The other side of me

The other side of me

15-18 March 2015

  sleeping beauty14

Wild birds called on shrill

Their voices seeking out sun

That shone stonily

Mind etched in marble silence

Hears not the call of the wild

 

The daffodils sang

To power of life that rang

Through their green slender bodies

Frame of green enveloped me

As life coursed through my blue veins

 

Between dark and light

I balanced every ion

The border stayed tight

Years as Pandora passed through

While I slept in oblivion

 

Half cast in moonlight

The other side of me woke

To a new dawn’s sun

New beginnings sparkled bright

With stars of recognition

sleeping beauty6

 

I see fire

I see fire

17-18 March 2015

 

fire1

 

Fire’s embers burnt

Strong and powerful forces

Primal signs of life

Throbbing mind set colours true

As all shades to red seemed wane

 

Hissing sound of spark

That once before fought so brave

Yet drowned in water

The tank brimmed with pictures there

Yesterday kept resurging

 

Ice cool breath faltered

In between mist and cold rain

As fire now blazed

Memories alit in flames

Found no respite in water

 

 

Icy fire raged

On the brink of tomorrow

As coal chips broke off

Mind to the heart is a trail

I see fire in its Wake

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0-44muW17Q

Earth in me

Earth in me

17 March 2015

earthwoman

The grasshopper sang

To the revival of Earth

Its voice clean and fresh

Fresh beginnings stirred in mind

As the path lay ahead raw

.

A snake crawled silent

Slithering frame shedding all

As it renewed skin

Skin deep regeneration

Would lull not wandering soul

.

The river flowed still

Glistening streaks of light gems

That shone unrivalled

No parallel for the sane

Earth’s core shone in pure white light

.

The wind danced in sails

That filled to the tune of woods

Like elves on a plain

Out in plain sight I bore mind

Which shook with tremor of now

.

Neutron bombarded

Clouds gave forth rain and tempest

Drenching parched dry soil

Relief overcame dry eye

As tears joined with raindrops

.

Shrubs grow sparkling green

Voiceless witnesses of Earth

They renew in me

A new dawn thus finds me now

Watching tide of change ebb flow

.

Springtime blooms steadfast

Carving red roses in rocks

As white lilies played

Teasing starry-eyed watchers

Strewed the sky with crimson signs

.

Beating lively drums

Set pace to throb of living

While waterfalls gushed

Stirring emotions rushed forth

As Earth in me clad green robes

.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76TiHw-ggx0

Dark matter

Dark matter

13 – 14 March 2015

Pulse7

Poppies red in field

Danced to the wake of sunlight

Before stillness hit

Like an earthquake hearts burst out

From withered poppies that shrank

<3

Crimson hearts pulsate

In their naked agony

Frail and bodiless

Slender frame responds shaking

As the hearts begin to beat

<3

The throbbing hummed on

Beating to the rhythm of red

Cast on sea of hearts

Ocean in heart responded

While I picked them one by one

<3

Feathers gathered pink

To gushing crimson fountain

Soft they had been once

Mellow in healing touch

Hands extended I faltered

<3

Sewn across bodies

Shells picking up a new life

Hearts reached out in vain

Tight writhing chest echoed dull

As my arms withdrew sullen

<3

All I had was ink

Dark matter spilled on my hands

As I waved goodbye

My mind walked on free yet tied

To a bottomless low tide

<3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIezPGQaPic

A deathly pallor

A deathly pallor

12 March 2015

 Pulse18

 

Night’s sky breathed aloud

Jasmine like a streak of light

Called to the wild side

An intake of wilderness

Throbbed in my mind’s eye again

 

The owl hooted once

Its cry silenced by the night

That prepared for doom

The knell rang on as I knelt

Neither submissive nor wild

 

The rose felt its thorns

Through darkness that hid its gait

In reminiscence

Pictures against my mindscape

Shuddered with stark remembrance

 

The lanterns hissed out

As storms danced into their lights

Darkness then prevailed

Cloak of night like a fog reigned

A while as I let it creep

 

The winds blew their hearts

In clouds that scattered silver

Like coins strewn in sky

Pennies would have outweighed thoughts

As they roamed without purpose

 

Remnants of us glowed

Ghostly ink against pink flesh

A deathly pallor

Gaunt cheek though pale stood firmly

Its twin it offered no more

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl-X8jpgJlw

I hear your call

I hear your call

9 March 2015

 Angels4

 

Slowly clouds gathered

White pieces of tenderness

A balm in the sky

Soft infinite the heart seeks

An extension of soul lace

 

The moon pale looked on

Its tidal yearnings in check

Mate to sleeping sun

It gazed on from its castle

A prison for the weak mind

 

Fragrance of light danced

Amidst myrrh and argan oil

That trees bled silent

In hushed awe I watched you bleed

And bathe the earth in incense

 

Wisps of night fell stark

As desert gloom covered all

Yet the grass grew thick

Thus in radiant defiance

Your luscious hair sprouted dark

 

Enthralled in white light

Wings weaving a starlit flight

A firefly pranced

Body dancing in bright tunes

You stood seven miles apart

 

Engulfed in darkness

Yet emerging to the light

Earth stood in two minds

Between two worlds eye to eye

Flickering recognition

 

The wind listened hard

Breathless anticipation

Shook its mighty frame

I hear your call as I wake

To your iridescent flames

 

The fire now raged

Crimson streaks across the sky

Made the embers bright

As souls’ fire spread on strong

Your voice lit the roaring flames

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOVdjxtnsH8

Live in tomorrow today

Live in tomorrow today

24 February 2015

 

Fair use of Stephen Wilkes image
Fair use of Stephen Wilkes image

 

Moon high in sky shone

Semblance of a sun nearby

Where horizons touched

The sky limitless caressed

The greys where twilight spied dawn

 

Trees swayed in motion

Of dancing flames of thicket

Alit from own sparks

Thoughts alive with inner fire

Took elation to new heights

 

Cool dawn stood icy

Its gait taking in landscape

That suddenly quaked

A tremor passed through my mind

That to frozen stillness moved

 

Orange fruit shrivelled

Clung to stem that heaved with sighs

For loss of colour

Lips drained of pink happiness

Voiced inner concerns that raced

 

Dead daffodils shrank

From their own fleeting bodies

As their souls rose white

Will this red to white relay?

