Best Vitae Poems
She calls herself Bunny Boucher, but she was born Veronica Chermak. She’s tall and leggy with a body that looks tidy, yet lived in. She’s high and tight, but flexible like a strong rubber band in a tricked out pinball table. She reminds me of that actress Tracie Lumbar playing the actress Fern Hall in that old movie Iguana Sunset. Her topography leaves no room for global climate change. Her tropics are seductively torrid, while her poles remain perpetually cool; makes you want to straddle her equator with your meridian. She’s been to Mussel Shoals, Shucked Oyster, Bearded Clam, Moose Knuckle, Camel Toe, Beaver Falls, Cottonwood, and Rabbit Patch, just to name a few of her more well-known hangouts. Some would say she looks Greco-Roman, but I’d describe her as looking more like a Hellenized Phoenician who emigrated from Trans-Alpine Gaul, or maybe she looks more Etruscan, with a hint of Minoan when you see her by moonlight. They say she’s as pure as bloodstains on a purloined letter. She traded in her Biblical name soon after she left her home in Mississippi and never spoke of it again. It may be just routine housekeeping, but who could blame a girl for sweeping off her back porch. She recently had a front end alignment. They say her rearview mirror never lets her down. After arriving in New Orleans she passed her bar exam at Vaughan’s on Dauphine and kept the circuit judge disrobed till way past last call. She’s a sexy banshee when she’s in the catbird seat with her cherry basket swinging from a bungee cord. Last I heard she was sharing a dump with a couple Guatemalan dancers. Her room ain’t worth a dollar, but it cost a pretty penny. She pays the rent with a pickup truck full of contraband. She says she needs the space, but not the distance. Like most women, nobody’s ever been able to figure her out. But there is one thing I know for certain, her smoke may sometimes offer you a tempting indication of certain possibilities, but her fire has never been known to lie.
"Intermission: Ad Infinitum Lux Vitae"
Intermission
I wait
You call
I have loved
I wait
Lux Vitae
I have loved
Through the Storm
Lux Vitae
I have loved, to love You more
Through the Storm
You call, Open Door
I have loved, to love You more
Ad Infinitum
You call, Open Door
I walk with You through the Storm
Ad Infinitum
My Love is always Yours
You walk with me through the Storm
The Waiting Room calls
Intermission
(Lovejoy-Burton/April 2018)
for "my" Georgia,
who is entirely her own person
The inspiration for my poem -
This "Pantoum" is about Birth, Life, Death. There are all sorts of "Waiting Rooms", in this Life and the next. Of course, this is my belief. The reader may interpret Birth, Life and Death distinctly separate from my belief.
Georgia, the 'True' inspiration for your name, below. x
"I decided to start anew, to strip away what I had been taught.”
- Georgia O'Keeffe
"I had to create an equivalent for what I felt about what I was looking at - not copy it. ”
- Georgia O'Keeffe
"I said to myself, I have things in my head that are not like what anyone has taught me - shapes and ideas so near to me - so natural to my way of being and thinking that it hasn't occurred to me to put them down. ”
- Georgia O'Keeffe"
"Marks on paper are free - free speech - press - pictures all go together I suppose. ”
- Georgia O'Keeffe
"To create one's world in any of the arts takes courage. ”
- Georgia O'Keeffe
"Anyone who doesn't feel the crosses simply doesn't get that country.”
- Georgia O'Keeffe
Artwork, Georgia Totto O'Keeffe (November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986)
“Ram’s Head with Hollyhock”, 1935
https://www.georgiaokeeffe.net/ram-head-with-hollyhock.jsp
Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross
"Technically Missing"
https://youtu.be/EBaa0k1y57w
"Politics is a dirty business. If you are going to 'write' policy, fabrication is not advisable, make sure you have ALL the true facts in front of you and that TRUTH is delivered by whatever means necessary". Quote, Leanne Lovejoy-Burton to daughter, Georgia - April 2018.
