Truth, I have lived so many years and learned so many things
And lastly found the value of the peace that loving brings.
MY NEED ( 1979 )
This is the autumn of my days,
A pressing time to mend my ways,
There are past wounds that I must bind,
There are new goals I need to find,
There are old fears that I must end,
There are new paths that I must wend,
There is adventure that I must dare,
There are some hopes that I must share,
There is courage which I must seek,
There are bold thoughts that I must speak,
There are values that I need learn,
There are laurels which I must earn.
LOVERS ( 1978 )
Affairs begin and end with both hope and despair entwined
Small reason endowed and divers customs that wax unkind
How plainly sweet it is to become lovers for today,
Some habits that had been sooner left behind fade away,
Deserting trying faults, assuming honest attitudes
Forsaking wasteful words, discarding useless platitudes.
Relief at last knowing someone cares about you as such,
And being the person that you are, thus not begging much.
A certain vulnerability that comes with caring
And flowers into a dream for two by simply sharing,
These may thrive on a plane with honest friendship growing
Baring goals and certain fears, leaving only need showing,
Thus easing day’s complaint and evening’s often grueling woe
Lifting veils of insecurity and lonesome sorrow.
And so then keenly knowing safety lies within their reach,
No wish to scourge the other’s will or reckless, dreams impeach,
But rather bolster where some small weakness craves strong defence
Finding that each other understands, giving scant offense,
And willing both to comprehend the whole of relating
That quality of sense, forcing truth to life equating,
Blending two into one with passion’s embrace beginning,
Perhaps timid pair, given time, may grow with love winning.
PATTERNS ( 1980 ) 2013/02/13
Castles in Spain fly on wings of a dream
Idle thoughts nought more than dulled reckless gleam,
Faint glimmer of hope one desire long inbred,
Time moulds each man’s dream into one fragile thread,
To leave but shadows of what he’d hoped to be
Like echoes of the words he wished he’d said.
Is this all that I am or will ever be
In patient pattern flowing until one drifts dead,
Ne’ermore to know the flight of the dream forlorn,
That dream shining bright waits wasted and worn.
The fabric of life ’bout us vaguely closes
And weaving its web chains in cadence imposes,
While years swiftly flee as passionless dawn,
That heart which in hope covets distant land,
Takes time to kindly glimpse the days long gone
When chance was his to leave or to command.
These years of mem’ry like those past cloud worn
Instill not the fear but the value scorn,
The face of reality makes dream fantasy
While far castles in Spain mark man’s sad heresy.
INTERLUDE ( 1979 )
In the strangely still and murky hours before sulky dawn
When nightbird calls and wizard sounds with caution fill the air,
He dreamt a shape in silhouette against the rising morn
Some mystic phantom woodland creature stealing from its lair
To stalk its frail and uncontested prey in dull silence
The larger making victim of the small, nature’s pattern
Crash, crackle, sounds merge thus veiled its predatory violence,
The night regained quietude, day began anew its turn.
For so it is in life, a sea nymph calls a plaintive air
To stir him from his worthy course and will him to her lair
Where life and dreams blend in a fantasy of love well meant,
And he unthinking reveled there for times too long content
When suddenly the silence breaks with unrestraining din,
The clutter of the brash world revokes their peace, rushing in
Not seeing all the twist and turn that caught them in this net
That neither wish to leave with stillborn hope lest they forget,
But who are they to dare impugn the lust of wishful hearts,
Impose on each a purpose that reflects not their own starts,
Too often those who don’t belong or cannot understand
Mar that joy which sings within the mind and slips from the hand,
And so return to what are looked upon as useful ways,
Leave behind the foolishness of what had been wayward days.
ALISON ( 1977 )
I loved you, Alison, daughter I never had,
Little bird with timorous wings trying to soar
Above life’s clamor and din, mediocre and sad,
Like a lion at bay, as it whimpers a roar
Far too regal to run yet too timid to fight,
A babe thrust from her nest by adversity’s quirk,
Yet she stood like a queen never taking to flight.
How I envied her strength and the way her mind worked
And I loved her like a child I wished had been mine,
She stole my heart yet never understood the why,
But a wildflower to a cage one can’t confine,
Neither chain hearts or wings, hummingbird homeward fly.
See the pluck of that heart and the length of her limbs,
Flee now from the wind and consuming storm that stirs
To devour the sweet soul that breathed curious whims,
Shattered hopes, scattered dreams, the world could have been hers
And through her tender tears she wove her magic spell,
Her good-bye, whispered soft, bore majestic disdain,
Sweet child of my heart now gone I pray you fare well,
Lose not that bright spirit soon we’ll meet once again.
