A Distant Sonnet

Once mine, were mountains. Ah, I climbed so high
And on the summit stood; but stood alone:
All bright and mighty for a world of eyes.
My eyes saw only what I could not own

A sudden glance! a soft and tender word!
You shook  and sunk me, and I crawled ashore
Shivering. Vowing, loud to all that heard
I'd spurn the mountains for a few words more.

A touch, in mine, of cool and calloused hand —
A fellow climber. So my eyes ascend
By pack and pole, by scrapes of scree and sand
To meet — to match — the gaze that you intend

Our love is locked. From here, to far away,
No force can part us, save the TSA

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The Love that Searches

Isikyus · The Love That Searches

O Aphrodite! Lend a line that fits
This un-romantic tongue. A polished phrase
The hips! the waist! the face! the hair! to praise.
A poet’s passion for these fingertips

Give me the words to mend a tender heart,
Turn jaded ears, or widen bright brown eyes
Wherein I sink so deep I disappear.
The whispers fit to blush a rosy cheek!

Remind me of the blind, untempered love
That launched us both in song, and let us fall
Fearless and strong, in one another’s arms
Replay that soundtrack, when we had it all

Or else — and weep! — the night we met to dine:
My hard-won words. His script he found online.

Entangled

Isikyus · A Strong Force

Three rose bright in the morning:
The red, the blue and the green
From mountain, ocean, and forest
Each took a tune unseen

The ruby maid of the mountains
Played on a pipe of stone:
A song of the ice and the summit,
Where earth from Earth is alone.

The sequined soul of the ocean
Tolled on a sapphire bell:
A peal heard low, but forever
A single note in the swell.

The leaf-crowned son of the forest
Strummed on a silken string:
Soft as the light that dapples
Sad as a broken wing.

Note, note and note, together
Met in a burnished bay.
Lay, with the twigs, on the shingle
Spun in the rushing spray.

By the summit, the deep, and the bower
Ears and instruments stilled
Heard, by the echoes empowered
Hope of hearts fulfilled.

Feet on the stones, and the leafmould
Feet in the splashing spray
Met in the curve of the shingle,
Danced for the joyous day!

Three there were still at sunset:
The red, the blue, and the green
Moved as one by the music
Heard in a single theme.

Once More, With Purpose

Once there were daisies and butterflies.
Goldfish glowed in the stream.
Now there are soldiers,
Bases and rations,
Wheat, and nothing else green.

Peace is the talk of the table.
“Peace” is the word on the signs.
Councils of protest;
A march, a petition.
A child, left home: “Stay behind!”

Whispers of horror.
“Oppressive!”
“Inhuman!”
The months become years.
Still no sign.

A letter, unopened.
“One day, when you’re older.”
Sneaking out with a torch, to know why.

Once there were roses to dream of.
Trysts on the grass, by the stream.
Now, there are letters,
Lawyers, and archives.
Now there are things to achieve.

Shadow of a Story

It is something like a shadow
    that goes everywhere with me,
Cast by the light of distant lamps
    that I shall never see.
For some, it is a chain I bear.
    For others, it is I.
It fades faint when I am busy,
    and it thickens when I cry.

Each morning, you’d a shadow-road
    that rolled out from your feet,
And fell on places you should go
    and people you should meet.
Then at dusk, your shadow trailed
    from your feet back to the dawn,
And its fingers picked out places
    where you had — or hadn’t — gone.

From afar, my shadow crossed your path,
    and whispered to your mind.
In due course, our shadows mingled,
    sharing face, and shape, and mind.
For our daughter, they stretched stronger,
    showing all that she could prove.
Since we parted, each has faded
    to a shadow of our love.

When I saw your shadow frozen,
    cast alone upon the ground,
And I could not find you near it,
    though your thoughts lay all around,
Then I knew that you had left us
    for a life without decay,
Under light that casts no shadows
    — so your shadow had to stay.

The One Loved

A force of love feared she was incomplete,
And sought, and caught a soul in tight embrace;
Lifted her darling from his mortal feet
And laid him gently in a web of lace.

The web was torn, and brighter than the Sun
Her eyes were lit with rage and righteous pain.
She sought the forts where slavery had begun
And taught their tyrants terror — but in vain.

Her sweetheart was not taken as a slave.
He had been mortal, and he had grown old;
Had seen her love would stretch him past the grave,
And chose to face a fate that he controlled.

Upon this secret, spend no further breath.
We dare not let her think to challenge death.

For One Night Only

I know a place where waterfalls will dance:
Will from the cliff-side step, to take your hand,
With tinkling footstep, glide across the sand,
And share with you the blush of first romance.

But when the moon has set, they’ll dance no more,
With bow or curtsey clear, say night is done,
Return, against the cliff again to run,
And leave you standing lonely on the shore.

Some later night, you might well ask again.
Beseech the water with an offered arm,
But now the lake is lifeless in its calm.
Whatever loved you once does not remain.

No single nymph can more than once appear:
The flowing water differs every year.