Short Tamar Poems

Misguided shepherd 
north of the Tamar Valley
drinks steadily on...

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[paraphrase of a Svan folk song]

Tamar's mother said, "Tamar,
You were born fully grown.
Child, I saw you in a dream
I looked into the starlit sky and saw
That you were the village
And you were the world."...

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[paraphrase of a Svan folksong]


I, I am Queen Tamar
I raised myself to Heaven
I dug up a barren mountain
I left only a deep hole
I put the sword to Constantinople
I drove them into the sea
I made their lands my lands....

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She had a sword
To cut of the heads
Of subjects not fitting

She has a heart
That lies upon a cold stone
Torn, withered

A knight from afar
On horseback did ride
Passing by the tombstone

He glanced, the wind at his back
He slowed, for no reason
Other than chance

He unmounted and strolled over
To this old stone of long ago
And felt the beating heart

Of the past...

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-inspired by Tamar Braxton's "Blind"

Strike me blind right now
I will walk this world a blind man
Than to see you become the rose of another
Drinking from another river
Pluck these eyes out like Samuel's
As the arms of the temple fall on me
Leading me to my salvation
Of the thorns of the world
That prick my naked feet
Take out and waste my blind. 

My midnight mystery
Was you in any way that I wished
These eyes will not live another day
To see you in the arms of another....

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