Curriculum Vitae
I was born [so they say] in the usual way.
my mum was of the female persuasion,
[My father was not] but I can't say a lot,
for I've totally forgot the occasion.
We all lived in a box, which once held Dior frocks,
by the side of the furious M6.
Although poor, I'm no fool, and I went to a school,
so fine 'twas Approved, to learn tricks.
In class I was ace - with an angelic face
and A grades in mole-strangling and cheek.
And since starting to work, I’ve proved I’m no jerk:
why, I stuck with one job for a week!
But I’m now in my prime, and ambition’s no crime,
so I'm offering you all of my skills.
If you're female and lusty. [shan’t complain if you’re busty]
we could have multi-positional thrills.
Captin ever-optimistic Cat
Some watching my ease
Of execution of the self
The latent anxiety unteased
Writes me off in simplicity.
Some denuding me of honor's wealth
Wait in turmoil
For a scab to fall and unveil its pus
And if I do not flinch for pain
Writes coward beside my name
Some deck out in borrowed jewels
Could not stop me looking at the stars
They heard only my polite conversation
Saw my faith
And did not understand the transformation of desire
The restructured purpose of the heart
The difference in whose I am
They frightened ran
Frantic to recompose themselves in fear
They judged me like the world again
But O how deep the flow
Of divine grace
That such may come and find nothing in me.
I am a man of firm convictions
I know the way all things should go
Before they go
I watch the frightened blunder
Inventing old salvation in new fora
I do not yield to that
Peace is a vision of the broken self
The spontaneous abolition of lies
Do not give the heart too much grandeur
It blinds the vision to the soul
Reeks havoc of self interpretation
For before the strong delusion
Comes the lie
Do you not remember how impolite you were
How disrespectful
How nasty the tone of argument and action
And how he opened not his mouth
Waiting for you to come to confession
That gives a man a sense of justice
To execute judgment without compassion
And yet, great Christ, you wait for repentance.
You have your Barabbas
And yet you have no peace
How can right disturb the heart at rest
We weave a tangled mess
In a world of pride, but patience is a a door
I left it open
Without pain
For what you have become, what you manifest
I would not cry, could not cry for cess
Barabbas means himself well
But his history is a figment, his tale a lie
And then again
What power could sin have over sin
Poor, weak, wretched, vain
How your pretext falls like dusk
How bewildering the edge of night
If you see me again
Please note that I am the same
And through my door
Comes those who have forgotten pain
For I built it so
To admit the naked form alone
Be mortified at my door
You cannot come until you are purged
It is your life
I have neither haste nor urge
Only you can make right
I can only hold the light
For under my cosy exterior of ease
You will find again
Just what you see outside.
In purple majesty now
The lignum vitae bloom
Across the arid plains
Moths and birds swim
Upon its rare perfume
And tourists stare
Upon the short and stocky tree
With rugged heart and strong roots
That suckle water from a droughted land
They look but do not understand
It is the symbol of the man.
My people up through rough times
Come laughing each new dawn
The wind blows them ragged
But never a sigh, they just go on
Without care for the world's rich things
Each little blessing is enough
To make the rugged heart sing
And as this tree, the national flower
Bloom beauty out of arid dust
My people bring productivity
From barren times
With only God to trust.
We are a model of the lignum vitae
A sustained strength
A permanent sanctuary of beauty
A happiness that never relents
Yet delicate in human caring
As each purple pannicle of flower
A Lignum vitae love
Drawing each separate goal into one:
O Jamaica, bloom forever.
"LUX VITAE LUX"
Here you stamp
your mark of
approval or not
We meet at the point
where a Father
is the judge of what is good
and what is not.
