Best Sistine Poems

Iridescent ivory beams
stream 
through trunks
lining the lane
as through stained glass.
Rubies and honey glow
in the leafy tempera
of a sistine oak canopy.
In the sable silence
of autumn's crisp matin
I look up to see Adam 
reaching
to touch the hand of God....

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The Sistine Chapel

Thy ceiling reaches to touch eyes
where Michelangelo and God rise.


© Dane Ann Smith-Johnsen
January 22, 2010

Poetic form: Crysalline...

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Poetry, paint and the birth of a world
in a whirl the Dark and the Light do swirl
yet obey the dawn and dusk I do unfurl
above the alter I, the Almighty
forge form from their spectral sexuality, 
the dichotomy of their desires a dervish
on the pools of...

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I'm not sure Shem
the Lord said he was sad,
he told me that a long time ago
the angels had done something terrible
that they had compromised their divine command
for carnal caprice, that their offspring had become offensive, 
I never thought that the Lord
could be fallible, or have...

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I never wanted to be your mighty mouthpiece
I never asked to be the morning trumpet
in the troubled town
or the prophet clown
that would be scorned from all around,
I just wanted to be a mason
like my forefathers before me
to build homes and temples
with honest tools that my...

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When I was a boy
I thought I saw God
with the face of a Pharaoh
riding towards me at midnight
in a golden chariot, pulled by horses of burning gold,
they moved downward out of the deep indigo sky
like a stream of smooth flowing lava,
somehow my soul zoomed up...

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Many men and women have tried to ruin me,
but I am like quartz that cannot be removed
from the bedrock of my blessings,
I'll tell you, you haven't lived
until you've been imprisoned in a den of gaunt lions,
it'll test your faith to say the least,
dream decoding is...

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I remember when Alexander of Macaedon
approached me in Siwa as a supplicant soldier, 
he was so young yet so wet with war blood
32 years old and the most powerful king on the planet, 
Alex entered my chamber unarmed and unassuming
he was rather like a boy...

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Musing in the memory
of how the Seraphim
salted my lips in the sanctuary
with an alter coal
that seared my cruel speech
and soothed my agitated soul
the cherubs pull my conscious back
to the forefront of reckoning, 

A man will come to care
for the rough cut and unclean,
the elders will...

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In Erythrae they say I'm a prophetess
but I am foremost a Poetess,
an ancient fragrance fires my breast,
the cherubim wake eager for journey
lighting my lamp in the breeze of prophetic poetry,

Maternity manifest in Divine quest
Omnipotence picks her innocence
Time begins a Trinity tick
Heaven heaves her body
Eclipse elevates...

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Yes, I remember the day very well,
I left my cave in Cumaea for the palace of Palatine,
the sun was sullen behind a veil of volcanic cloud,
Tarquin, the final king of the Etruscan Romans
was handsome under his crown,
his eyes were lapis lazuli blue, his beard copper...

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I'm known as the serpent
but I have a name wise and wonderful too,
I loved Adam well before Eve came into being
I remember how his first sunset scared him
I ate grapes with him as roses bloomed at dawn,
watching them hold hands hurts me,
seeing them kiss with...

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You see me turned
ensconced in my prophecy
my lips murmuring with soft speed
and you wonder what it is that I seek to say,
for I have wept on the road from Babylon
foreseen the rebuilding of the temple
the phoenix of Jeruselum and the star of the Savior,
the tribe...

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Transfixed by the thunderstorm of raining thorns
I taste the violet vapor that rises as smooth spirit
while my sensitive gaze garners generations of grief, 
for those that follow the Savior must suffer like the Savior
and so they shall, feel the iron of violent institutions
their sacrifice will...

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Sshhhhh!!!
Wait patiently
I don't want the stars to overhear us,
they'll fuss like phantoms
if they hear the future between us,
you know, I began as a palmist in Persia
the money was good, the hand lines were thick
and the future didn't waste time on lies
but if the king's court...

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