HONOR ( 1968 )
While ghetto-bred and sidewalk-grown
The wisdom of the streets intone,
Like marigold instead of rose
Intensity of roots disclose.
To walk among the worldly ways
And see the truth with watchful gaze,
Know God exists in every man
And seek the best goal that you can.
Strongly speak with loving kindness
Accept rejection with fairness,
Quickly move to help another
And friendship search to discover.
Respect your needs in terms most clear
Reflect your weakness without fear,
Regard the world’s immensity
And love with deep propensity.
INTRUDER ( 1967 )
Blast you insidious reptile slithering
Among the leaves and flowers withering,
Out from my doorstep from this path exempt,
Oh little worm, sad object of contempt.
Thou of naked creeping infamy begot
Man’s ill treatment bearing wicked maggot,
All fearing children turn from you blindly
For nature has dealt with you unkindly,
Cloaking you in garment that comes undone,
Be gone you sleek and slimy limbless one.
Painful instrument of remorse growing,
Yet your chore disclose God’s wisdom showing,
Well even worms must have some useful ways,
Observe they multiply both nights and days.
A STATUE IN THE GARDEN ( 1974 )
A garden sweetly fashioned to bring heart’s content,
And weary days to offer cloistered covenant,
Oh sad deserted vestige of what once had been!
A victim of time’s ravages loss unspoken,
Is this the change so wrought by frost and cold,
Forsaking goodly purpose pursue desire bold?
And seeing this past haven sorely so distressed
When hindsight recollects memories embellished,
Poor limpid damsel careless lying, now awry,
The sight of which man’s constant lack of care imply.
Unlucky pedestal tumbled by force unknown
Neglected lass unsightly, clutching wrap of stone
Once pretty maid there wasting shameful stark and bare
Inert and prone, a covert of decay now wear
Unfeeling rocks so greenly cloaked in moss o’ergrown
And so forgotten muse with aging, sleep alone.
THE CROCUS ( 1975 )
See here this insipid sprout prodding through the ground,
A waspish lout daring venture an exit found
From whence it slept secure and safe this winter long
Impatient now to seek the sky and join spring’s song.
This tender waif, intruding bold midst trees still shorn,
Rushing manner that its blossom earth’s green adorn
Oh plowman as you toil, do take especial care
Harm not that fragile wisp that births a flower fair,
Bustling winds their pruning labor still to finish
Hurried rains preparing sod, its growth diminish.
This poor forgotten badge of spring precedes the rest
Bids the heart sing, believe again the earth is blessed,
Slighted and unscented wretch gaining little fame,
Brave crocus how you dare and put the world to shame.
PIRATE SHIPS ( 1978 )
Tall ships and white sails heading in the evening breeze,
Majestic rolling, lilting on blue sailing seas,
Voyage into the setting sun’s gaping expanse,
Where mystic stars and waves do shyly greet and dance.
To dwell where dark mystery of the deep endures
Landlubber I do wish somehow I might secure
A berth on these and fly with steady falcon’s wings
Into the sky light on a mast that sways and sings
With pirate tales of secret treasure troves galore,
Though buccaneers I’m told, steal ladies’ hearts no more.
How sad that even privateers with time grow old
No longer range the shrinking main to search for gold,
But rather sit in silence lusting for the past,
For men like ships with age, retire in grim contrast.
Yes pirate sloops died long ago in empathy
Like wanderlust that wanes for lack of sympathy,
While all that’s left are wistful sounds by seagulls made
Reminding us that once in time, adventure played
A melody upon the currents of the wind
And frolicked on the swells like a school of dolphin.
Hoist winch cast leaden anchors of the mind away,
Set sail for glory that recollects another day,
Embrace the basic elements of earth and sky
And on the seas of life, your fighting colours fly.
NIGHTSONG ( 1978 )
Listen, my dear, the lonely night has wings
And to this heart a song of sadness sings
From dusk till dawn the plaintive air goes on,
Responsive chords echoing in carillon.
A night concert led by cicada sound
And the baritone frogs chant all around
While the wind contributes her peal of bells
Here, there, brisk rustling leaves this hymn dispels.
Hark as the distant stars play tympani
And turn lament into sad symphony
To fall on ears that blend soft melody
As those who loved in perfect harmony,
That ofttimes dissonant and tired score
When lyric moonbeams danced but love no more.
