Claire V. Bogdanos

Acceptance,Knowledge,Love,New Chapter,Process,Wisdom,

LITTLE BIRD ( 2013 ) 2013/05/14

Filed under: POEMS.....THOUGHTS.....MEMORIES — bogdanosclaire @ 3:05 am
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Who is there upon my window sill?

What is your need or your will?

Who’s that tapping on my pane
?

Have you come to call again?

Do you wish to enter in
?

Or to share my space herein?

Oh little one as you think

And tremble there on the brink

I cannot do what you wish

Since we share a varied dish.

Will you rest upon my sill

And chirp your song as you will

Can you stay and live with me?

It’s your nature to be free.

Oh small creature once again

Tapping there upon my pane

I can pray that you may stay

I beg please don’t fly away.

Oh little bird of swift flight

Keep love in your patient sight,

Winter winds will too soon come

With hoar’d breath and lack of sun

Keep my heart and mind alive

We may both with care survive.

 

There’s the tap upon my glass

Tell me what it is you ask

Can it be that we both know

Secrets great that must not show.

I won’t beg you to delay

Will you come another day?

Perhaps show me how to live

Teaching me what I must give

By courage and moral stand

To comprehend God’s vast plan,

Make me glad to be alive

With His help we shall survive.

 

TO MY CHILDREN. ( 1978 ) 2013/05/11

Filed under: POEMS.....THOUGHTS.....MEMORIES — bogdanosclaire @ 3:12 pm
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From a mother to her son, and I write singularly,

because you are all the same, one finger of a hand, it

matters not which one, because all are indispensible

to me.   You are all an integral part of me, not even

death can truly separate us.  We are eternally one flesh.

I know with great clarity that you wish that our family

problems could be, with mysterious and magical alacrity,

whisked away on some fortuitous wind.  But you must now

understand that this is impossible, for many reasons,

honor not the least.

 

Perhaps with foolish vanity, I say to you that I have

sincerely tried to mend a constantly crumbling relationship

in the best manner that I was capable of, and perhaps my

efforts were misconstrued; and then again, perhaps my

vision and my ability were clouded by my own personal

pain and disappointment.   Perhaps, I too, was weak and

selfish.  My God, I hope not.

 

It must be that you profit from my experience in that

you do not err as I did, but rather that you see my errors,

tucking the memory of them away in some far corner of your

mind, using them as a guide in your lives to avoid similar

misfortune.  Each of you must make your own mistakes, hoping

only that every one teaches you a valuable lesson.  I love

you all as I love my life, you have each given me memories

and joys to last a lonely lifetime.   I pray that I have done

the same for you.   I apologise deeply for having brought you

to your present pain, and whatever decisions you individually

reach,  I will accept as being just and honorable, for this is the

manner in which I have tried to raise you.

Love, Your mother.

 

LOST ( 2013 ) 2013/05/10

Filed under: POEMS.....THOUGHTS.....MEMORIES — bogdanosclaire @ 12:37 pm
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These memories that from our youth still cling

To values old that hope and trust will bring

Into this world since truth has lost its place

With no good choice to fill the empty space.

A valued thought by chance may come to mind

To help employ the wisdom we shall find

And question why our world has lost its way

Amid the toxins of the present day.

As men reject their past identity

In this sad world of such dishonesty

And leave us here to ponder why they do,

We lose our faith their words or deeds ring true!

 

I BELIEVE ( 1950 ) 2013/05/09

Filed under: POEMS.....THOUGHTS.....MEMORIES — bogdanosclaire @ 1:54 pm
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I believe that the wind is the spirit of God

That carries on its gentle breath a hymn that sings

A song of joy, caressing vibrant hill and sod

To bring us light and bless His smallest happenings.

 

TIMES VISION ( 2001 ) 2013/05/08

Filed under: POEMS.....THOUGHTS.....MEMORIES — bogdanosclaire @ 11:01 pm
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Of all the chains the years have forged I’ve born with charity

One timeless and external torch can light no way for me

And darkens still this foolish path that will not set me free,

Igniting every shallow thought that clouds my destiny.

