helenvalentina

Turn of the Card

Posted on May 12, 2015 by Helen

Image credit: Africa Studio

Our destinies are mystery
The cards foretell with accuracy
But often times we only see
The truth they told through history

And those that follow deep the stars
Find harbingers in Moon and Mars
But underneath run harsher scars
The whims that fickle fate debars

For what is good and can you tell
The path to heaven or to hell?
The energies alone won’t spell
The victory path for the ne-er-do-well

For what bodes ill can oft be seen
Through rose coloured lenses as a dream
And what lies dankest in the stream
May first appear as lush and green

So tell my fortune if you will
I’ll trust your guidance yet, until
The birds that sing on my windowsill
Come not for pleasure, but to kill

Posted in Air, Poetry | Tagged analysis, astrology, deception, destiny, Divination, fate, fortune, Interpretation, prediction, stars, Tarot | 2 Comments

The Name

Posted on May 9, 2015 by Helen

Image credit: Antonio Guillem

Here I make prayers to broken stones
Where weeds are overgrowth, and old
Where footsteps have so seldom known
How blood is thick and ground is cold

A penitent pathetic at your feet
I have burnt out my very soul
There is no more, I am complete
A devastated, fragmented whole

Where old men weep I lay my head
Recalling touch both cold and plain
With death I make unquiet bed
Unholy, lost I must remain

And were it right I’d try instead
To make such wicked take the blame
But I am lost, and so instead
I take the vow, accept the name

Posted in Air, Poetry | Tagged belief, blame, dark, guilt, lost, penitent, religious, shame, Spiritual | 2 Comments

The Age of Belief

Posted on May 6, 2015 by Helen

Image credit: Andrey_Kuzmin

So hard to sustain
Pure faith, true belief
Over years
When youth’s fire is in the veins
There is hubris enough
To overshadow doubts and fears
We clasp our hopes like talisman
And link hand in hand with gods and guides
It seems so easy, so simple then
In youth’s deep unconscious pride

Yet age will wither
The fruits of this fervent vine
The doubts of life slowly build
And with disappointment here combine
Where are our gods, our guides
When days dawn bleak and frighteningly cold?
It is so hard to still believe
When we are wiser
When we are old

But in strange moments
Of pure, free-floating ecstasy
I still can reach the heights
That touched so easy when I was young
I can still see my Beloved
And sing hymns in secret tongue
And still believe
That something real is here begun
But its more seldom
So much more seldom as I age

Posted in Air, Poetry | Tagged belief, Beloved, faith, gods, guides, hope, Philosophy, religion, soul, Spiritual | 4 Comments

Incremental

Posted on May 3, 2015 by Helen

Image credit: blvdone

The road to despair is incremental
It is rarely a steep descent
Instead it follows pathways
Of bleak and blighted hope
Opportunities so close
Within grasp and then elusive
It builds an edifice so slowly
Too late you see yourself
Caged in something which you thought
Held only promise of escape

Each day begins as the last and all
Press on with rituals and requirements
A steady stream of people
Swarm streets with each as faceless as the next
This humdrum rhythm anesthetizes
An opiate of forgetfulness that helps
Eradicate the knowledge
The each day we just grow older, all the same

Who would bravely draw back the shroud
And stare this truth right to its face?
Even dreams and ambitions sorely won
Must eventually fall to others on their climb
And for those of us, the many
That never reach the heights
Comes only quicker knowledge
Of the fall that captures all

But incremental comes the wisdom
So soft and quiet we may ignore it
And for sanity we shy away
From knowledge which would surely shatter all
We herald stories of those who triumphed
Over odds immeasurable as though
This holds the pattern to a victory
Within our grasp
Until with weariness we look back, look back
And know.

Posted in Air, Poetry | Tagged ambition, banality, darkness, despair, failure, increment, loss, Pessimism, Philosophy, reality, truth, wisdom | 2 Comments

Walking

Posted on April 30, 2015 by Helen

Image credit: Fotonio

Walking alone
So far from home
Paths littered with debris
Dank mangrove waters
Clutching your courage
Watching the pathway
What have you known?
Walking alone

Walking alone
Birds above winging
Trees leaves are rustling
Quiet in waves
Hoping you’re brave
Just one more hour
Dreaming of home
Walking alone

Posted in Earth, Poetry | Tagged alone, bushland, dark, fear, forest, freedom, hope, mangroves, nature, walking | Leave a comment

Dominion

Posted on April 27, 2015 by Helen

Image credit: Anna Kucherova

What is your dominion?
Your ravaged terrain is bleeding
Your soldiers fallen, leaving
Like ghosts floating across
A broken sky
What is your dominion?
This grasp for power petty
A childhood dream gone sour
And at this appointed hour
You strike to cruelly push
Your brothers back
What is your dominion?
Your throne will sit precarious
Not on iron, stone or earth
But on shifting sands of uncertainty
As all despots you will glower
With your fears of overthrow
Until the time comes and you know
The savagery of another’s sword
So like your own

Posted in Fire, Poetry | Tagged ambition, cruelty, darkness, death, despot, domnion, loss, paranoia, soldiers, tyrant, war | Leave a comment

The Lesser Bite

Posted on April 23, 2015 by Helen

Image credit: Eric Isselee

The lesser bite
Of a stranger’s rejection
Still stings
Perhaps on its own
It would never cause
Such pain
But it seems it comes
In groups, as do
These things
So the cut though slight
Seems somehow deep
Again

A day ago
The news caught me
So unaware
Though the messenger
Would never know
This link
Just some months ago
I was left adrift
Standing there
Now today again
This sense of loss
Upon the brink

This lesser bite
Is deceptively
So soft
But if just the first
Of a many-sided
Ground attack
All these dreams that I
In my innocence
Held aloft
May be eaten yet
One by one and won’t
Come back

Posted in Earth, Poetry | Tagged ambition, bite, blind sided, dark, fear, hope, loss, news, surprise | 5 Comments

One More

Posted on April 20, 2015 by Helen

One more they cry
One more
A moment further to delay
The fall of the axe
The toll of the bell
One more they plead
One more
A day is all
Worth fighting for
One more

One more they say
One more
Is all it takes to turn
The sea’s relentless tide
The fall that follows pride
One more they claim
One more
Will bring the balance
To the fore
One more

One more I sigh
One more
A kiss upon the cheek
A fool again
In love again
One more I breathe
One more
Will satisfy my heart
And not before
One more

Posted in Fire, Poetry | Tagged ambition, balance, death, Dreams, fools, hope, Life, Love, lovers, trials, trying | 4 Comments

Evening Falls

Posted on April 17, 2015 by Helen

Image credit: David Carillet

Evening falls
A cloak on a beggar’s shoulders
Meagre starlight sprinkled
like breadcrumbs on the firmament
Eclipsing the last rays of red and purple
heraldry of another day forgotten and lost

Evening falls
A silence rivalling the distant hum
of traffic on the freeways
headed blindly homeward bound
The melody the same each night
A rhythm older than the footfalls
down the darkly emptying streets

Evening falls
A wave of slumber beckons like a bearer
of oddly coloured, misshapen gifts
As into twilight’s dreaming each softly slips
Passengers of nighttime’s ragged train
Travelling fast across this lost terrain
But lighting weary travellers still
to home’s sweet warmth at last