Poetry Life and Times~ISSN 1752-3265 (Online~ March 2007)

Robin Ouzman Hislop (Editor)

An eerie shudder in the skylight,
Snow falls in paper attic walls.
A shadow slithers crankily
Down funicular stairs
Onto trap door landings
& narrow long doors.

Through high thin halls
Like a crooked shank pin.
Out in black satin & gold buckles
On Nantacas seven seas,
Rip Van Winkle’s away
To Diamonds & Walpole.

Hoods on the wharves, manacled
Bicycles in interminable rows
Implore the shore’s deserted canals
& everyone has a place to go.
No one is out of place & even in
Snow, the solitary girl, map in
Hand, who doesn’t seem lost
In a rush, looks almost convincing.

On the return train, familiar moor
Scenery still decked in snow,
Old stone deep in the hill’s vale
Calling from the edge.
Implacable to the simple chatter
Inside of our coming & going
Before the flying white ridden branches. 

Bent & bowed, bleached by bleaker skies,
Where even the black news prints
Of the hour appear & hide but never
On the edge, that untouchable
Beyond reach threshold with no place to go,
Where manacled bicycles implore
The shore’s deserted canals.

Michael R. Burch

The Communion of Sighs

There was a moment
  without the sound of trumpets or a shining light,
    but with only silence and darkness and a cool mist
      felt more than seen.
      I was eighteen,
    my heart pounding wildly within me like a fist.
  Expectation hung like a cry in the night,
and your eyes shone like the corona of a comet.

There was an instant . . .
  without words, but with a deeper communion,
    as clothing first, then inhibitions fell
      and our lips met 
      -feverish, wet-
    forgotten, the tales of heaven and hell,
  in the immediacy of our fumbling union . . .
when the rest of the world became distant.

Then the only light was the moon on the rise,
and the only sound, the communion of sighs.

Moments, for Beth

There were moments
full of promise,
like the petal-scented rainfall
of early spring,
when to hold you in my arms
and to kiss your willing lips
seemed everything.

There are moments
strangely empty
full of pale unearthly twilight
-how the cold stars stare!-
when to be without you
is a dark enchantment
the night and I share.

Lucifer, to the Enola Gay

Go then, and give them my meaning
so that their teeming
streets
become my city.
Bring back a pretty
flower,
a chrysanthemum,
perhaps, to bloom
if but an hour,
within a certain room
of mine
where
the sun does not rise or fall,
and the moon,
though it is content to shine,
helps nothing at all.

There,
if I hear the wistful call
of their voices
regretting choices
made
or perhaps not made
in time,
I can look back upon it and recall,
in all of its forms sublime,
still
Death will never be holy again.

© All poems by Michael R. Burch 2007

Helga Ross

Lust, in Love

Canadian poet, HELGA ROSS loves the well-written word and loves to write her own; derives great pleasure from great literature, art and life, and the great outdoors. Everything old is new again in 2007 – She’s moved back to her old home town, Burlington, Ontario, after half a lifetime--for a new start. "You can't go home again" so they say -- She shall see. Helga expresses herself through an eclectic writing repertoire of material, style and form. 2004, however, was her literary turning point: She 'discovered' poetry in a big way. Now, poetry is her passion and focus, particularly Sonnet forms, though not exclusively. For Helga, the theme is 'Passion' in the broadest sense. She believes and illustrates in her writing: "The creative mind plays with the objects it loves". - Carl Jung Her poetic voice is playful, provocative, uplifting. Her serious pieces conclude on a positive note; reflect her approach to life: "Love. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love, and love what you write. The key word is love. You have to get up in the morning and write something you love, something to live for." — Ray Bradbury On the key to success Recent Accomplishments: Prix Poesie's laissez-faire Faire Award, April 2004. Poetry selections published in Sonnetto Poesia Vol.3 no.2 Spring 2004; Vol.4 no.4 Autumn 2005; Vol. 5 no.2 Spring 2007.

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