Touch the rose to find the poems
***8 new poems - 12/01/01***
They would have puzzled at the way,
She still brought out the silver tray;
"Tears fall in my heart like the rain on the town."
Paul Verlaine
~¤~Index~¤~
Click title to read poem. Click the rose
button to return to index:
Alyssum Candles, Love and hope
Crocodile Tears Fair Beauty Bereaved .
~¤~The Sweetest Rose~¤~
Leave you to your lonely pillow,
Go and take my poems and tales;
You who've vowed to weep, poor willow,
Even the sweetest rose may fail.
Who am I, a man to ease you?
Leave my pretty words unspoken;
My tinkling echoes, aim to please you,
And my friendship they do token.
Over foolish am I to guide you,
And your blood is cool and sleeping;
If I could I'd sit beside you,
I would hold to stop your weeping,
Here I sit and wait your laughter,
Empathising with your sorrow;
Eager for your voice hearafter,
And waiting for a happier morrow.
~¤~Crocodile Tears?~¤~
Crocodile tears challenge the resolute,
Streams to lave a well beloved face;
Mendacious overflow in free rebuke,
The sprinkled residue - a saline trace.
Moisture salts the sullen dimpled chin,
Misfortune splashes the glistening cheek;
Guilty fingers press compliant skin,
Truth importuned through roseate blushes meek.
Misery summons banks of cloudy thoughts,
These lachrymose ideas discolour lies;
Trickled sententious truths seem overwrought:
"Implausible as ever;" she denies.
Melancholia subsumes misleading words,
Tearful deception is quietly conferred.
~¤~Alyssum~¤~
Watching alyssum bloom in flowering borders,
I want to reach out, picking several handfuls,
And crown your cold head in my mind again,
With these, the least and whitest flowers.
Left to hold treasures
Covered in dreamdust
Salt tears just deceive;
Discordant melody
Eclipsed by her loneliness
The cries stir the leaves.
Trees sparkle with whispers
Her wails bend branches
Words lost in the breeze;
Moss lingers in moonlight
Fragile and weakened
Fair beauty bereaved.
~¤~Tea Cups ~¤~
They would have puzzled at the way,
She still brought out the silver tray;
Stood on it cups of fine china,
Imagine him sat down beside her.
On the stone patio of those dreams,
Sips fresh tea as sunlight streams;
Stretched out fingers, hands entwined,
Together once, now thoughts enshrined.
She would have been so well at ease,
Sitting, sipping, with him to please,
Smiling at his affectionate face,
Now pain and hurt give way to ache.
(click the rose to return to the index)
~¤~Hemlock~¤~
Blue mountains on the cool horizon,
Controlling the limpid dawn light,
Giving intimate privacy to sacrifice,
Unconstrained by lazy societal silks;
Almond eyes anxiously undecided,
After a defiling and exhausting vigil,
Apprehensive and yet still resistant,
To mournful cries greeting the dawn;
Decisions, poised on a knife edge,
Make the deadly refreshing choice,
Lick dry lips to indulge thirsty eyes
Quench your love-lust and sip hemlock.
~¤~Candles, hope and love~¤~
Candles burn from darkness, hope from light,
And shadows just despair, unsated still,
Lost love might flame forever through the night
Or does the wick burn out upon the sill?
Let raindrops like caged tears within my heart,
Fall heavy like the ticking of the clock,
Each sound I hear now makes me leap and start
Each minute that I wait here for your knock.
Outside the mist filled air swirls in a pattern,
It floats and drifts and creeps and rests a while;
I sit here tranquil watching, parchment written,
And wait for your return, shorn of my smile.
Untreated, as with candles, hope is extinguished,
With the passing of that hope, love is relinquished.
Apology
Should she feel so inclined
to review discourse, she may find
words that were not meant unkind,
have been misunderstood;
He would not hurt intentionally,
Yet should she wish then to fly free -
he'd rejoice in that liberty,
Though this is not for real good.
Words are often self reflective,
Not meant to drive one apoplectic
Please forgive the brash invective
He would erase that pain
There come times when unaware
Exposing irony to urbane air
Can cause a trembling in the glare
Of foot in mouth again
Crocodile Tears
Crocodile tears can trickle resolute,
Streaming to lave a well beloved face;
A lying overflow in free rebuke,
The saline residue - a salty trace.