Asked a lost vein in my throat

 

Roses bloomed listless

Their inner softness alive

With oncoming death

I warned as reaper hissed on

Hark now soul think of today

 

The rooster crowed on

Lovers’ confusion had it

Waking night and day

As day awakes to the night

While sleep comes in waking day

 

Huon pines’ answers

Reverberated through time

In rings of thousands

Ten thousand years I had lived

In wait of source renewal

 

A breeze brought silence

In uproar of change to come

As day merged in night

Live in tomorrow today

In peace of would be morrows

 

Day-to-Night-Stephen-Wilkes-6

 

In Time

In time

22-23 February 2015

 swirling brown waters

 

The river bank swelled

Charged with rushing brown waters

That had stirred Earth’s guts

An illogical stirring

In me reverberated

 

Deltas formed ashore

Triangles of water coursed

Through light seeping sand

Like ink etching through mind’s slate

A landscape of memories

 

Trees roots uncovered

Shook unwillingly off earth

That onward slid fast

Moving perspectives thus flow

Within a mind uprooted

 

The wind blew howling

Sand that pranced like dancing flames

With madman’s fervour

Elementary madness

Rushing through my frame reached heights

 

The sky glowed and snarled

Alternating light and dark

Different yet same

Change immemorial in me

Reflected alternate shades

 

The horizon lurked

A backdrop to whirling times

In nature’s power

With no reigns in mind I slept

Through wars that raged in no name

 

Leaves raced through dark skies

Tossing and turning in fright

Shivering green sparks

Ideas quivered in thoughts

As eyelids stayed firmly shut

 

In skies formed patterns

Mathematical whirling

Of earthly matters

My mind then awakening

In time echoed in spirals

swirling sand

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FluecqKY7ts

Dans le doux silence de l’air / In the sweet silence of air

 

Dans le doux silence de l’air

17-18 février 2015

Newmoon1

La nuit s’étendait

Manteau de pluie noire couvrant

Le voyageur las

L’esprit lacéré d’attente

Accumule noires stries sifflantes

 

Le rossignol chante

Sa chanson forte d’habitudes

Résonne comme un glas

Un cœur en hiver s’élance

Saupoudré de glace qui fond

 

Parfum de jasmin

Répandu en nuit l’embaume

De murmures secrets

Ce chuchotement insistant

Hante mes pensées de blancheur

 

L’œil miroite en ciel

Pâle semblant de lune nouvelle

Qui vaillante se dresse

Ainsi l’âme suit retraçant

La route des anges trépassés

 

Le coq chante déjà

Le réveil d’une race humaine

Sous vide suspendue

Dans le doux silence de l’air

Les rêves exhalent un soupir

 

 

In the sweet silence of air

17- 18 February 2015

Newmoon2

The night stretching out

Black coat of rain covering

Weary traveller

Wait lacerated spirit

Gathers on whistling black streaks

 

The Nightingale sings

Its strong song of all habits

Sounds like a death knell

A heart in winter rises

Sprinkled with ice that’s melting

 

The scent of jasmine

Widespread in night embalms it

With secret murmurs

That insisting whispering

Haunts my thoughts with its whiteness

 

Eye shimmers in sky

Pale semblance of a new moon

That valiant stands

Thus soul follows retracing

The path of the dead angels

 

Cock already crows

Wakening of human race

Under vacuum held

In the sweet silence of air

Dreams are exhaling a sigh

 

 

 

Note: Ecrite d’abord comme une série de tankas en français (un essai puisque j’écris d’habitude les tankas en anglais), je l’ai ensuite traduite en une série de tankas en anglais. Written first in french as a series of tanka (a trial as I usually write tankas in English), I then translated it into English as a series of tanka as well

 

 

Tomorrow no more

Tomorrow no more

13 February 2015

  ashes4

 Silent voices called

The trees that relayed to leaves

Distant summer breeze

The sun shone on his dead skin

That sparkled in summer’s heat

 

A peacock spread out

Eyes alit with promises

Of awakenings

Tightly shut lids woke no more

To colours smeared across skies

 

The earth exhaled sighs

As waters bubbled in seas

That stretched vivid blue

Velvet languidly silent

Gushed forth with bubbles no more

 

Pale blue skies turned grey

Listless grass swayed to strong winds

Like wings of pixies

Fairy tales moaned of parting

As the mind like banshee wailed

 

Withered brown leaves writhed

Under winter’s sun that glared

Talked no more of warmth

Neither warmth nor melody

Reached the still mind in winter

 

Shadows changed their course

The river flowed now upstream

Undoing prayers

Spell-cast in its deep waters

That lovers took as refuge

 

Silver fish shimmered

Slithering among the blue

Tails blazing with light

Of mystic scales that split gills

Whispering waters spoke low

 

Earth cracked in blisters

For the pain of leaving you

As the birds too cried

I, chest heaving with goodbyes

Washed my face in your ashes

 

ashes