clad solar plexus
luminosity enrobed
selene awakes
Behind a fence were piles of leaves
The trees had lately shed
And as I passed, my eye picked up
A flash of something red.
I stopped and looked and out it popped,
An unexpected sight –
A cardinal, enrobed in red,
Which filled me with delight.
I don’t believe, as many do,
This sighting signified
A visit from the dead or that
Good luck was thus implied.
I rarely see this bird, though,
Yet my morning did begin
With a cardinal encounter
Nowhere near the Vatican.
Spanish Moss hangs over my face
a gentle caress
green filaments brush my hair.
The flat-bottomed boat
glides on a slow current
but it pushes me,
it urges - but to where?
Florida has a lot of water,
this stream is green,
a backwater making its own way
as it slides between marshy land.
Perhaps it will wind into
a Floridian suburban stream somewhere,
there will be blue swimming pools,
perhaps the odd plastic flamingo?
I hope there will still be
these enrobed Cypress trees,
some curtains of trailing moss
that will part
revealing new ways for this boat to go.
Honey Locust Trees, perched precariously on
Ledges lost amid ruptured chasms of evil
Ant hills, protruding fistfuls of grapefruit-sized
Giant ants suffering remnants within sight of
Chernobyl, in the Ukraine forbidden zone;
Seemingly immune to the poisonous pods;
Literally dripping heavy ants clinging to juicy,
Waxy seeds as they climb and fall over each
Other feasting on spandrel sins denied by silver
Palaces adorned with backroom deals and
Shady hats glittering with guava-glazed
Toasted pecans, spun with rain-soaked
Clumps of blue spirulina hungrily engulfed
By the living dead...
Enrobed
In
Pock-marked
Palladium
Exhortation to the Night
What breaths fill this night?
Exhaled by things that shun the touch of light?
Accept the burden of pressing dark?
Face the Abyss to read its Mark?
Down in the blackness
We dance and drum,
Exhorting the Unknown
To Manifest and come.
We wheel through the Void
Between the stars
Accepting its taint and all it mars.
We the believers in Divine Disorder,
The ones who prowl on reality's border
We bearers of an Alternate Truth:
The universe was different in its youth.
Back when the stars had just begun to burn,
The Watchers formed and began to learn
The evil secrets locked in space,
The musings of gods that have no face.
Enrobed in darkness
We writhe and turn
Wanting to know
Fearing to learn
The awful truths
That bend the mind
That separate us from our kind.
Ours the breaths that chill the night.
Ours the eyes that shun the light.
We accept the mantle of the dark.
We behold the Abyss and feel its mark.
Longing to possess
belongings of fellowman.
Perfidious unseen want
enrobed in sweetness.
Treachery rooted deep down.
Stealing begins in the heart.
One of The Seven Deadly Sins ' Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Edward Ibeh
October 16, 2018
(Matthew 15:19)
On our wedding he gave a crystal rose
Flowering forever, enrobed in glass
Ballerina's grace in delicate pose
Guardianship of tradition, of class
Witness of first years, of paper, cotton
Commitment held, her thorns learn to forgive
Pain polished away, stains dimmed, forgotten
Like love immortal, death she will outlive
Ten years on, he presented me her twin
Silvery spring caught; his honor, my gift
For old promises kept, new ones begin
He is still my rock amid rivers swift
Two roses, bloom in space the heart allows
Two roses, as eternal as our vows.
8/01/18
Eden
Early bloom the yellows of spring,
ending the gray of winter’s bane;
entwined vines of columbines cling,
enthralled by silver drops of rain.
Enrobed in colors fresh and green,
ensconced in nature’s arms serene…
Eden hums as nightingales sing.
06-06-2018
Contest: Pleiades Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Joseph May
Placement: 2nd
Spotted Fawn and I
I whispered quietly to you, just a foot away
"I am not here to harm you, just gathering
wild ramps on this limestone bluff" curled up
next to a beach tree, one eye peaking at me
near the ground, ears alert, you lay so peacefully
enrobed in golden fur with brilliant ivory spots!