Sprinkle moisture on a dimpled chin,
Splash misfortune on a glistening cheek;
Guilty fingers press compliant skin,
Truth importuning roseate blushes meek.
Misery summons banks of cloudy thoughts,
These lachrymose ideas discolour lies;
A blurted sentence as untruths are caught:
"Implausible as ever;" she denies.
Falsehoods allied to melancholy sighs
Deceive through either tearful eye.
So unfair
So unfair - though that night,
She realised she'd not die
After the dread accident;
Insurance men are tight,
They would never let her lie,
and gain extra percent.
Alas his poor broken tooth,
Where now is your just reward,
Insurers steal care;
Alack, telling the truth,
That you cannot quite afford:
No dollars - so unfair.
Tears and Salt
Changes are wrought by saline tears:
They have no self. They know no fault.
And, though transparent sorrow clears,.
No self control makes it atone,
No power may gather it to own,
Dissolving presence just leaves salt.
But, out of moisture in harsh air,
It will reform into a presence,
Precise, exact, tangible, here.
Faultless pure and crystalline,
Submit to relationships defined
Channelled by its very essence.
Division healed by dichotomy,
Flayed by each suspenseful call,
Wearing insignia and still free,
How can they be subsumed to lust,
Save by equasions fair and just,
Tasting saline tears that offer all?
Yield to moist transformations,
Observe subtle crafted designs
Let self flow to pure sensation.
Bounds defined that won't imprison,
Accept commands without derision,
Let precious crystals be refined.
The symbiosis of close attachment
Comes with acceptance of every fault,
Without intensity or enrichment.
Emotive love achieves this swiftly;
Other constructs build less quickly,
As they possess both tears and salt.
False Games - Frayed Hopes
False games fray high hopes in ways so base,
Seamless anxieties illustrate new fears,
Don't comprehend the blaming thus misplaced
Warped ingenuity invokes hapless tears;
He would become the lover by duress,
He'd seek to crush the pulsing of a heart,
Gagging the intellect you would express,
Disdaining to display the better part.
Lacking valour, all against your will,
Usurps desirous trysts at every turn,
Suppressing independence, holding still,
He teaches bitter lessons. Will you learn?
Is he the amorous Cupid's antedote,
With slavish headgames, cruel and underhand?
Could you ever dream that you'd devote,
Your precious person to this vile man?
He learnt to love himself; you have alleged
His stories tresspass on your comfort zone,
He brings forth new exemplars at the edge,
The echoes of a past he cannot own,
Does he teach to pass on expiation,
Atone for lost romances crashed in flame,
Where is the care to build reciprocation,
Balance and hope frayed in these false games.
Needs
Friendship needs self fulfilment and nothing more.
But if you are befriended craving still other needs,
Then, let these needs be your remembered law:
Melt in the friend's arms like the first snow,
precipitant where all others fear to go.
Know the resonant warmth of that tendered palm,
Realising the clasp brings you no harm.
Never be wounded by the friend's remonstration;
Find a path forward together without recrimination
Wake at misty dawn touched by another's thoughts,
Thankful for the lessons your friendship has taught.
Relax at the noon hour when you calmly meditate,
The comfort of shared feelings you'll never deprecate.
Return where you belong as dark night descends,
Aware of the meticulous care you'd always commend.
Ensure heart and mind are readied for the morrow,
When you sleep soundly but for these several needs,
Befriend this self-fulfilment, avert remembered sorrow.
Temper my Anxiety
The cool angst of perspired fear, tempered by a sweet friend,
Dark shadows pale grief, knotted in the phrases sent,
Come friend, stay angst, breathe sweat and tease me,
Lighten shade, offset grief, veil me and ease me;
Your distant thoughts, kind words keep my heart from turning,
You make me glad to be alive and hold off cause for mourning.
Time
Does much needed time
remain for a presence,
concluding his years;
There are no more words,
Individual as the ticking clock
Not even hushed fears.
Around the spaces
Impassive thoughts swirl,
Residing in a silent mind;
Parading as worn out songs
flat and mournful,
Now well past their time.
Were they ever as cherished
As the wisps of roughened hair
Sticking up in your decline;
The last days of a surprised body.
I can't even think it won't last,
I want it to. I need the time.