I remember the cold of a winter night when the snow brought the hills alive. When the valley stream was ice, I remember the cold of a winter night.
I remember the snowdrops of the spring. The dew would burn off eventually. The air would be fresh and clean, I remember the snowdrops of the spring.
I remember the swallows in summer flight. When the blue sky turned crimson almost every night. The soft air on open fields. The beauty of the fuchsia flower yields. The sun and moon could be seen together riding the sky. I remember the swallows in summer flight.
I remember the autumn colours of magnificence. The deep reds and yellows could create paintings without the frames. The soft warm of evening sun. Nature’s beauty without comparison. I remember the autumn colours of magnificence.
I remember loving nature because you found that in me. Your smile and your deep blue eyes shone brighter in the sun you see. The way you’d stop to help an injured bee. You saw so much beauty in life, even in me. I remember loving nature because you found that in me.
Categories:
burn off, autumn, memory, nature, spring,
Form: Free verse
Bathe me then bring me home
to that inner sanctum,
rigid and strong,
where Bast is known to rest
in the purest of scents
of woman,
protecting sanctity
and the serenity
of a world gone by
hold me where amulets cast
and hands caress each night
bless me with your dance of life
slowly removing the seven veils
birthed in prodigious fertility
anoint the new and the old
let sunrise burn off the haze
where the bluest of blues have laid
lick the wounds of past
allow this light to last
Bast: https://www.crystalinks.com/bast.html
Categories:
burn off, care, love,
Form: Free verse
Pray hearken, Fire, to my life’s fervent urge:
Kindle thine all-consuming power, red hue,
Burn up her mortal dross sans residue,
That she into base elements can merge;
Scorch all her pains that she suffers no more,
All stumbling stones irking like an old wart,
All sufferings failing to heal her heart,
Which may live on and just as was before
That she retains, and ever tender green,
The vestiges of her earnest desire
To love me, her heaving heart’s fragrant fire
For me; and let the rest all burn off clean.
This done let her wake, a fresh life to start,
New flesh and form, and a young feeling heart.
________________________________________
Sonnets | 05.12.08 |
Poet's note: Here is a man in ardent love with his wife who has just died. She has to be cremated so that a new life is created. He is requesting Fire on a burning pyre to scorch off all of her mortal body, all her pains, except her loving heart.
Categories:
burn off, fire, heart, love,
Form: Sonnet
The new year now is creeping into view
with resolutions, hopes and dreams galore,
so this year what I thought that I would do
is get off on the right foot weeks before.
I've upped the rate I pace at when I walk
to burn off calories and trim my waist,
and breakfast times now need no knife and fork,
it's Muesli , hope I get used to the taste.
Brown bread instead of white, meats are lean cuts,
tins of mackerel ,more omega threes,
for extra protein there's unsalted nuts
and tons of fruit to help stave off disease.
It's great to know that as the years go by
I will be really healthy when I die.
Categories:
burn off, health,
Form: Sonnet
And then... Depression set in... Crippling, unapologetic, soul-crushing depression.
An anxiety-laden sense of hopelessness... All consuming... Like 40 tons of wet cement nestled calmly on your chest. Slowly popping your ribs one by one... Robbing you of those precious little breaths. Like a massive black hole allowing not the faintest pixel of light to escape... Like an abrupt stop in a speeding car... Like the commitment to a long fall, knowing nothing good can come of it... Let me sleep. Burn off some of this time... Cuddled in a warm blanket is my surrender...
Categories:
burn off, depression,
Form: Free verse
My stomach twists,
Empty.
I'll run to forget the pain,
Busy.
Drinking water helps,
Better.
I go home and shower,
Clean.
My reflection catches my eye,
Fat.
I look away,
Shame.
I flip on the TV.
Bored.
Victoria's Secret ad comes on,
Curious.
Their bodies chiseled into perfection,
Jealous
Tv turned off,
Wishing.
Empty refrigerators will stay,
Almost.
Next workout to burn off more,
Thin.
My stomach wrenches,
Empty.
Categories:
burn off, body, image, woman,
Form: Free verse
Raised on a farm in the South, Father ended up farming most of his life. He loved the land, the growing things, and the animals. He went off to work early in the morning whistling and singing. We kids would tag along to work in the fields and secretly hope for early thunderstorms.
early morning stars
wet dew
the sound of roosters
When he was about to retire, he could no longer make a living as a farmer. Elderly, he had trouble finding work in the rural area of the South where he lived. The only job he could find was working for a chicken processing plant. They had thousands of chickens crammed in cages and behind wire fences awaiting slaughter.