There is a time that shall impound

The freedom once that I had found

Which must with force my life surround

Until that day my breath’s unbound.

While madness round me all about pursues a course that’s weak

There is no simple answer to the honest end I seek,

Foolish aims that restless be have no mind nor tongue to speak

And bind my heart to olden dreams with courage often meek.

Brief chance has come and too soon passed

To rend my days with currents fast

Faith binds my hopes with vision vast,

Time leads my sight to grace at last.

 

TOO OFTEN ( 2001 )

Filed under: POEMS.....THOUGHTS.....MEMORIES — bogdanosclaire @ 12:55 pm
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Oft I have heard a stranger say

That home is but a mile away,

And oft I’ve heard a comic say

That laughter’s but a smile away.

Oft I have heard a suitor say

That love is but a kiss away

And oft I’ve heard the preacher say

That God is just a prayer away.

Oft have I heard the wounded say

That help is but a cry away

And oft I’ve heard a soldier say

Peace is just one battle away.

Oft have I heard an artist say

Achievement’s just a task away

And oft I’ve heard the dying say

Salvation’s but a breath away.

 

Oft have I heard my own heart say

Tomorrow’s but a day away,

More oft I’ve heard a wiseman say

The truth is but a lie away.

 

ACHIEVEMENT ( 1976 ) 2013/05/07

Filed under: POEMS.....THOUGHTS.....MEMORIES — bogdanosclaire @ 1:06 pm
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Oh, bright hope and trembling aspiration,

Threatened by reality’s confrontation,

Fertile dreams that skirt the realm of success

With thoughts that magnitude in deed possess,

Coerced by conscience ofttimes seized by doubt,

Bold in fervor and brave façade without.

 

Schemes that reek with brass determination

And beg aloud for joint cooperation,

Now restricted by society’s concept,

Whilst confined by past attitudes inept,

For this is woman, born to serve not lead

With scant concern that she fulfill her need.

 

Supple arms and quivering femininity

Promising passion with whispered divinity,

The striking blow of vanity to find

This fragile one conceals an agile mind.

 

IDENTITY ( 1998 ) 2013/05/06

Filed under: POEMS.....THOUGHTS.....MEMORIES — bogdanosclaire @ 8:34 pm
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I am an empty seashell that waits beside the sea

To catch each impatient wave that washes over me,

Within the deeper crevice which is my inner part

There swells all the emptiness that drowns a heavy heart.

I am a frigid winter that never sees the  sun

Yet dreams to hold one sunbeam before its light is done.

I am a hollow nighttime wind crying out aloud

Embracing every vacant space stretching wide and proud,

Sheltering a burden while seeking that final cave

To echo trust and recapture all the love I gave.

 

I am deserted memory living in the past

Wherein all wind and waves and snow are forgotten fast.

I am a lonely stranger, timid, pale and lost, how sad,

Who for the sake of liberty committed all I had.

 

THE DAISY ( 1991 )

Filed under: POEMS.....THOUGHTS.....MEMORIES — bogdanosclaire @ 1:58 pm
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Yellow eye in a crown of white

Boldly laughs as the day dawns bright.

Daisies wild in a garden grow

With petals soft as the drifted snow.

See how they bob in morning’s breeze

Nodding greetings to whom they please.

“ Hi there bee, have a busy day

Kindly be silent brash bluejay!”

 

A jolly bunch these daisies be

Who’d want for grander company?

The world might much improve itself

If man would seek a diff’rent wealth.

Among the blooms there’s never heard

A lying tongue or unkind word.

In all the fields where daisies breed

There’s always room for one more seed.

 

Somehow they thrive without complaint

Hardy species bright pictures paint

And gift mankind with brief respite

Indulge his rest with sheer delight.

Boundless joy mute blossoms shower

I’m sure God dwells in each flower.

I’d like to think that heaven’s plowed

With daisies glowing on each cloud.

