Long Oil lamp Poems

You rock me wildly
 To the black rhythms of juju music from the radio;
 Drinking horn in hand.
 Not too drunk to tread
 The course of blue, warmth
 And moaning shadows behind batiste curtain.
 Waves...

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Outside the gladiator's window, outside in the growing gloom of night,

The nearby volcano is almost invisible, only smolders silently now.

Inside his room, he can almost tangibly feel the darkness gathering about him,

Can almost tangibly feel...

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Life was not a bed of roses for many women
             who, for time eternal,
             left footprints and paved our path, so we can walk...

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THE NATURE’S CHILD!

Defying fate, freedom denied,
Confined within the four-walled cage,
Safeguarded from the Autumn wind and sun,
Shining bright beyond my reach!

The scriptures decide the societal pace,
The learned men clench the reins,
At the altar of the parochial...

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The grand madam wore double strains of opal perils,
Around her collar of white lace, in eloquence personified,
She’s cultures Lady of utter refinement, curtsying to noble
And high brad’s aristocrats alike.
In fragrances of memories I’ve drifted backwards,
To...

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Through a tear in the wall, the sunlight peeks,
No one comes to ask how the old woman speaks.
How does she endure, so forlorn and alone?
Only God could be her aid, her own.
The horizon stretches, the...

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Yes, that is the role of the Teacher, as Shams was to
me – showing one ‘who they are’, so they can stop
bleating, crying at night, and never again be afraid.
Rumi

Oh beloved,
I'm like Rumi without Shams.
A...

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We draw life's patterns, vibrant and bold,
We arrange our karma, both new and old.

In the mandala of time, we place our stories,
In the chakra of days, we set our glories.

We shape tales of anand, we...

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fo'c·'sle    /'fohksel/  noun  deriv: forecastle
      1. the forward part of a ship below the deck, traditionally used as the crew's living quarters.
   ...

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Oh beloved,
I'm like Rumi without Shams.
A shivering summer soul,
secretly stalked by wild white winter wolves.
A chiffon child chiselling chimerical calligraphy,
cursed with invisible ink, silent in sentimental sighs.
I've become the son of solitude,
tired from torture and...

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Time has passed by since I wrote
No awards received, not even a vote
Book shelves are filled with all the best sellers
Libraries kept mine down in their cellars. 

I tossed out the old glass oil lamp
It...

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We danced in the rain
fleeing under our zincked roof only when the thunder roared
like we stepped on its  tail
as the soles of our feet pattered on the earth
Mother would make supper
calling out to me,...

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By invitation from a trusted friend, 
a medium intervention took place and I went.
The building set in the thick forest by a shimmering lake,
some broken sheds looking sad and strange to take.
Weeded and worn the...

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I was born in 1943
in a rural backwater safe from the bombs
also a safety net still akin to the 19th century.
Neither electricity nor gas
only an old oil lamp and candles for comfort.
The luxury of the...

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A Mother’s Prayer
The oil lamp flickered, casting its glow,
The sickly child cried out, heartache in tow.
“Oh my little one, my precious, my dear,”
The old woman trembled, consumed by her fear.
Orphaned, alone, with no parents in...

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West Virginian Mountaineer, hill country free,
Born down in a holler to folks of dirt po means.
Heard wind blow wave ‘er wave o’er regal mountain peaks.
Fed on cornpone, biscuits, country gravy, and beans.

White mist over each...

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Playing at night on rocky ground, he sprained his foot.
He hobbled onwards careful where his foot he put.
The lonely shepherds had long returned to their sheep,
But he wanted to see before he went to sleep.
Shepherds...

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I come to my senses a little every day, 
to lose myself with the morning.
I have no country and know no flag
My morality, in body bags
lies at the foot of the stairs,
under the sputtering oil...

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An old man returned to the rustic cabin where he was born.
There it stood midst a grove of pines, tumble-down, forlorn.
The home he loved in his youth now stood in a shambles,
Nearly overgrown with creeping...

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A chill drifted past the staircase
lingered then dissipated;
while the rustic oil lamp flickered, 
hesitating to die. 
Gasping to calm emotions, before 
feelings of faint overpower wit.
A continuous bumping in the lulling 
darkness sends an anxious...

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 ( for what its worth. ) 



-- Instruction:  How to know there's nothing left ~ you've over-stayed your visit
   
    I recall the sun of old thoughts seeped under:
    
   ~ How to 'Improve the world' ~ leave something...

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Dusk fell rapidly. Three women dressed in black
With their young lanky companion hurried back
To their rather small impoverished dark room.
Only an oil lamp that added to their gloom.

Silence reigned except for the youngest maiden
Sobbing, though...

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“Writing about a writer's block is better than not writing at all”                       ...

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I see a beam of light coming from the little hole of the broken window
I sit alongside the window & stretch my hand to unlatch it
It creaks when I struggle to open it

It is my...

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On Halloween, I heard of a guesthouse
advertising stays in a haunted house.
Spend one night, get a year's lodgings for free,
I was sure it was mere hyperbole.

Its decrepit looks failed to frighten me,
so I decided to...

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