FROST ( 1970 ) 2013/02/11
Oh, fickle season, you have promised winter’s been repelled,
But curling leaves and frigid air mark you blunt deceiver,
There’s a chill pervading tonight, that cannot be dispelled,
Untimely demise, infant growth, implicit believer,
Just this morn, I spied a robin red flirting on the sill,
Timid peeking from behind the spiny pussywillow,
One frail yellow-budded shrub impatient holding back until
The lonely mourning dove comes seeking her mossy pillow,
The scared and peeling, hulking elm nodding its approval
With pecking intruder tapping out frantic rhythmic beat,
A carpet of wasting leaves now heaped, await removal,
Depart soon, wicked fomenter of discontent complete.
SHADOW OF THE MIND ( 2005 )
The journey of a sunlight’s ray dancing on the blind
Highlights the vast spectrum of crisis crowding the air
That which the naked eye at each twilight does not find
And never in its search would reason that such were there.
Much mystery, we cannot perceive as it unwinds.
Myriads of flecks emerging from we know not where
One mixed and tossed residue of varied sorts and kinds
That time in all its aspects will neither show nor share.
Somewhere beyond that haze of clouded sky
There thrive these elements that must deny
Man’s conscious drive to aimful lifetime plan
As countless hopes that drift and float and fan.
Seems useless waste within the space of time
That’s known to be the total of man’s prime,
I pause and wonder how my years are spent
Within the shadow of a life well meant.
Six billion other souls must breathe and grow
And labor same as I, yet never know
Why life is played in shadows and in shades,
All memory leaves nought as desire fades
Then move to greet the end as we all must
And join at last that final earthbound dust.
THE COAST OF MAINE ( 1984 )
Diamonds glistening in the sand
Clouds made for wistful dreaming and
A breeze that shouts with clarity
Above the sequin-spattered sea,
White caps that spill forth spray askew,
While gulls that capture the whole view,
Oblivious do o’erhead fly
O’er moody waves in fickle sky.
Beneath the roofs and chimney walk
Where ancient seafolk gentry stalk,
Blue chintz and varied homilies
Repute the tenure of our ease
As hearthside flames so bright within
Unsettling nature’s chill chagrin.
Sweet Jesus when he lay asleep
Secure within his manger deep
Did bring the peace that love had found
Upon the land, beside the ground
While I who now have bought some space
Will nestle in this quiet place
To seek but never treasure caught
Like pleasures found and known and thought.
The steady buzz and muted sound
Of aged folk while gathered round
A formal table set in lace,
With silvered service at each place,
Are days of legend long forgot
Heroic past, remembered not.
A seaman dozing on a bench
His nostrils charged with ebbtide’s drench,
An old man rocking in his chair
Chanting some verse in cadence there
Beside the others on the porch
And through the bush, a lighted torch
Of some late caller heading home
There on the bluff by chance did roam.
A cottage set on windy hill
Inviting some to linger still,
A plaintive moan so fills the air
One thinks to sight a mermaid there,
Lost vision caught in time’s withdrawal
The crowding fog soon covers all.
While here within pastoral life
We seek escape from cultured strife
And steal a moment here and there
To garner strength and mend our wear,
The fallacy if we deny
That life is swift and passes by
Is homeward brought by days too brief
That cast aside another leaf.
Some memory the dark may find
When other times prove most unkind,
The careless wind, the ocean’s sweep
The scent of woodlands deep in sleep,
This rockbound coast where vessels sailed
Leaves few untouched by earth’s travail.
SURROUND ( 1976 )
I think that I will never leave this place I call my home
Though often in this capricious world I’ve been wont to roam,
Still revives the peaceful quiet each time that I return,
A gladness born of solitude for which my heart does yearn.
Now from my lonely balcony, to look upon that hill
I spy confusion growing wildly rampant and virile.
Dramatic strength of habitat unknown in life’s refuse
There dwells a sweet and close contentment in this safe recluse.
I’m host to whimsical and calm fulfillment of the eye
Through years that watch each season’s lavish multi-layered sky
Fading from dark to light traversing all the rainbowed hues
In colors borrowed from some artist’s easel time suffused.
So much a giant symphony of sight and smell and sound
Feel I, as familiar objects like golden friends surround,
I now know I can’t ever leave this homely placid place
That thrives with every burning image change dare not erase.
WARNING ( 2007 )
What do crows do as they fly?
Forcing dark to cloud my sky?
God’s above with master plan
Where do crows fit in this span,
Their cackling caw far too loud,
As they gather in a crowd?