 

MATURING ( 1999 ) 2013/05/05

Filed under: POEMS.....THOUGHTS.....MEMORIES — bogdanosclaire @ 10:50 pm
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I thought I saw the budding trees all sprout anew

I dreamt I touched each summer bloom all spread with dew,

And yet today I walked about and lonesome felt

An autumn breeze with chilling breath where sunbeams knelt.

Too fast these days have flickered by, the time has come

For lusty wind that plays beneath the winter sun.

Where then have these precious hours flown in vapid haste

To leave behind the faded hope a fool may waste?

 

Seems life’s composed of moments falling, one on one,

Like threads of gold into a lasting mem’ry spun

In sequence, weaving wisdom’s waning tragic spell

Of laughing tears and weeping smiles which credence tell.

These seasons constant changing that each flower knows

Are cycles in the life of man that patience grows.

 

CYCLE ( 1965 )

Filed under: POEMS.....THOUGHTS.....MEMORIES — bogdanosclaire @ 1:56 pm
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Yesterday, a leaf fell from my favorite tree,

In silence, all alone, I watched it slip and slide,

Turning somersaults, drifting, so melodically,

Graceful, with nought other passage than downward glide.

For one fleet second, thoughts of revolution grew

And cast themselves across the windows of my mind,

Where fragments of one’s journey weigh for times,untrue,

Inciting spasms of questing doubt, life doth blind.

 

We are, each soul of us, mediocre in our way,

Endowed with talents born long ago, yesterday.

Skills that we erringly believe to be unique

Consume other needs, while that special praise we seek.

Observed through private mirrors which the mind collects.

And colored by the ego that our pride reflects,

Images, much gilded by vision clouded, seen,

And silvered by the hope that we are as we dream.

Mankind, foolish, now wanting, thinking what will be,

Wastes his days midst effort veiled by futility.

That cycle, which in youth, had its first beginning,

Will end in age, with neither losing or winning.

 

NOTHING IS FOREVER ( 1963 )

Filed under: POEMS.....THOUGHTS.....MEMORIES — bogdanosclaire @ 12:58 am
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Look up, look up, into the misting sky

And wistful, dreaming of the years gone by

For truth, and seeming as they never were

Provoking thoughts that heart and mind concur.

In life not even flowers linger long

And to the wind both stem and leaf belong

While bird and nest, too soon part company,

And thus with many leave only memory.

Unholy din to clamor in this sphere

Mark man and beast with recollection clear,

Like bookmarks in a span of life concern

Within orb, lasting memory discern.

Dusting shelves laden with rejected dreams,

A thankless task wasted as it now seems

That memory which has been tucked away

Till such a time perhaps as is this day.

Like one’s closed book of golden memory

Which only grasps the edge of destiny,

So thumb again the pages stained and worn,

Oft empty sheets both tired and torn.

A little knowledge with self-reflected view

Consuming hopes, for time that rings untrue,

Reason spurn Herculean endeavor

In assuming nothing lasts forever.

Leave wanting for the final recompense

And wishful hoping as the last defense,

At best that memory, if so inclined

Will flicker once or twice, across the mind.

 

THE GULL, ( 2013 ) 2013/05/04

Filed under: POEMS.....THOUGHTS.....MEMORIES — bogdanosclaire @ 6:08 pm
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there is no one to call my own

I have nowhere to call my home

there is no one to hold me tight

not morning, noon or vast twilight

there is no place or person there

can show me peace, or love or care

i have no place to rest my head

there is no comfort in my bed

and this I notice and it’s true

we’re all alone when day is thru

and so I go from shore to shore

as my friend the gull, fore’ermore.

( My son Mark, sent this poem yesterday with the message,  ” JUST RAN THROUGH MY BRAIN” )

 

POPPIES ( 1990 ) 2013/05/03

Filed under: POEMS.....THOUGHTS.....MEMORIES — bogdanosclaire @ 1:30 pm
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The poppies in my garden grow with tissue paper arms

Among the weeds they flourish ever bright  and without  scent

Swaying in the nighttime breeze with somewhat seductive charms,

( Such casual beauty, I query where that fragrance went.)

Each petal appearing etched seeming darker at the rim,

A silken floss, I think it’s spun upon a fairy loom.

