Deserted

I am deserted like a broken house
left by owners now distressed
by angles and curvature not quite right
and colder shallows in the rooms
where gathers dust, memories and gloom
I am deserted

I am unloved like an abandoned home
where shadows play with light as friends
Above it all bleak memories suspend
and re-write a history that no-one reads
Within we bleed
and live unloved

I am a shattered light like a broken window
in a room no-one will visit
where once afternoon teas may have warmed
in softer, more forgiving times
Across the room an old clock chimes
its harbinger of doom
And I am shattered
I am shattered far too soon

(c) Helen Valentina 2014, All Rights Reserved

Posted in Earth, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Dragon’s Breath

Feel me breathe
My fire breath
I am license
I am death

Warm your heart
Your icy bones
Give you most
When you’re alone

Dragon’s breath
Wilder heart
Where they finish
Where I start

Feel me breathe
My fire breath
I am license
I am death

(c) Helen Valentina 2014, All Rights Reserved

Posted in Fire, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Searching

I am searching for the light
I am wandering this night
In this ancient habitat
I might find the way at that

Broken church just like my soul
In the dimmer light is whole
Shining beacon in the night
I might find my way tonight

In the aching light of moon
Weeping hours pass too soon
Weary travellers alight
At this sanctuary this night

But if here by light of day
Nightmare fears are leeched away
And we’re tricked by sunlight rays
That we’ve finally found our way

(c) Helen Valentina 2014, All Rights Reserved

Posted in Air, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Beacon

Let me be your beacon
Let me bring you home
Wherever you may wander
Wherever you may roam
Across the darkest seas
To the most distant shore
Let me be your beacon
Let me show you more

Let me be your beacon
Sheltered in my heart
Wherever you may journey
Never be apart
Wanderlust is sated
Wherever you may roam
Let me be your beacon
Let me guide you home

(c) Helen Valentina 2014, All Rights Reserved

Posted in Poetry, Water | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Peel – for Prompt 80, Unforgiven

I peel you off
Snake shedding its skin
A little blood and pain
A pure recompense
And you are gone

The remnants shrivel
Curl and crackle
Like dying embers
In firelight at night
And you are gone

Fresh skin will rise
To cover scars I’ll hide
Rivulets of memory
The naked eye can’t see
And I am gone

The bitterness will fade
Photos in a journal
Hidden in the closet
But I never will forget
How I am gone

Unforgiven days
A lesser turn of head
You never took my hand
Affection leached away
And we are gone

A solemn pupil here
Learning of the dark
How pity is a pearl
Lost deep within its shell
And we were gone

(c) Helen Valentina 2014, All Rights Reserved

For mindlovemisery’s prompt at: http://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2014/11/09/prompt-80-unforgiven/

Posted in Poetry, Water | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Strawberries

He brought me strawberries
Spilling upon my table
Gifts of the nature’s bounty
Red as the promise of a kiss
I thought it bliss

We dined on strawberries
Served with pure whipped cream
Sweetness bursting on our tongues
Red as the promise of a kiss
I thought it bliss

A season of strawberries
So brief and yet divine
You think perfection will last an age
But it is the briefest lover’s kiss
And yet it’s bliss

(c) Helen Valentina 2014, All Rights Reserved

Posted in Earth, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Big and Bigger Changes

Hi

Reasons to be (not so) Cheerful

I haven’t been around much of late, which is only partly my crazy busy job. Because I’m about to leave said crazy, busy job and move inter-state for a bit of a sea change. What that means is leaving a crazy busy job, certainly, but also a new  job hunt in the new locale is required, which is never fun. I have some potential options but no idea whether any will work out or what time it will take to find work, so there will be a period of free floating anxiety for me fairly soon I think.