Noise like the echo of the din
That this world now wallows in,
Angry sounds that fill the air
Warning soon to be aware.
I wonder if there’s some thought
I should learn or can be taught
Of a future that will be
Darkened with their prophecy?
RECOGNITION ( 2004 )
What magic spell or mystic charm
That option earns for good or harm
Exists within this cloud of doubt
I’d rather pass and bide without?
This query waits alone and faint
With purpose hid and calm restraint
Each choice within the human font
There in the balance finds the want.
I’m lost, I can’t remember why,
What source of rule should here apply?
There dwells no vision in my mind,
No sense of meaning can I find.
One answer clear I fail to see
I seek not what my fate will be.
MIMUS CAROLINENSIS ( 2004 )
Wait…I hear your slight rustling through the leaves,
Though times you light upon the shaded eaves
Beyond my vision for a moment just,
Then quickly skim in flight flashing some rust.
Now I snatch a glimpse of that mottled coat
( Your garb’s not one of particular note).
You wear your formal vest of mourning gray,
Black cap and pointed mask, while you display
Tailfeathers spread into one somber fan
That whisk and flare as though in fear you ran.
Those epaulets that grace your dull costume
Do cry aloud for the want of a plume.
Your garment seems wrought of velvet and lace
The gray extends to the top of your face.
Your trim beak seems poised so satin and still
As sharp as the pointed end of a drill.
Why even your name doesn’t do you much pride
And conjures a picture of creatures that hide.
What manner of wild bird art thou, my friend?
Don’t leave till I capture your image and
Learn something more of how you live and breed
Sneaking through tangles of my garden weed.
Observing the fact that beauty’s respected
Sad catbird I’d guess that you’re long neglected.
MEMORY ( 2003 )
Just as the wind off the hill whispers to the trees
Just as the bird on the bough sings into the breeze,
Just so my friend as life begins its final fall
I must tell you how I feel ere this curtain’s call.
Some songs I’ve heard have no words, others have no tune
They swell and rise and float aloft in time festooned.
Some friends I‘ve known crossed my path nodding cold farewell
Others stayed close by my side though they kiss and tell,
Some who came to plead my cause lingered on too long,
I do remember most the good, the kind, the strong.
While simple ways and gentle thoughts and silence too
Are peace that age has brought to me in purpose true.
If I count beyond my fears, just one smiling day
I won’t need another dream or another stay.
REQUITED ( 1957 )
There is so much to tell to you
I know not where to begin now,
Think only thoughts that can be true
For it will be alright somehow,
Some day, somewhere, I’ll come to you,
And we’ll begin where love did end,
Our ebbing love far stronger grew
As tears their strength did power lend.
Until that day once more we’ll meet,
The long and lonely years forgot,
While life shall seem so incomplete,
I beg of you, forget me not.
This deed of horror and outrage
Remember not that I have done,
As time will heal, all pain assuage,
That grief need not your luck forerun.
To you I’ve willed the hidden plague
That suffers man his whole life through,
I loved you more though manner vague,
Possessed of heart unfaltering true.
I cannot say the why of it,
I only know that time won’t fade
This ache which bides with me unfit,
My heart must walk in loveless shade
Until I share once more with you,
And through this dark and dreary cast
That to my dying day I’ll rue
I’ll need you most, forget you last.
The saddest dream, long gone astray
Would that it might be now undone,
These simple words my will convey,
As I loved you, love I your son.
VANITY ( 1993 ) 2013/02/08
From the smallest bulging spike that pierces through the dense ground
To the tallest tree whose lofty limbs must ones sight astound
The will of nature’s strength and wealth with its power showing
Where wonderment exists carried on the crest of flowing.
The foolishness of we who think our minds improve the world
Yet little see that without thought the system thrives unspoiled.
Pure vanity to trust that man dispenses breath to life,
Man so like a storm ravages this earth with force and strife
To boast of minute contributions, pointing thus with pride
Not mindful of that sad moment when aim and use collide.
While death, time’s faithful harvester, a worker most devout
Proves in the end the fact that nature’s all life is about.
IMAGES ( 1986 ) 2013/02/06
Some grotesque images now cast upon an eerie wall
Do lend an unconscious foreboding to an empty hall
And conjured ghostly shadows that breathed very long ago
When sunlight filled every corner of the timid ego
Within which dwelt the lonely distance that life’s runner goes
Around that course the mind must pause to find if merit chose.
Sometimes in later days, our shadows fall here on the ground
To waste away because no useful purpose has been found
And cultures shaded by distorted views that lie in wait
Awake to grim reminders that success arrives too late,
While lifetimes spent in searching for that one beginning start
Find it at last when all time’s happenings desert the heart.