When every other blossom nods its head in evening’s dim

I find it odd that poppies never sleep or fold their bloom.

The poppy is a special gift full of artful design

Crafted much like the angel’s wings fluttering as they fly,

Woven and wrought by care and love with pageant in each line

Grafted by some magic skill from God’s greenhouse in the sky.

 

SOLUTION ( 1991 ) 2013/05/02

Filed under: POEMS.....THOUGHTS.....MEMORIES — bogdanosclaire @ 12:37 pm
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I bound my hopes in role secure
And found myself in life obscure
No battle sought, no aimless race
This distant vacant waiting place
Where all my dreams were mauled and tossed,
Illusion gone and courage lost.
A hollowed shell and nameless ache
One heart that’s worn but will not break
And never was nor ever see
A yearning for what cannot be.
This weighted loss but whispered then
About the life that might have been
No sympathy, no anger meant
No subterfuge, no cross intent
A saddened time with too much space
Casts warmth aside like so much waste
Persisting still in careless fashion
This lonesome and elusive passion.

 

While madness played upon my mind
And futile sought its peace to find
As all the joy I might have sown
Lay wasting in some grave unknown
Be sure I’m wont to ever taste
This need of mine that has no face.

 

WEAK VICTORY ( 1974 ) 2013/05/01

Filed under: POEMS.....THOUGHTS.....MEMORIES — bogdanosclaire @ 1:49 pm
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Why did you take my dreams and brush them all away,

Like scattered ashes of some forgotten yesterday,

Blown with the biting dust of winds that swiftly glide,

Just drifters on life’s road, unwanted, cast aside?

I’ll mend the twisted fragments that have not been lost,

Time will veil some pieces and never count the cost,

A feckless sort of action, yet task worth knowing,

By simply standing tall, find endurance growing.

Wisdom laced with caution that loneliness will marry,

Gull’s nest on seaweed, though set adrift, may tarry,

A titmouse, in the thornbush, emerges, wings intact,

While dreams that died of neglect, often seem abstract.

 

SAFE ( 2013 ) 2013/04/30

Filed under: POEMS.....THOUGHTS.....MEMORIES — bogdanosclaire @ 10:28 pm
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The dark of night envelopes me in clouds of pain I

cannot bear

Pain that’s like an old companion whose ugly fashion

I won’t wear

Or bow beneath its will to tame me or yoke me

in its wide scope

I’m not a hostage in its grasp who’s doomed

to suffer without hope

I’ll fight the way that God has shown

with prayers of faith that my lips sing

While angel arms save and guard me

and carry me upon their wing.

 

SLUMBER’S BABE ( 1957 )

Filed under: POEMS.....THOUGHTS.....MEMORIES — bogdanosclaire @ 1:55 am
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It seems to me the infant child

Imbues the world with his sly smile

The helpless babe in slumber lies

Yet woos you with his half- closed eyes,

The fragile hand that reaches out

To grasp your nose can leave no doubt

That here in one small bundle grows

The dearest gift that mankind knows.

 

WEEDS ( 2003 )

Filed under: POEMS.....THOUGHTS.....MEMORIES — bogdanosclaire @ 1:42 am
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How can you pluck even the smallest weed

That does spring and grow from the meanest seed

Whose path whistled on the wind’s sowing song

Whence carried to earth’s bed and there belonged?

Now we’ve called them each by some awkward name

And we’ll stunt their spread or we’ll make them tame.

A weed is a whisp of unwanted fare

That lives by a road when others won’t dare.

It covers a meadow that grass will shun

Or bides in a spot that greets not the sun.

Weeds are a blessing in myriad ways

Craftily seen on the plainest of days,

Flaunting their garb with a bit of aplomb

At times when even the bees cease to hum.

 

A weed’s like a thought that fear can’t destroy

Using up space that none else will employ,

Forcing us all to encounter some things

We’d sooner forget life’s mutiny brings.

 

IMPERFECT ( 2006 ) 2013/04/29

Filed under: POEMS.....THOUGHTS.....MEMORIES — bogdanosclaire @ 12:07 am
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Somewhere I saw a smiling face

Somehow I can’t recall the place

And once I heard sweet laughter’s ring

Too late I learned a heart could sing.