But prior to free floating anxiety is actual, full on anxiety due to the fun, fun, fun thing of moving. So I’m surrounding myself with packing boxes and trying to sort though and cull the mess I’ve hoarded over three years,and trying not to damage my problem back in the process.  Then it’s removalists, then it’s travel..so…yes..between now and mid December I’ll be around WordPress even less I think as I gradually narrow my life down to moving, moving, moving…

Reasons to be Cheerful

On the other hand, I’ve had some wonderful luck. In contacting my previous landlord from the city I’m returning to (Sydney) to get him to be a referee for rental  house hunting, he had something available right now for me to rent, and it’s perfect!! And given he’s the most wonderful landlord ever I feel amazingly blessed. It takes away the anxiety of house hunting which is considerable in and of itself, and the place he has available is gorgeous so I am feeling very positive about the final outcome of the big relocation – no matter how stressful it is in transition.

Also, the time I will have job hunting -particularly if it takes a month of two – will give me lots of spare time for my writing. Over the past year I’ve written a trilogy of horror novels and my editor thinks they are my best writing yet and might gain the interest of traditional publishers. So with her encouragement I’m going to do the rather full on exercise of seeing if I can get an agent and a publisher for them.

It will either be successful or not, but this time period allows me to give it an intensive try so even if it doesn’t bear fruit I won’t be wondering in my old age what might have happened if I really gave it a go…

So on balance, more things to be cheerful about than not, but please bear with me with my increasing absence. I’ve got poems scheduled through to the new year every three days or so and I’ll try to keep up with prompts when I can, so it may seem I’m here more than I am.  But I might fall further behind on reading other blogs(please forgive me if I do).  Still, after about mid December I should be settled and back with bells on!!

Cheers

Helen V.

Posted in Conversation, Earth | Tagged , , , , , | 11 Comments

You

I know you are waiting
In the weave
I know you are hiding
Never leave
I know you are whispering
A choice
I know your angelic
Demon’s voice

I know you are ancient
But a child
You slither like water
Something wild
I know you will promise
Pure relief
Laugh when you inspire
My belief

I know you are knowledge
Steeped in time
A vagabond poet
Lost in rhyme
I know you were once
A sometime friend
But now finer feelings
Just pretend

I know you’re a snake
Trapped behind
The woes of the heart
The wounded mind
I know you are broken
But I don’t care
I live for the day when
You’re not there

(c) Helen Valentina 2014, All Rights Reserved

Posted in Earth, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Charon

Image credit: www/hdwallpapers.in

Image credit: www/hdwallpapers.in

I cannot cross here to the shore
I’ve lingered thus so long before
In dreams in nightmares and in life
I’ve felt the whip, the lash, the knife
I know these waters run aground
I know the promise they surround
The hope and dreams of all who come
And how the weaving comes unspun

Like cats we counted one to nine
The lives that slither up our spine
I know his face though lost in shroud
I saw him in the thunder’s cloud
This Charon waits for every man
We plot, we hope, we dream, we plan
But cross this river only he
Can give you passage, bound or fee

I know this river, know it well
The waters lead to peace or hell
You’ll pay the price, you always do
I’d do the same if I were you
The cycle turning in the gyre
Means ‘neath the waters breeds a fire
I’ve reached the end, the number nine
Found nothing here that is divine

Oh Charon, wearied of your course
Prefer you land, a road, a horse
A chariot to bear us through
Would these make sympathy of you?
We’re trapped to cross this darkened pass
Each time no different from the last
But nothing will you here allow
Expressionless beneath your brow

Oh Charon if you had a choice
What other options could you voice?
Oh Charon carry us across
Another life, another loss
Another life, another loss

(c) Helen Valentina 2014, All Rights Reserved

Posted in Fire, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Within

The light barely breaks
The cloying darkness
Here within
I’m wild with longing
Never dreaming
Of anything but sin
The gentlest creatures
In my forest
Should harken to the sound
For every promise
There’s the whiplash
Coming silent, sure around

A softer touch cannot
Breach the walls I’ve built
Here within
You’ll try to find me
But you’ll be lost
Before you can begin
I’m just a wildness
And lost laughter
In the soon encroaching dark
Here within
I warm a fire
From the promise of a spark

(c) Helen Valentina 2014, All Rights Reserved

Posted in Earth, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments