Posted in Niamh Clune, Poems/Poetry

Shedding Old Skins

Clouds by Janet Beasley
Clouds by Janet Beasley

.

My throat is dry from weeping into an ocean
Where a few more droplets will not create a swell.
Nor will the sound of tears spent
Be heard above the curlew cry
Or gulls greedy, dry-throated squawk for morsels.

Can I soar above the false cries, the shouts of fury,
The passion spent and wasted on others?
As I shed my skin and stand again within my core ~ within my light
And see it travel on the wind or move along the glistening wave
Until it reaches the shore?

© Niamh Clune, All rights reserved

430564_3240554249063_1337353112_n-1orange-petals-cover_page_001DR. NIAMH CLUNE (On the Plum Tree) ~ is the author of the Skyla McFee series: Orange Petals in a Storm, and Exaltation of a Rose. She is also the author of The Coming of the Feminine Christ: a ground-breaking spiritual psychology. Niamh received her Ph.D. from Surrey University on Acquiring Wisdom Through The Imagination and specialises in The Imaginal Mind and how the inborn, innate wisdom hidden in the soul informs our daily lives and stories. Niamh’s books are available in paperback (children’s books) and Kindle version (The Coming of the Feminine Christ). Her Amazon page is HERE.

Posted in Jamie Dedes, Poems/Poetry

DREAMING OF THE SHEIK

I’m the Sheik of Araby,

Your love belongs to me.

At night when you’re asleep

Into your tent I’ll creep.

The Sheik of Araby, lyrics by Harry B. Smith and Francis Wheeler, music by Ted Snyder, written in 1921 in response to the popularity of Rudolph Valentino and the movie The Sheik.

·

DREAMING OF THE SHEIK

by

Jamie Dedes

·

Oh yes, I’d say she’s about seven in that picture

Blue-black hair, curls bursting and tied with string

Hands folded neatly, one little foot turned in

·

With dark doe eyes staring at the waiting world

Long lashed and bright with hope and longing

What future did those clear sparkling eyes behold

·

What music played the strings of that young heart

She must have dreamt of men and marriage,

Well, she would assume love as young people do

·

Some standard dreams maybe, the house with

A white porch and rocker, a picket fence and

A back yard of rich dark earth, flowers and fruit

·

Sweet children would be a part of this fairy-dream

Roses for birthdays, lilies at Easter, and garland in May

Christmas trees and mistletoe and other such …

·

As she watered rubby beets and greens on the fire escape

And helped her mother with chores and siblings

No doubt she dreamed dreams gifted by movies, magazines

·

As she tied her worn boots, getting ready for school,

Smoothing her hand-me-down dress, then running

Down the steps and on through the slums …

·

She must have dreamed then of ocean mists and

Fresh air, streets with trees and well-groomed homes

And well-polished horseless-carriages for transit

·

When she grew old enough did she wait hopeful

On well-worn curbs under jaundiced street lights

A ghetto-bound Diana waiting for her handsome Sheik

·

And he, the Sheik looking for his Sheba, did he find her

Did he take her hand as she stood lovely, innocent

And did he soon leave her only to be followed by another

·

Did each Sheik stay long enough to steal her heart

And riding off take another piece of her, a souvenir

Of yearning and promise, love and gullibility …

·

Is that why she lies here now, eyes grown pale, heart empty

And a silent wail rising from the sacred depths of her being

“The movies and the magazines”, she says, “they lied …”

Then whispered softly: “When Valentino died, women

lined the streets for his funeral cortége and cried  … “

·

Rudolf Valentino as the Sheik and Agnes Ayers as Lady Diana.

“Women are not in love with me but with the picture of me on the screen. I am merely the canvas on which women paint their dreams. ”
Rudolph Valentino – 1923

Video posted to YouTube by tengirlsag

© 2009, 2010, 2011 Jamie Dedes, All rights reserved

Posted in Jamie Dedes, Poems/Poetry

HEARTS UNDER LOCK AND KEY

I wait until I hear a gate latch lift
the turn of key in lock.
I sit amongst toys and unwashed clothes,
I sit and she fingers the beads until you speak
in a voice that no longer seems familiar, only strange.
I turn as our child tugs at the string.
I hear a snap and a sound like falling rain.
The Albatross, Kate BassThe Pasta Maker
·
HEARTS UNDER LOCK AND KEY
·
by
·
Jamie Dedes
·
I really wanted
to speak to you of this:
the love I had wild
and so long ago
that now it’s dry
parched like a river
·
Once it was a love moist
as a green spring rain
delicate as snow
prolific as a poet
I gave you my love
a sweetly tender thing
·
a well-written poem
on twenty-pound linen
You handed love back
wrinkled and torn
and nicotine stained
smelling of whiskey
·
I handed you love
on our white wedding day
when you kept your heart
under lock and key
and your eyes wouldn’t
seek mine at the rail
·
I gave love to you
in the palms of our child
you brushed his sweet face
and flew away to
lose yourself in a
gold land with gold girls
·
Now I too keep my heart
safe under lock and key
and heavy the lock is
closed so tight with rust
and no hope in sight
no hope wanted
·
© 2010, 2011, Jamie Dedes, All rights reserved

Photo credit ~ © 2010, 2011, All rights reserved, Barb Stone, The List of Buddha Lists