I thought I grasped time’s fleeting hour

And bent its course unto my power

I knelt upon a meadow’s grass

And begged of God my fears would pass.

Once more I looked into the sky

With hope that faith would guard my eye

I prayed so hard and chance forgot

That some have peace and some have not.

I wished upon each falling star

To reach for love but not too far

I prayed that days would swiftly flee

And timeless grace might bide with me.

I wished so hard and then I saw

A clearer view much as before

Of all my flaws and then I knew

Mistakes I‘ve made as we all do.

 

SEARCH FOR SILENCE ( 1991 ) 2013/04/28

Filed under: POEMS.....THOUGHTS.....MEMORIES — bogdanosclaire @ 10:16 pm
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I listened to the sound of bumblebees at play

While the muted echo of caterpillars’ sway,

Subtle and seductive, lent a special whistle

To the singing reeds where hid a dancing thistle.

The clamor of the wind where hungry leap frogs strayed

Mid grass alive with noise when all their eggs were laid,

Made unvenal chorus, too vibrant and alive

Like a blaring trumpet I thought I’d not survive,

Then with one rousing movement and crescendo rise

Hungered for the silence to follow my demise.

 

IF I WERE GREAT ( 1998 )

Filed under: POEMS.....THOUGHTS.....MEMORIES — bogdanosclaire @ 9:14 pm
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At mornings there are times when I

Upon my couch, rejected lie,

And ponder o’er the many schemes

That filled my days and were my dreams.

I spied a bird that paused in flight,

He battled not with conscience‘ might.

I climbed a tree that was so tall

And cried because my aims were small.

I heard a song that had no tune

And wished upon some waning moon

To be a bird and restless fly

Against God’s canvas of the sky.

There, seek to find another day

Or mayhaps learn the  better way

To fill my life with keener zest,

Perform great deeds before my rest.

 

I will to you this last reply

To neither question nor deny

That days of man are wasted spent

To wonder where his lifetime went,

Whereas each bird doth leave behind

Abundant seed the rain will find.

 

CONCLUSION ( 2013 )

Filed under: POEMS.....THOUGHTS.....MEMORIES — bogdanosclaire @ 9:01 pm
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Fearful and crushed are those saddened lives

Whose trembling hope pale agony survives

While those I know I cannot change or cure

Must forge their path along some way secure.

I find my life’s been challenged by the lights

And winnowed by the shades of shallow nights

Nights spent alone there wrapt in reverie

Midst lights of wisdom, shades of destiny.

Regarding this I pray my faith’s been sealed

Since many a lost promise has been healed.

While I may grasp this chance of happiness

And conquer all the woes which bar success

I find myself adrift upon a sea

Of senseless waste and hapless energy.

 

I’m weary of the endless battle now

I long for rest to garner strength somehow

And pray that God will shelter me once more

Ere I shall haste to latch one final door.

 

FANTASY ( 1977 )

Filed under: POEMS.....THOUGHTS.....MEMORIES — bogdanosclaire @ 8:49 pm
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I have built myself a fortress not made of mortar and stone

Its windows draped in make- believe, doorposts hung with hope unflown.

I’ll dwell in this castle forever that’s built aside a hill

To blanket those sounds of reality lingering cold and chill.

The walls are painted with laughter as mellow as morning light

And the floors are set with marble in various moods of bright.

 

I’ve cushioned each lonely settle with pillows that sing out loud

And brought in a bit of heaven that rests above like a cloud,

I’ve garnered inside with flowers to bring the outdoors within

Assured when the winds of time blow bold my sunshine will begin.

Each room has a view of a garden with pine trees ever tall

Shutters to bar the sight of the things I refuse to recall.

I may bide in this place till never, safe from the outside pain

Like a child in storybook fashion who yearns to try again.

 

THERE ARE SMALL SOUNDS ( 2006 ) 2013/04/27

Filed under: POEMS.....THOUGHTS.....MEMORIES — bogdanosclaire @ 10:28 pm
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There are small sounds that fill my mind with thoughts that soar

While minute, so bold they challenge any ocean’s roar.

