Key

Posted on August 5, 2014 by Helen

My master gave to me a key
Said ‘with this charm I set you free
But first you must discover the lock
That fits this key, and ere the clock
Chimes into morning, or you’ll find
All hope of freedom left behind’

In ancient texts I searched for signs
That my wise master had defined
But in no dusty pages found
A lock, nor secrets so profound
That they may render up my key
As only clever allegory

I wandered, wondering from the start
From where do all the free depart?
What door, what lock could ever show
Such secrets, could I ever know?
The clock moved on its steady pace
But of such wisdom not a trace

And then when time was running grim
I said a prayer and sang a hymn
For inspiration to descend
For guiding angels to befriend
And whispered lightly in my ear
Came words that made my vision clear

‘The lock you seek you find within
Beneath your bones and shining skin
Within such love are chains unbound
And doorways to the free are found’
I should have known this from the start
The only lock lay in my heart

So to my master I did go
And let this wisdom overflow
‘The key you gave is but your sign
Of where we find the seat divine
The throne of love that sets us free
Is but our heart, no mystery’

My master chuckled and agreed
And with his honour he then freed
Me from my service yet I found
My soul’s sweet struggle turned around
‘My service is now mine to give
I give it freely while I live’

The key, the lock, my heart unbound
In truer service am I found

(c) Helen Valentina 2014, Al Rights Reserved

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Crack for Prompt 66 The Music of Leonard Cohen

Posted on August 3, 2014 by Helen

“There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in” – Leonard Cohen, Anthem

Little mother barren breast
Weep Madonna
suffering’s best
In your grief
your soul is blessed
Your soul is blessed

Hopeful dreamer furrowed brow
No mistake
your time is now
Hearts will break as
earth is ploughed
Earth is ploughed

Full regretted heart ablaze
Mistaken, broken
in a haze
Arise triumphant
renewed, amazed
Renewed, amazed

Little children quiet grow
What the heart feels
you should know
warm embrace the
tempest’s glow
Tempest’s glow

Crack of sun angel cry
To each a blessing
by and by
Soft caressing
rise and try
Rise and try

Little mother home and hearth
Sift the wheat now
from the chaff
Step by step
we tread the path
We tread the path

(c) Helen Valentina 2014, All Rights Reserved

For mindlovemisery’s prompt at: http://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2014/08/03/prompt-66-the-music-of-leonard-cohen/

Leonard Cohen is a genius and brilliant subject for a prompt. I chose his song Anthem as the inspiration because it is the one song I can never finish singing along to without crying – such a moving, perfect piece of work.

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I Am Alien

Posted on August 2, 2014 by Helen

I am alien
My world is lost
I dream of velvet skies
And waterless oceans
Far away

I am alien
Your words are cruel
There is no welcoming
In your sweet smile
You turn away

I am alien
A thing of fear
Ah, would I had the power
To render nothingness
To your world!

I am alien
I don’t belong
I wrestle with truth
That leaves me separate
And alone

(c) Helen Valentina 2014, Al Rights Reserved

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Sacred Heart

Posted on July 29, 2014 by Helen

My heart is made of flowers pressed
The Gardener knows my feelings best
Such wonders in each row displayed
The truest vows I ever made

Each sacred petal is applied
To welcome love and vanquish pride
In passion’s purity a start
A wreath of thorns around my heart

In fertile soil blue flowers grow
With other shades above, below
A kiss, a promise, such delight
My flowers bloom in full tonight

(c) Helen Valentina 2014, Al Rights Reserved

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Pure

Posted on July 28, 2014 by Helen

Half starved
lying supine
gazing at the iridescent sky
May I partake of nature’s cure?
Give me succour
Make it pure
make it pure

You said we were
just fiddlesticks left out
in mid winter rain
Each part of a struggling monolith
afraid to move
lest we shatter the communion
forevermore
and ever more

All those days later
roses grew defiant
through crystalline bones
and vultures circled
overhead
in case the harvest moon
came too soon

Weep for me
I’m captured in an hourglass
beating futile wings
against the glassy cage
And before all nature’s terrors
I am stricken but endure
All I ask is make it pure
Make it pure

(c) Helen Valentina 2014, All Rights Reserved

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Good Advice for Prompt 65, Advice

Posted on July 27, 2014 by Helen

I told you once
I’ll tell you twice
I’ll never give you
Good advice

I’ll just project
Myself herein
In your despair
My dreams begin

And if from gods
Are favours blessed
I’ll give you scraps
And take the rest

And if in this
Your life sustains
I’ll bleed it out
Take all remains

I told you once
I’ll tell you twice
I’ll never give you
Good advice

And if you take
My warning now
Through that I’ve caught you
Anyhow

(c) Helen Valentina 2014, All Rights Reserved

For mindlovemisery’s prompt at: http://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2014/07/27/prompt-65-advice/

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Dwell

Posted on July 26, 2014 by Helen

We dwell beneath
Where shattered sunlight falls
An hour a day
Like godliness spilling
Across barren floor

We dwell within
Our shadows but ourselves
A murky cloak
Indistinguishable from
Our bodily form

The hours of the sun
We worship deep
On altars long forgotten
By those that dwell
So lost above

We dwell alone
A lost race caught
In dappled shade
That falls to quiet night
Again alone, alone

(c) Helen Valentina 2014, All Rights Reserved

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Long Gone

Posted on July 23, 2014 by Helen

Across the canal we ran
I loved you then
So young and so pure
I true believed
We would perfect endure

My heart burst open
Walking hand in hand
Certain you were mine
And that this beauty
Would not fall to time

The ancient city outlasts
The loves it births
Under its watchful sky
You are long gone
And so, my love, am I

(c) Helen Valentina 2014, All Rights Reserved

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

Memory

Posted on July 20, 2014 by Helen

I have a childhood memory
Umbrella stolen by the breeze
And yet I cannot true recall
If such a day occurred at all

I lived a life of fantasy
A child’s view of reality
And at this memory’s very core
Are faces never met before

And which more real, what was true done
Or dreams I wished so fevered on?
The truth is slipping by degrees
Umbrellas lost on errant breeze

(c) Helen Valentina 2014, All Rights Reserved

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This Time for Prompt 64 Ya’aburnee

Posted on July 20, 2014 by Helen

This time
night falls just as a shroud
and all the stars here gathered
hide behind a cloud
burning endlessly
You bury me
this time

This time
you hear my brittle voice
The illness has its way
We have such little choice
See how I bleed?
You bury me
this time

This time
while limbs still ache to touch
see what inspires too little
will yet amount to much
I’m never free
You bury me
this time

This time
a century’s too long
our little lives too brief
to sing our complex song
In hours of need
you bury me
this time

Last time
you shattered at daybreak
I watched you fall
The very earth did quake
Death took it all
Now take it all
and do this thing for me
Just once you bury me
this time

(c) Helen Valentina 2014, All Rights Reserved

For mindlovemisery’s prompt at: http://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2014/07/20/prompt-64-yaaburnee/

I loved the concept of the word for this prompt, and to me it spoke of lovers over lifetimes in a dance of loss and hope.

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