REEVALUATION ( 1980 )
How strange that I’ve heard news of you today
Sure I had thought that you’d sailed far away.
Almost as though we too had never caprice known
Emotion tossed like dust into the wild wind sown.
Then for awhile these images were best forgot
In growing time did slowly fade and lingered not.
Now word which caused my heart to doubtful hesitate
Has forced my mind to halt and painless meditate.
And through the distance clearly impediment saw
Like rocky shoals that shelter an unchartered shore.
Some embryo now guarded in its silk cocoon
From reckless growing thoughts that stifle breath too soon
While rising fears assail me baring their own ill,
And wonder why when all is done, I love you still.
One foolish dream that had been better tucked away
Lingers with a passion declining to decay,
And carries as its burden, the weight of hoping
This craft, its compass gone in the darkness groping,
Far saner put ashore upon safe sandy beach
Than seek one lifetime long, lost paradise to reach.
REFUGE ( 1987 )
See the mist rising from the flat earth in hazy layers
With cattails parading plumes erect as stalwart players.
The wet and steaming pools of teeming water peeking through
A veil of fog that hugs the road’s dim edge and clouds the view
Drown me in my thoughts arising from a sea of want and waste
Arousing fears I can’t forsake with time nor leave in haste.
Thoughts like forgotten goals do need a place to heal and thrive
Within some habitat that speeds their quest, keeps hope alive
And mocks not this inconvenient meadow of use no more
That sheltered many idle tears and fed the earth’s dry floor.
Fleeing from the wake of life where the forceful currents ran
Far from the ocean’s depth, understanding when it began
That not all creatures could survive the tidal lap and lash,
Some need the gentle marsh wherein survives that smouldered ash
SIMPLICITY ( 2001)
Of all the dreams I’ve ever known
But one remains steadfast and clear.
Of all the seeds I’ve ever sown
That with the spring will reappear,
Of all the gifts I’ve ever bought
And cherished with a thought unreal,
Of all the hopes I’ve ever sought,
In faith, which to my mind appeal,
This simplest one, I’ve valued most,
Friendship sealed with kind helping hands,
A love that feels no need to boast,
A heart that cares and understands.
SEAPLANE ( 1982 )
Frail silvered bird of man’s invent
In air or drift its time is spent.
My heart flies high on lofty wings
That listen while the current sings.
Not hindered by the traffic’s clog
Nor crippled by the moving fog,
Bold sailing vessel of the sky
Will light on waves that heave and sigh
Like gannet, gull or tern at home
It glides across the azured foam
And banks and heads into the breeze
To land upon its wide-webbed skis.
The thought occurs, as well it might
Of all it’s seen within its flight,
Most images that on the ground
Will thought and deed intense confound,
When viewed from such a distant height
Do lose their power and their fright
And fade into the circle’s knot
Reminding us what’s been forgot.
If man can rise above the roar
And restful through the clouds can soar,
Observe that life seems twined about
And to his aims, remain devout
While blithely sailing cross that sky,
Yet never place his sight too high
To live in peace and reach content,
Remember sometimes wings get bent.
EACH CHRISTMAS ( 1989 )
The candles in the window, the frost clings to each bough
The holly climbs the lamppost, the weather’s colder now
Tis time for sweaters, muffs and gloves and season’s merry glee
Yet with each falling snowflake my thoughts drift back to thee.
I hear the Christmas carol they sang that Christmas Day
And all of this it happened to someone far away.
This season brings to many a hope of untold joy
To me it means a memory time refuses to destroy.
I saw you first that Christmas Day and knew it had to be
That I should fall in love with you and you in love with me.
Fate seemed to speak to both of us the selfsame words we heard
I saw the laughter in your eyes my heart held every word.
Though slow to speak as then you were, I waited one long year
My hopes began to crumble as that Christmas time drew near.
This time you did not fail me, my dream at last came true
You loved me my beloved as much as I loved you.
The joy we knew that Christmas will never come again
In vanished in the springtime in the mist and foggy rain.
And so again each Christmas when the snowflakes gently fall
It’s the time of sweet remember not the parting I recall
And I say to you my darling, wherever you may be
That you think of me at Christmas if you ever think of me.
I should hope that you remember not the springtime and its rain
But the love and tender kindness not the sadness and the pain
Not the years of endless waiting and the promises untold
But the laughter and the happiness that remembering doth hold.
Claire V. Bogdanos 