A Fragile Offering

To all the would-be lovers out there, wondering if it’s really wise to take that first step.

A fragile offering –
moonbeams
shine on
candy hearts
melting in the rain.

I want to say come in.

But my arms are too thin
to hold you and my laugh
comes and goes like a
cloud revealing sun
then passing by again to
cover its yellow eye with
rain.

I want to say come in.

My heart cracked and fiss-
ured a glacier
beginning to slide.

How you are shaking in the rain.

I hold out my hands
for the moonbeams
in your eyes
hope a fragile thing
melting in the rain.

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Where Love Lives

Here’s one that I thought of after hearing a beautiful choir concert. I thought ‘if only I could always feel so inspired and filled with exhaltation.’ But then I realised … is that the mind I would always want to have? Would I lose something?

Maybe I’m wrong and one can have both …

Where Love Lives

Wafts of white cloud
caress my face and stream
into my breath
like Heaven.

Here is the place far from pain.
Here is the place I cannot love you.

High music screaming
on white-tipped eagle wings
my heart lifts, my breath
becomes the sky.

High above the earth
no knife, no touch,
no hand can reach me.

Here I cannot love you.

The rain sticks your hair
down against your cheek
warm, red cheek
and wet, smoking eyes.

Eagles call to me
‘Soar on wings above
the world!’
I feel the rain.
I choose the world.
Here is the place I can love you.

Water Music

There’s a lake not far from here
Where you can toss thoughts like pebbles
and watch the ripples take them
to the fish, who will keep them secret.

The stone between the big tree and
the smaller ash is a good place to perch.
If you’re lucky a robin will hop near.
A frog may jump in.

Listen for the chirping of a cricket
the quiet whisper of a grasshopper
the beat of dragonfly wings
and your own heart telling time.

I can tell you how many times
I have gone there and
the clock knows
how many more.

You go, take this pen and paper.
I will place my hands on your
sturdy shoulders and point your feet.
When you get to the cospe of spruce
go left.

Throw your name in the water
and listen for the grasshopper.

Map of your face

A darker one, but some days are like that! Here is a poem about losing someone.

After today
I fold my heart
Across the tear
Of fate’s silver knife

I keep in red
Inked and held tightly
Secret in blood
The map of your face

Faded and creased
Silver-haired smile
Crinkle your eyes
A letter well-read

Eyes, name and touch
all fall away
My heart stops once
fate shows his knife twice

Your kind silver lines
My fingers traced

Every corner
Of your face

Love and Tea Cups

A love poem, inspired by some hand-painted crockery at the arts and crafts market here in Cambridge.

Love exists
in a teapot
pour you, pour me.
Cold hands wrap
around the cups
we bought at the
Cambridge market.
Fingers feel the heat,
lips taste the lovely bitter.
Cheeks flushed in steam
our eyes meet –
just another Sunday morning.