They gave him a job using a heating iron to burn off part of the chickens’ beaks, so the they would not damage each other through pecking.
He lasted a week
Making pets of them all
started smoking again
(Published Haibun Today - 2008)
Categories:
burn off, age, animal, farm, father,
Form: Haibun
Bleach - disinfectant
fly and hairsprays
polish - air fresheners
used everyday
In our homes
without a thought
whilst the planet around us
becomes out of control
Smog from rush-hour traffic
on the urban scene
irritates the chest
but then leave what you don't see
Chlorine in the
swimming baths
our work's not done
better change them to ultra violet
Oil prices gone up
while our fossils have gone down
yet fumes burn off in furnaces
straight into the clouds
We're digging out gemstones
creating deeper mines
We've dug for years for coal
and now hydraulic fracturing - we're fracking
What of the gases
that protect our Earth
The holes just getting bigger
yet we're not being heard
We are opening Earth's crusts
increasing vehicles on our roads
using all our silver - using all our gold
whilst the Earth dies screaming
And meanwhile whilst we live
in our ignorance
Generations that follow
will have health suffer in horrendous penitence
Categories:
burn off, abuse, appreciation, culture, earth,
Form: I do not know?
Desolate sea
between steel sky and dusky shore.
A sinister mist creeps in,
adds to the grey gloom.
Flat calm.
Stillness.
Complete silence.
A seabird cries.
Shingle-rippling wavelets, bubble and make reply.
The gull continues his mournful song
evoking sea-lost souls.
Waves,
now churning time-worn pebbles,
advance,
inexorably –
a soulful seascape in shades of grey.
Others take up the seabird’s reveille.
Ghostly forms
float intangibly
on the morning mist.
Golden light, gathers on the horizon –
slow, diffuse at first, later, laser-like,
bright rays burn off the vapours.
Then,
suddenly,
in splendour,
the Sun appears.
3 January 2014
Categories:
burn off, bird, sea, sun, weather,
Form: Free verse
A dark day
Sometimes….
Nothing stays the same
Where ever you turn
The wind
And its’ song
Can never return
A dark day
When ever
The wind hushed down
For nature knows
When to leave
Such dark things
To let them go away
When all is lost
Or so it seems
A dark day
Will never stay
A soft golden sun
Will burn off the frost
Sometimes….
Nothing stays the same
Where ever you turn
The wind
And its’ song
Can never return
And so it was
In an Eagles’ land
Such things spurned
A few feathers fell
No matter
A Shadowfire
In his heart did dwell
Categories:
burn off, love, uplifting, visionary, dark,
Form: Ballad
is blocking my internal view,
sitting at this
clearglass kitchen table,
under colored lights
waning
after Christmas'
wake flooding past
as the froth
of the morning dew doth
burn off
with the Sun's first rays...
Rain echoes drop off
sounding silences,
bounding and tapping off each other's
energy,
falling
with
gravity
till
the end
becomes new beginning,
making its way
back to the earth,
toward a river -
to the sea -
to the clouds,
to once again fall as rain.
somewhere else
on a future Christmas Day,
somewhere, for
something....
Categories:
burn off, hope, life, nature,
Form: Free verse
I am the bend in the river
I am the path to the sea
I the Great Taker and Giver
the natural state of the free
Come taste the moonlight in motion
floating on clouds in the sky
climb to the height of emotion
laugh 'til the joy makes you cry
Run to the edge of forever
dance 'til the dawn of the dead
challenge the greatest endeavor
say what no other has said
Somewhere a message is waiting
somewhere a child wants to know
too many days of debating
time to get ready and go
Ticking,the clock keeps on ticking
slipping like sweet sugared time
look at the choices you're picking
mourning to night in a rhyme
Out of your window tommorow
waits for no maiden nor man
burn off the mists of your sorrow
ALIVE,now at last!
make a plan.
Categories:
burn off, inspirational,
Form: Quatrain
Scrap the smoldering, winsome words
the lovely odd truce made of letters
found carved with the edge of an old pocket knife
on a strap made of metal and leather
Burn off the tarnish on platinum rings
engraved with the infernal: "LOVE"
found pulling limp loyalty up to it's feet
and then giving it a death dealing shove
Trip over shoes which should still be for dancing
and spin them right into the trash
found in the corner of the cluttered dark room
like a pack rat's incurable stash
Blow open windows long stuck closed with paint
Push all the junk to the sill
Unburden your soul of it's hideous secrets
and snatch back your sacred free will...
Categories:
burn off, introspection, lost love, uplifting,
Form: Quatrain