POETRY JAM - AN IMPOSSIBLE PLACE

“I see the entire world as Eden, and every time you take an inch of it away, you must do so with respect.” - Joni Mitchell

This week, Poetry Jam has given the instruction: “Set your poem this week in an impossible place”. Increasing population growth worldwide, escalating pollution, effects of climate change, dwindling resources and a spoilage of our natural environment make many of the world’s beautiful places no longer so. It is harder and harder for most people of the earth (who are rapidly becoming city dwellers in huge metropolises) to find a “natural”, unspoiled place where everything is “right”. This is the impossible place my poem yearns for…

Nocturne I

On the horizon low will sink the sun

And gentle sea the shore would kiss.

A gull the zephyr soft pursues

While fish in coralline castles hides.

Dolphin, Orion’s echoes searches for

And dances in the murky depths, anemone.

Unmarred by cloud the sky shines on

In ever deepening shadows phosphorescent.

Star burns in twilit backdrop smooth

And ceaselessly does the cicada drone.

Bird roosts in leafy bower still

The summer heat by evening unquelled.

For water sweet the arid earth does yearn

An earnest kiss the parchéd lips desire

A temperate lair the wild beast seeks

While living flesh caresses craves.

A want for cooling breeze is in the stifling air expressed

While for the music of the words of love ear hopes.

Pearl of a moon in opalescent ocean falls

The blue-white wave on velvet shore does break

In silence still the sea-sounds softly sing;

Enticed by mistress pale recedes the saline,

Shell glistens wet, crab backwards runs

And high above silver Cybele smiles.

For beauty endlessly the soul will search

In lover’s eyes would eyes be there reflected.

Heart needs to love, reason subduing

And arms would in embrace rejoice.

Perishable flesh be to your own attracted

And love while there still is time.