Short Orpheus Poems

When Orpheus sang on his flute
All Nature listened falling mute
But when Samson sang
It sounded like a bang
That sleeping babies woke up with a jolt...

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Subject Orpheus,
Nation Earth,
I'll bypass the system,
climb back to birth,
to calm youth,
where, each day,
by the rolling wave,
the subject lived held
and with warmth loved,
as a miracle of the womb...

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Nature's first child with nature's passion blend
Ornated flower where the sun's passion rend
Religious things from the flawed hand of men
Melodious to hear, to dance but never bend
Astute wonder that from Orpheus' lyre descend...

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In your eyes
I have seen my unsolicited fate.
Even knowing that I will drown,
I will never retrograde.
Oh my dear heartless,
stay forever with me,
if not as the enchanting tune of Orpheus,
at least as the drastic pain of heartbreak....

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The Master of Nuances
 
Supreme literary intensity
Rainer Maria Rilke—
Inspired as Orpheus sings
Predilection for Die Dinge
A mastery of true nuances
A thirst for poetic symbols
He sings now with Orpheus
And the angels in Heaven.

Gary Bateman, Copyright © All Rights Reserved
December 5, 2016 (Verse)...

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O my beloved, I hear you in my grave.
R omantic notes from thy lire trickle through
P proud rock now hollow from thy magic.
H owI long to feel thy hand on my cold breast.
E ven as I speak, they plot to kill you.
U tree envy of thy mythical, poetic, prophetic skills
S trenghten/ their resolve. I await you my beloved....

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Adonis in obsidian
Midnight Heracles
My Orpheus, though out of key,
You sing the dark right out of me
Achilles himself had a weakness;
Yours is within your chest:
The golden heart that’s beating
Within an ebony breast
Olympians play chess with their mortals
Hades takes the rest
Still, Iron Apollo,
You rise and set in the West....

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Mad night, mad night,
all the colours and the light
play tricks on the whirling mind.  
Thick the air with hidden stares 
from masked figurines.
Death hides amidst the crowd,
wearing a collar of beads.
Morbid debauchery, crazed song and dance,
the reincarnation of Bacchus 
is looking for the chance
to break the lyre and end the song
of Orpheus at last!...

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He too could be Orpheus
But on Lesbus would find no place
For two in likeness excites no grace
And he scorn Dionysius
For the madness of his wine, since we
Provoke more profound mirth than glee
Where music wakes the soul
And love turns all dross to gold
Ye poets then remember him
Michael Smith, who dubbed the hymn
And was stoned by mad men
And world stood silent before his pen....

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Warm Me

turn your face
my sun 
warm me 

your name is my breath
intake, life sharp 
and clear as glaciers
just fallen snow 
one thousand years ago
forever deep as infinity.

your body true north
toward which I shall always turn
though we may be leagues apart
as Orpheus, I will find you
even in the farthest 
corner of death
for our music 
is speech and saviour....

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I amazed since you would be Orpheus
And play Apollo's lyre with so much skill
How rudimentary they tell the death of us
How conflicting the story of your frail will
Successful in Hades, empty handed 
By character, Hades need not keep you then
Among flattery you are best left stranded
For love never moved you to die with a friend
Which was best than this tired end
And wrinkling of time that on us descend....

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Orpheus, play your magnificent music for me, please do!
   I want to swing madly to your music!
   Let me kiss the morning Sun...
   On an old fashioned swing of shiny wood.
   With jasmine covered ropes entwined.
   My soul filled with innocent belief and hope.
   Flying higher and yet higher still,
   To be enlightened by God's Holy Son,
   Gazing into His all loving, window-sill...

   5/14/2019
   8:30am PST...

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Does destiny its promise keep
Will the wind someday tire?
Do stones in their silence sleep?
Awaiting Orpheus and his lyre

Should I awake from reverie?
And I too am found a stone
Will his music yet awake me?
Or let me there alone

To whom must I inquire?
To expose this coming fate
Be it pleasing or it be dire
How long a stone must wait?

Should the wind always blow
And fortune of promise survive 
Perhaps destiny will then know
To keep its promise alive...

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Wisdom wild wavering wyrd, wonder of winsome ways 
Ostentatiously opportunistic, Orpheus oneiric orchid, 
Marvelously mystical mirth maker making man amaze
Ardently argumentative, and artistic accenter; avid
Nymph. Naturally nurturing nostalgic nidulation days 
How do I praise the sweet excess in you, the grace
Oozing milk of kindness, compassion that bore me
Obdurate beauty more profound than the pretty face?
Dance dear dreamer devoid of drums drizzled memory....

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I was Eurydice and you were my Orpheus,
But you never cared to look over your shoulder.
You fastened your pace and I failed to follow,
Left in a land even darker and colder.

No music, no colors, no hope, no you,
I tried to scream but my lips were on fire.
So I swallowed the flames and called out your name.
I was a muse with no one to inspire.

So I drowned in thick silence,
On my bruised lips just one name.
For I was still Eurydice,
But my Orpheus never came....

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