And we try so hard
to avoid heart contact
over all the plundering words said
light and dark
yet we open minds
that chance by our trials
to believe in something bigger -
Ours
in hours
kangaroo courts
turn triggers
forgiveness
bleeds kindness
that empowers
never forgotten
never left behind
key burns the open backhand
for Heart’s gate
the golden thread
gifted you
through eye of needle
labyrinthine
smyth sewn into
the fabric of you
You,
of all people
I will bring through
with me
to the other side
Evensong -
though you don't believe,
I did all along
(ladyLabyrinth / 2021)
gvlm-scm
"Agnus Dei"/Samuel Barber
https://youtu.be/AiuC_CaObbI
lux vitae lux / latin. translation.
A labor of love
Frequent contractions
Bloody show appears
Belly and back pain
Her water breaks now
The baby drops
Loosened-up joints
Cervix dilates
Cramps are intense
Nauseous mom
Start the drugs
Feeling great
Bear down
Push out
Birth
May 18, 2022
**Side note: John Gondolf read my first Diminished Hexaverse poem about the end of life (Finis Vitae) and suggested that I write one about the beginning of life. Thank you for the wonderful tip John. I'm always up for an intriguing challenge.
Amore est vitae et vitae est
Imperati de tu mea sensus
Fide, et tu fide est obrizus
AMORE, MORTE, INCALESCO
Ignibi de inferos, immergo foras tu ego!
Non Ego, et tu?
Amore vitae mea, abseni...
I think I should have
Been born a tree -
- Maybe a silvered birch
With feather veined
Leaves -
- I could greet
My tall reflections
That swim saintly inside
The nearby streams -
- Or a lofty, leafy oak,
Crying slow orange tears in autumn
And being a shoulder
For solemn lonely birds
To cry on -
- It has been said
That I always had my head in the clouds.
The end has now come
Once lucid eyes dulled
Shallow breaths begin
Food and drink have ceased
Sleep is now constant
Bowels shut down
Pulse becomes faint
Bluish-hued skin
Grimace of pain
Eyes roll back
Body cools
Moans softly
With love
Speaks name
Gone
May 15, 2022
**Side note: This was my first experience with writing a Diminished Hexaverse poem. I thought it was a fun challenge. I chose to write it about the very last moment before death because I watched my maternal grandma take her final breath while in hospice care.
cow bells ring
through verdant hills
rolling up to cuddle
towering gray cliffs
spraying white foam
intoxicating Alps
where Frankenstein
concocted Elixir Vitae
and birthed a monster
rich red wine
and a pot of fondue
on a cafe terrace
jagged tip
of the top of Europe peeking
through the fluff hugging
its head and shoulders
stunning monster
the Alps
Elixer Vitae for an
old soul
I’m a servant of the universe
My rank is junior minder.
I care for the solar system
As its oiler and winder.
Everything is done
To a very strict rota,
Checking every cog
And cleaning every motor.
The star has its thermostat
Rigidly checked and set
Its fuel delivery schedule
Very rigorously met.
Each planet has its key
Kept on its own ring
So I can check and fix
Each internal spring:
Wind it too tight,
The planet runs fast.
Not tight enough
The wind won’t last.
I once got it wrong
In my apprentice stage,
Wiped out the dinosaurs
And caused an ice age.
You can imagine all the ribbing
At the staff centennial dinner
Apprentice of the moment?
Never was the winner.
I have my own staff now
The systems work just fine.
Guess it should last right
‘Til the end of time.
What is the value
of faith without doubt
Love without hatred,
peace without routs
What is the meaning
of joy without pain
Words without silence,
sun without rain
Into the middle
both sides fall within
Dimension redundant,
all endings begin
The yin and the yang
the long and the short
When hands clasp together
—right left to import
(The New Room: December, 2021)
Whatever you are given, appreciate...
Do not pass through the field
without planting and without reaping ...
Don't pass through the sky
without kneeling
and pray ...
Don't pass through love,
without realizing it and love it ...
Do not pass by the oasis,
without stopping to drink ...
Don't pass through life,
without pleasure and used to advantage
and without living well ...!