infinite angels

by Shannondoah

the love 

that’s

with in

me 

sounds 

like

the moon

at 

night singing

the sun

laughing 

in the 

day

the stars

meditating

on 

their 

bright 

journeys

the vastness

and 

depth

that is, my love

our 

love

swims

forever more

amid storms

and

calm shores

deep ocean blue

wild sparkling sky

beyond poet princes

and expected ones

lives our story

infinite angels

most high

garden gate

by Katherine Mansfield (1888 - 1923)

Secret Flowers

Is love a light for me? A steady light,

A lamp within whose pallid pool I dream

Over old love-books? Or is it a gleam,

A lantern coming towards me from afar

Down a dark mountain? Is my love a star?

Ah me! -so high above so coldly bright!

The fire dances. Is my love a fire

Leaping down the twilight muddy and bold?

Nay, I’d be frightened of him. I’m too cold

For a quick and eager loving. There’s a gold

Sheen on these flower petals as they fold

More truly mine, more like to my desire.

The flower petals fold. They are by the sun

Forgotten. In a shadowy wood they grow

Where the dark trees keep up a to-and-fro

Shadowy waving. Who will watch them shine

When I have dreamed my dream? Ah, darling mine,

Find Them, gather them for me one by one.

the evening speaks

by Shannondoah

the evening speaks

the night tells me

it’s all gonna be 

alright

the crickets sing

you’re gonna

feel love

soon

the stars symphony

sounds like, the 

moon’s swoon

and the 

sun’s 

harmony

shining 

my 

heart light 

bright

and

so I keep

listening

for you

heart and mind

by Edith Sitwell (1887-1964)

Heart and Mind

Said the Lion to the Lioness-‘When you are amber dust,-

No more a raging fire like the heat of the Sun

(No liking but all lust)-

Remember still the flowering of the amber blood and bone

The rippling of bright muscles like a sea,

Remember the rose-prickles of bright paws

Though we shall mate no more

Till the fire of that sun the heart and the moon-cold bone

    are one’.

Said the Skeleton lying upon the sands of Time-

‘The great gold planet that is the mourning heat of the Sun

Is greater than all gold, more powerful

Than the tawny body of a Lion that fire consumes

Like all that grows or leaps...so is the heart

More powerful than all dust. Once I was Hercules

Or Samson, strong as the pillars of the seas;

But the flames of the heart consumed me, and the mind

Is but a foolish wind.’

Said the Sun to the Moon-‘When you are but a lonely

      white crone,

And I, a dead king in my golden armour somewhere in a 

      dark wood,

Remember only this of our hopeless love

That never till Time is done

Will the fire of the heart and the fire of the mind be one.’

     

stars

by Shannondoah

stars

you gotta suitcase

        full of sparks

and I gotta

         pocket full 

                of stars

so I’m just prayin’

         and waitin’

              for you darlin’

to find your way

          back home 

                 to me.

we’ve been to

          the sun and back

so many times

         i lost 

               count

although one thing

          that’s true

i do remember

          how much that

              i love you

i’m not gonna

               lie

i did get 

        lost

           for a while

however honey

     you brought me 

              back

you lit up my way,

          with all your songs

darlin’ together, 

              we can never go wrong

dandelion

by Walt Whitman

The First Dandelion

Simple and fresh and fair from winter's close emerging,

As if no artifice of fashion, business, politics, had ever been,

Forth from its sunny nook of shelter'd grass-innocent, golden,

      calm as the dawn,

The spring's first dandelion shows its trustful face.

faith

by Shannondoah

faith

 leaping forward

my spirit

    dances

ocean sun

by Billy Collins

Nine Horses

Aimless Love

This morning as I walked along the lakeshore,

I fell in love with a wren

and later in the day with a mouse

the cat had dropped under the dining room table.

In the shadows of an autumn evening,

I fell for a seamstress

still at her machine in the tailor's window,

and later for a bowl of broth,

steam rising like smoke from a naval battle.

This is the best kind of love, I thought,

without recompense, without gifts,

or unkind words, without suspicion,

or silence on the telephone.

The love of the chestnut,

the jazz cap and one hand on the wheel.

No lust, no slam of the door-

the love of the miniature orange tree,

the clean white shirt, the hot evening shower,

the highway that cuts across Florida.

one

by Shannondoah

one

overcome,

by the

all 

of 

it.

suddenly

you.

epic love.

i'm thinking

my heart

feels 

like

a

sunset

warm and glorious

a

symphony

of unity,

of one.

xvii

by Pablo Neruda 

'100 Love Sonnets Cien sonetos de amor'

xvii

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,

or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.

I love you as certain dark things are to be loved, 

in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms

but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;

thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,

risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.

I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;

so I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I does not exist, nor you,

so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,

so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

heaven

by Shannondoah

heaven

heaven

only knows

the

love

i feel

safe, i

keep

our 

light

kyanite

sweet

star

the listener

by Billy Collins

The Listener

I cannot see you a thousand miles from here,

but I can hear you

whenever you cough in your bedroom

or when you set down

your wineglass on a granite counter

This afternoon

I even heard scissors moving

at the tips of your hair

and the dark snips falling

onto a marble floor.

I keep the jazz

on the radio turned off.

I walk across the floor softly,

eyes closed,

the windows in the house shut tight.

I hear a motor on the road in front,

a plane humming overhead,

someone hammering,

then there is nothing

but the white stone building of silence.

You must be asleep

for it to be this quiet,

so I will sit and wait

for the rustle of your blanket

or a noise from your dream.

Meanwhile, I will listen to the ant bearing

a dead comrade

across these floorboards-

the noble sounds

of his tread and his low keening.

echo

by Shannondoah

longing

Longing

like

an

eternal echo

so close

but

so far

through the clouds

mist and fog

i look

for 

you

sf

by Frances Horovitz (1938-83)

Loving You

soft as old silk

I tread in this room

wary of space

that between us flows

you know me

as fish knows fish in tide-

no more you know

I could mark you through to the bone-

no touch

you'd own

so gently I walk

around the space

enclosing you

soft as silk

loving you