They’re sounds that only love can heal or kindness teach

When strength’s beyond the deepest place one heart can reach.

These sounds of silence fall too soft on hollow ears

But speak more plainly than the eloquence of tears.

That last sound , the labored breathing of one adored,

The closing sigh which signifies he’ll come no more,

These are the sounds that will confuse a lifetime much

And leave an empty void that only time can touch.

 

Petals falling from a rose to the garden bed,

Tight laughter that issues forth when goodbye is said,

That stirring of the pulse with heartbeat quickening

Unbidden, heralding each pains awakening

Or hushed darkness of the night now moving slowly

While the rush of the wind in mid-flight moans lowly,

Some weeping sounds which from the tearful heart are wrung

As sounds of chanted mass are in a choir sung.

These have lingered in the air with hope awaiting

Within our lives , some restful aim contemplating.

 

Hence hearken to those sounds declaring time’s ending

With all the consequence of old thoughts attending.

Acknowledge, in the distance, one trumpet crying

Both man and beast in manner like are soon dying.

Then understand the difference that love has made

And in that final moment, hear an accolade.

 

RAINFALL ( 1963 )

Filed under: POEMS.....THOUGHTS.....MEMORIES — bogdanosclaire @ 9:27 pm
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There are no words to help explain

My God, how I do love the rain.

These feelings that surge deep within

Which from the depths inside begin

Are tonic to my ailing verve

And power grant these gods I serve.

The thought occurs often tragic

That life slips by without magic.

Grubbing bird,  hungry chick rejoice

While mist and I till dawn converse.

I could not live in climate dry

With nought to hide the fears I spy,

Impatient thoughts laced with chagrin

That weigh the scope of origin.

 

This rain that falls in rhythmic beat

Upon each valley, hill and street

And every other breathing thing

Elate that sweet refreshment bring.

Gone the fit of winter rigor

Greet the sudden rainfall’s vigor

Pause while earth accepts the blessing

Needing drink with grace caressing.

To each and every dying thought

Since man to life has hoping brought,

Neglected aims, now wilted grown

Feel with the rain, excitement known

Shall store away resentment’s girth

Believe that time may force rebirth

 

MARTYRED MARCH ( 1977 )

Filed under: POEMS.....THOUGHTS.....MEMORIES — bogdanosclaire @ 8:27 pm
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Oh little star that shines alone

On lonesome dark and friendless night,

Oh sprightly sprig that blossoms forth

With nary other buds in sight,

Oh tiny bird that chirps a song

When all his friends are fast in flight,

Oh warming wind with gentle breath

That sings an air with dawn’s delight,

Have you ever looked beyond night

Into the early morning’s glow?

Have you ever smelled the incense

On the hill where staunch violets grow?

Have you ever heard ceaseless sound

Where gushing streams trickle and flow?

Have you ever felt springtime’s rain

Driven with an incessant blow?

This is the heritage of March

Impudent harbinger of spring

That sallies forth in manner rude

Yet bearing April on the wing

And so bold and harsh seducer

Ever brusquely keep refraining

Release that cold and chilly grip

Thus end winter’s will sustaning.

 

CONTEMPLATION ( 2003 )

Filed under: POEMS.....THOUGHTS.....MEMORIES — bogdanosclaire @ 5:35 pm
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In all the obligation that one’s duty brings

Exists some meager wish that sighs and hopes and clings,

There weigh the loss which from the smallest niche inside

Abides with desperation soundly hid by pride.

Still dwells the waning hope that chance yet rages bold

Though wintered in the ort that’s left of growing old.

In manner chaste I find my quiet hours are sown

Within the palest veil of all I’ve ever known

Where image of the past that with distress was wrought

Some untamed soul within the net lies careless caught.

 

Since unshed tears oft lurk behind the tracing of a smile

Self-contemplation ought display the hushed façade of guile

While quiv’ring hand and timid step by age and time impaired

Mask vestiges of dignity God graciously has spared.