinew and snot and bones
will all be dust, greying in the black wind.

But I will rise from this Last Burning,
a golden and phantasmagoric birdling,
something between a merlin and an ibis,
unfettered, unfrozen, undead
And I will remember you.

Wait for me.


LATER: (The Goddess Speaks)
Alas, my mountains, laid waste,
are sloppy with glistering guano.
My waters, poisoned, lie thick, unmoving, stinking.
The forests, the grasses, all picked clean of berries and milk.
Tittering, chirping, screeching, the very air is an insult to me.

Who would have thought, in my autumn years,
I'd have been ousted, raped, undone,
not by men, but by a myth?


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Deda
Date: 17 Feb 03 - 04:51 PM

Wow, again to Amos, and Wow to Peg -- what an opus! Fascinating - very rich. Thanks for posting it.


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: GUEST,vorblesnak@yahoo.com
Date: 17 Feb 03 - 08:08 PM

Ha! Such talent.

Warms my heart to see the rythms of the mudcats in the muddy waters
of this day. Here be one from the nib.

Little bits of whimsy,
Worlds beyond my eye,
Twisted thoughts,
In twisted words,
That haunt me till I die.

Long remembered moments,
Splinters of my life,
They flee the vault,
Of never say,
My fingers weave the strife.

I never meant to poet,
Condense myself to verse,
Expose my soul,
To sharp critique,
A most perplexing curse.


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Sandy Creek
Date: 17 Feb 03 - 09:48 PM

Peg..thanks for the wonderful piece on King Authur...Sam


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Amos
Date: 17 Feb 03 - 10:17 PM

Peg,

ditto!


A


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Sandy Creek
Date: 18 Feb 03 - 11:53 AM

Amos, thanks for this great online poetry magazine.

Preflight

Sometimes
I wish that I could be
the hawk that sits
high up in the tree
Sometimes
I wish that I could glimpse
the world outside my town
Is it flat or
is it round
How far does it go
Will I ever know
if the Earth sits still
or is it slung
all around
and will I be flung
to the ground
or perhaps whirled free
to fly real high
so that I can see
the world outside my town
without sitting
high up in the tree


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Metchosin
Date: 18 Feb 03 - 01:07 PM

and where would we be without paying homage to Robert Service, of course, there are those who do not consider him a poet either......

with apologies to Robert Service.......

THE SONG OF THE WEST COAST TRAIL

There are those fools who decide,
To test mettle and their pride
And hike the temperate rainforests western rim,
Where pouring rain and muck,               
Is the measure of your pluck
And the backpack, of your vigor and your vim.

Over hill, through mired bog,
Over greased and slippery log,
Over tangled roots that trip you on your way,
Just when the slogging's getting tough
And you think you've had enough,
The map reveals there's still another K.

In the campfires smoky heat
When you're too damned tired to eat
And you wonder why you started on this quest,
Just then Pacific breakers roll
And a sunset stirs your soul,
You know by God, today you've earned your rest.

In the realm of breaching whale,
Where muting fog or blowing gale
Cloaks the Sitka spruce and cedars somber edge,
The kelp beds heave and fall
To the gull and ravens call
And the breakers thunder on a rocky ledge.

As you eat nut and raison lunch
And do the periwinkle crunch
You make up time on shelves of hardened sand.
Then there's the giant's cobblestone,
A misplaced foot could snap a bone,
Slowly pick your way and wish, for trails inland.

On the Cullites bolted rungs,
As the breath rips through your lungs,
Humbly recall, shipwrecks, in days of yore,
Where a tar, sans boot and gaiter,
From surf wracked and broken freighter,
Unaided, scaled this treacherous height before.

You'll meet a hiker who'll report
Someone's run this trail as sport,
Racers time in hours and minutes, not by day.
But the runner that's hell bent
Isn't packing your food or tent
And he missed the otter family hard at play.

For the hidden gold you seek,
As you wade the icy swollen creek
Is right there, in each footstep that you take,
It's not just the getting through,
That's the mother lode for you
It's every living, breathing, moment wide-awake.

Salal bush wind clipp'd and bent
By the western wind is rent
Into bonsai gardens of the rain and storm.
Sparkling silver sea and mist
Has constant, held and kissed
This wild topiary landscapes sculpted form.

At the Nitinat's tidal stand
Meet the tenders of this land,
Caretakers of split cedar boarded trail.
For ten thousand years or more
They have worked this windswept shore
For the bounty of the salmon and the whale.

Just when you think this part's a lark,
A Sunday stroll out in the park,
Don't dismiss those paw prints in the sand,
For the "cougar warning" on a sign
Will send a tingle down your spine
For you know who really rules this primal land.

And when the journey's through
Pachena Bay comes into view,
Remember in the elation of the day,
Sometimes success is not all luck,
Nor because of stamina and pluck,
But the spirits there, beside you, on the way.

Copyright © S.Grieve 1999


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Sandy Creek
Date: 18 Feb 03 - 01:30 PM

Paid in Full

I won me a chest full of medals
for killing ole' Charlie Cong.
Hell, it wasn't wrong.
Couldn't have been.
I was paid every month
and then once
I met a General
who slapped me on the back
and we laughed at the crack
he made about body count.
"Son, it's not the fact,
it's the amount.
We kill one,
we write down three
and between you and me
thats the way to win wars."
Government pimps...
Military whores...
Who could possible know more
than they do.