I will never see you again, dear one, but I know
I will always remember your ebony eye looking
at me revealing the wonders of our universe,
for that I am in your gratitude.
As I moved away, she gently lifted to spindly
legs & effortlessly hopped away, leaving me
alone on the bluff, tired, weak, a bit dizzy
from effort, filled with solitary silence, inner
peace I only feel after talking with animals
in the wild, knowing I belong.
awoken yet still dreamy
i float towards the window
by which i wait
by which i dream
peering through the fog of reality
i think of you
how I love you
face to face
peer through those incredible eyes
you expose only to me
completely transparent
deep as you are;
gifted,
singularly unique
the sound of your voice
more intriguing
wind - tiptoes the dense forest greens
the flutter of the one butterfly’s wings
caressing the jade blue of the morning sky
my name flying from you
like angels playing their golden harps
crave Destiny’s Child
“Say my name, say my name”
their music bouncing around in my head
as i wallow in the true of you
i love you face to face
your fresh
out of the shower
complexion
my eyes are yours
surely all of nature embodies you
and i must be made of steel
you the magnet draws the beat of my heart
breaking through my ribs
to sync with yours
face to face
enrobed in your thick locks
my fingers mapping every strand
bury myself in its scent
found in the meld of us
i love you face to face
I slither and climb amogst the highest of canopy
Winding, circling, selfishly stalking all heights for him
A slender, lascivious woman searching for a vee
Strangling my host, endangering its very life and limb
My rough shedding skin leaves all, top to bottom, enrobed
My teethy scales of greenery are heart shaped and lobed
Pursued by many, my wild grapes make the best homemade wine
Not only on riverbanks as my common name would imply
Most of the forest is littered with my dark hanging vine
I must forewarn all, for me to live, other plants will die
9/17/17
His icy grip comes loose at last.
His blanket cannot but recede,
Like tides that breached a floodgate, he
Her coming can no more impede.
She saunters in, a slow sashay
enrobed in freshly scented cape
that wakes the buds and songbird tune
as shades of shamrock swathe the scape.
It is no place for charcoal greys,
and barren boughs on colours feed
Like tides that breached a floodgate, he
Her coming can no more impede.
As much awaited zephyrs blow,
you sneeze out pollen, heartbeats pep
The season’s vibes can’t help but show..
A spring for the journal.. spring in your step.
As Autumn's breeze grows colder still
A blizzard blasts an icy chill
Snow flakes dance on coats and skin;
Jack Frost comes skating in
And on his cape, where crystals form
In complex beauty to transform
the air, the trees, the earth and sky
A layer of peace can catch the eye
Autumn, enrobed in greens and browns,
must leave the scene with bows and frowns
And so, she does, with graceful ease
Her curtain calls felt in the breeze
So gleaming, fresh-faced, storming higher
Jack will force us round the fire
Or out with him to work and play
While he trims the first light from each day
He'll sit and wait, as so must we
And hibernate, or play with glee
'Til Spring steps in to thaw his fun
When he'll retire in her soft sun
Altar of Repose
A life of partial compose
Born of barren prose
My time enrobed
In borrowed yoke
Mid the insurrection
I pray for divine intervention
And grip the splintered cross of resurrection
My sins of number and fashion
Seeking refuge in the arms of compassion
At the altar of repose
I genuflect
Sans regret
And hold vigil
For redemption's virgin
Pamela Miller
The scent of Eagles
Shortly after hate-filled
Cantations
Drive you vertically insane
Nearly touching utopia
Engulfed in flames
Your editor suggested options
Including uncovering cemetery
Ashtrays enrobed in trace-water
Marble
Unforgiving
Even joyful I concede
Your mouth dripping fresh-picked
Strawberries
While antediluvian rainbows
March towards certain death
Or nirvana
You
Said
As phases of the
Moon
Dictate
6/20/15
© james marshall goff
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