Love

Two Hearts ~ quadrille

/ rivrvlogr / 40 Comments

Two Hearts

Theirs is a flaming brilliance.

Not wildfires, nor dragons.

Two stars blazing. Embracing,
yet orbiting each other.

Two hearts bathing
in the warmth of their passion.

Each heart knowing, needing,
the pull of the other.

Their love burning without
consuming, yet quenching their desire.

 

This is a response to Quadrille #81 – Here there be dragons, the prompt from De Jackson at dVerse, which is to use the word dragon in a 44-word poem that does not require meter or rhyme.

Image source: Astronomy Picture of the Day – (cropped here)

Whispering

/ rivrvlogr / 29 Comments

Whispering

The prompt for NaPoWriMo.net Day 30 is to write a minimalist poem. I probably write more haiku than anything else, but I’m going to take a different route with this. I’ve taken a poem that I wrote 18 years ago, “The Love You Share,” and changed it, first by rewriting it, then reducing it in stages, until it’s a senryū, and then just one word.

The Love You Share

The moonlight, seen through your lovers eyes,
While holding hands under starry skies.

A gentle whisper that none will hear,
Except the lover that you hold near.

A tear that lies just above your cheek
And dries when you hear your lover speak.

A smile on your lips each time you take
A moment to watch your lover wake.

All this will be yours, for this I know:
The love that you share will make it so.

~~~~~

Born of a Whisper

Looking upon the moon reflected in her eyes,
he is overwhelmed by a flood of emotions.

Leaning closer as he holds her hand,
he strokes her soul with a gentle whisper.

A tear at the corner of her eye is poised
to fall, slowly drying as he speaks.

Born of a whisper, the bond that joins
their hearts is stronger than any word.

Lying beside him now, she smiles softly
as he stirs, reliving that first whisper.

Every time he wakes, her smile and gaze
assure him of the love they share.

~~~~~

Whisper

a bond is born of a gentle whisper
that strokes her soul

a flood of emotion brings tears
soon dried by the words

echoes stir her emotions
each time she sees him wake

remembering that first whisper

~~~~~

Whisper

a gentle whisper
strokes her soul,
echoes forever
as a bond is born

~~~~~

gentle whisper
echoes forever
bonding souls

~~~~~

whispering

Image source: giphy.com (edited here)

 

Lighthouse in the Desert – ekphrastic poem

/ rivrvlogr / 14 Comments

 

Lighthouse in the Desert

In a tale of discernment,
not desperation,
a heart lost on a barren plain
thirsts for love.

Dismissing pretenders,
with their bent ways
of drinking the light of others
to feed their own dark nature,

it seeks one that also seeks
a love that is both nurtured
and shared, finding that balance
in the one true lighthouse in the desert.

This poem was inspired by “Desert Horizons I,” a watercolor by Jason Hugger of Phoenix, Arizona. Jason says that discarded objects inspire his surrealistic desert landscape paintings. “The types of objects I select to use as reference for my paintings are usually heavily rusted and broken pieces of metal. Often I am not able to identify them and I find that intriguing. Reusing them gives them a second life and a beauty they may not have originally had as tools or other useful items.” (click image for larger view in new tab)

The prompt for NaPoWriMo.net for Day 22
is to write a poem that engages with another art form.

 

Star-gestured Wishes

/ rivrvlogr / 38 Comments

Star-gestured Wishes

A seed-at-zero, heaven-driven
from star-gestured wishes,
the light in your eyes shone with
the ripple-woven light of nebulae,
man-melting as it grew,
until our fair-formed love
became a never-to-be-broken vow.

I enjoyed writing Gone with the Tide in response to Laura Bloomsbury’s prompt for Poetics: love the words at dVerse, so I decided to give it another try. I leafed through my copy of Dylan Thomas poetry to find a new set of hyphenated words to use, this time balanced against the darker side of the first poem. The words I have used are seed-at-zero, heaven-driven, fair-formed, star-gestured, ripple-woven, man-melting, and never-to-be-broken, and I’m linking this to OpenLinkNight #241 at dVerse.

Image
NGC 7023 – The Iris Nebula
© Tony Hallas via Astronomy Picture of the Day

 

A Heart Must Have a Home

/ rivrvlogr / 7 Comments

 

A Heart Must Have a Home

And mine was adrift.
Nearly deflated, its only strength
the loving tendrils of hearts
venturing on their own,
where does a heart go,
where does it look
when it has been untethered?

Did I know that I would see
another heart as adrift as mine,
or that mine would be seen as well?
Who could know these hearts
would find happiness and be joined?

This heart still feels the loving touch
of those distant tendrils,
yet finds love in its new home.

This is my response to the NaPoWriMo.net Day 11 prompt, which is to write a poem of origin. And having come from there, where are we now? … My children are always central to me, but when I found myself recently-single, and they on their own, my heart knew what it wanted. That meant a long distance move, but we are always in touch, and my heart is happy.

Images compiled from three sources
kisspng.com
ui-ex.com
art4clip.com

 

Always Here in Heart

/ rivrvlogr / 42 Comments

Always Here in Heart

I am not at home in my place,
yet transplanted by choice.
Such is what the heart will do
to be fulfilled. And it is.

She will always be my muse; has been
since our eyes first met. Many times
the words I write have been
taken from the joy she brings.

I see the birds, am inspired
by cedar and oak, as I walk
along magnificent bluffs, paddle
on muddy rivers and streams.

But they are not the maples
I have known all my life.
Not the blue waters of great lakes,
nor mighty falls with their mist.

Yet happiness is mine, by choice.
One I would repeat again
and again. A choice made clear
when I was there and she was here.


The prompt from Gina for Poetics: your poetic hum asks about your life when you are not writing. How does it influence your writing? I moved from Western New York to mid-Missouri nearly seven years ago to be with someone special, and she is now my wife. I bought a house in October 2013, but it has only just occurred to me that, as much as I miss New York, I do consider Missouri my home.

Image:  Autumn at Ha Ha Tonka State Park, Missouri