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: katlaughing
Date: 18 Feb 03 - 02:05 PM

Mets! No need to apologise to Service! Ya done him proud, IMO. Absolutely beautiful; I was there in the reading of your eloquent imagery. Thanks,

kat


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Sandy Creek
Date: 18 Feb 03 - 02:30 PM

CORRECTION

Paid in Full

last two lines
should read-----

Who could possibly know more
than they do.


Sorry 'bout that.


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Metchosin
Date: 18 Feb 03 - 02:48 PM

thank you, kat.


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Amos
Date: 18 Feb 03 - 03:40 PM

Sandy:

I should thank you!

A


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Dexter
Date: 18 Feb 03 - 09:53 PM

Ode to a Bluebird
Good morning, little bluebird
Upon my windowsill.
I saw you in my dreams,
And now, I see you still
Dancing to and fro
Upon my window ledge,
Fresh from last night's rest
Of nesting in a hedge;
And, as I see your beauty
Against the morning fog,
I hit you with the waste can,
And feed you to my dog.


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Amos
Date: 18 Feb 03 - 10:49 PM

Very droll, Dexter.


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Dexter
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 10:50 AM

yes. thank you.

dex


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Sandy Creek
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 07:50 AM

Where was I
when yesterday came
when the stars
of last night
stayed out of sight
hidden behind
the only cloud
in the sky
I missed the sound
when day broke
striking back
from the dark.


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: posterchild
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 02:46 PM

Sandy Creek, your war poems are very strong. Do you have more? If you do please post them or email them to me.

Thank you, Aronelle


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: GUEST,stone
Date: 21 Feb 03 - 08:55 AM

sniper

when we did our killing
we slid from sight
we left no shadow
      we hid our faces
      ten paces
      from the light


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Amos
Date: 21 Feb 03 - 12:51 PM

Thought Bazaar


We are the thought mongers. We make hard noise.
Guts rumble with unquenchable smoke – the furnace only roars.
Heads rattle with machinery, attitudes built into plastic parts,
The rattle of fast translations, too hard to love, that love destroys.
Peering through windows where we build no doors,
Fanning minds not joined to human hearts.
We have left no-one on watch in the furnace-room below.
No fires call -- the basement is adrift in blowing snow.

We are churning the chimes of the weird bazaar
As all our kind do, and have since young.
Smoke throated, voices aflame
Tongues waving at the hopeless stars
Hopes in mean messages, meanly flung
And the hard calling of names.
And, floating up from the furnace room below,
Coals scream, surrendering to snow.


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: GUEST,Promises like pie crust by C Rossetti sound
Date: 21 Feb 03 - 12:57 PM

The reclusive mystical genius Christina Rossetti expressed so many of her thoughts and frustrations through her poetry this delightful lyrical poem gives us perhaps some insight into the mind of this deeply religious Victorian lady who shunned close friendship prefering to live within her close-knit family unit away from the attentions of outsiders who perhaps she never entirely trusted....Heres the link to the page with the sound file..
Promises like pie crust by Christina Rossetti 1830 - 1894 (sound poem set to mus


Regards.

Jim Clark

PS..Dont forget you can if you prefer listen to my sound poems at my Yahoo "sound poetry" web group (look in "files") heres that link
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bloozman_uk/

All rights are reserved on this sound recording/copyright/patent Jim Clark 2003

Promises like pie crust

Promise me no promises,
So will I not promise you:
Keep we both our liberties,
Never false and never true:
Let us hold the die uncast,
Free to come as free to go:
For I cannot know your past,
And of mine what can you know?

You, so warm, may once have been
Warmer towards another one:
I, so cold, may once have seen
Sunlight, once have felt the sun:
Who shall show us if it was
Thus indeed in time of old?
Fades the image from the glass,
And the fortune is not told.

If you promised, you might grieve
For lost liberty again:
If I promised, I believe
I should fret to break the chain.
Let us be the friends we were,
Nothing more but nothing less:
Many thrive on frugal fare
Who would perish of excess.


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Rustic Rebel
Date: 21 Feb 03 - 01:43 PM

Vodka makes me turn pretty red
Tequila makes me forget what I said,
Whiskey makes me wish you were dead,
I think I should smoke pot, instead!


Peace. Rustic, getting deep!


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Schantieman
Date: 21 Feb 03 - 01:54 PM

I wrote this addition to William Blake's Jerusalem many years ago. It always seemed to me (singing it) that it needed another verse, and the sentiments are a bit old-fashioned. This brings it up to date a bit.


And shall the joy be thus confined,
Cease at the bounds of England's shore?
Shall minds be closed and hearts unmoved
While mute starvation pleads for more?
This must not be, we shall fight on -
Our love extend, our greed destroy.
Then truly shall Jerusalem
The whole world o'er shout out her joy!


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Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: GUEST,stone
Date: 21 Feb 03 - 02:38 PM

On Losing Your Friend

There is no song
for a broken heart
and no place to start
when no stone
is left to turn
and no lesson
is left to learn.
The spirit is dark when
there is no gift for giving.
We are not yet dead.
We have just quit living.


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