Embraced by Conscious Force
Above the cliffside looking down its sheer,
The sea was undulating molten jade.
Foaming billows broke white across its face,
Like drifted snow upon a vein of turquoise green.
Against the seawall, waves swelled to deeper power,
Filling the air with rolling peals of surging thunder.
Aloft, white gulls hung upon sustaining breezes.
Submitting to the will of opposing winds, they banked
And let the currents choose their course.
A child ran wildly down the sandy shore.
Her screams of pure delight were heard
Above the sea-sounds as she, with childish piety,
Had summoned up her soul to worship
In the open air; giving thanks for freedom of her spirit,
And her limbs, through joyous antics of her surfside play.
All this appealed to my immortal strain.
It roused the essence of my source to stand
Within the depth of my devine desire to view
[...] Read more
poem by Lynn W. Petty
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
So Long Ago
'To thee, who lost a love as I,
Allow this little book of living song
To bring thee solace, and the comfort
That is thine, to know thou livist not alone,
To bear a burden such as mine.
Addie Marketier,1853.'
As if it were a live, hot coal
That seared my heart,
I held this little book of love sonnets
That she had held so long ago.
I turned the pages she had turned. I touched
The teardropp stains on lines of verse
That she had underscored,
And left the pressed rosebud
Where it had lain a century or more.
I thought of what the past had wrought
With images of her soul-grief.
I seemed to feel her presence, as a being
[...] Read more
poem by Lynn W. Petty
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Her Name Is Poetry
Who is this sprite, this nymph that haunts my inner self,
That dances on the fringes of the shadows of my mind?
What spirit penetrates beneath the surface of my being,
That makes me pledge my heart, implore her love
And then, with flippant air, will pawn my soul,
For our brief written intercourse?
She teases me with our encounters,
Leaving me at her capricious whim
To stand within the palest speculation of my thoughts.
She is the light within the mellow gloom
Of my reflective imperfections.
A diva with the range of voice that shames
All heaven's choir;
A vixen, with an angel's grace,
Who wears the habit of a nun;
Who speaks her lines with eloquence,
Or with a sailor's tongue.
I would give my all for what is never to belong to me,
[...] Read more
poem by Lynn W. Petty
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
It Was Only Yesterday
I remember her lying there, my Mother,
In her convalescent bed.
She lay in the fetal position like an unborn child
Floating in the waters of the womb, afraid
Of the unknown, knowing the inevitable
Could not be stayed.
How courageous, yet childlike she was,
Unable to care for herself, fearful of the dark,
Dreading that mysterious moment when she would walk alone
On the solemn, silent shore of a spiritual sea.
Her will, her grace, her worth delaminated like peeled veneer,
Exposing the calamity of age.
Her beauty defoliating by sheaths before her eyes,
Not recognizing the person in the mirror as herself;
The encroaching time, having left her without a link to the future, only a past;
Her baptism in the stream of life's twilight;
Held within the somnolent embrace of the Minister of Death.
[...] Read more
poem by Lynn W. Petty
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Valor
The dictionary describes 'Valor' as:
Qualities of a hero or heroine;
Exceptional courage when facing danger;
Facing the unknown with boldness and gallentry.
But, gallentry comes in many different forms.
I have seen valor on the battlefront as soldiers
Disembark from boat to beach.
I have read of those who gave their lives
To save their buddies from the wrath of war.
Yet, there is another valor, a silent valor,
Shown on the faces of those who, though not
In physcial combat, soldier against soldier,
Have just as much a life threatining struggle.
There is no noise, clash of weapons,
Shield against shield, or screams of pain,
Just silence, cold, weary silence;
Battle fatigue, as shown by the posture of
Those who return from the front;
Veterans of that silent war of personal combat.
Wave after wave of seasoned combatants pass me by
[...] Read more
poem by Lynn W. Petty
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Her Hands
Have you seen her hands, gnarled and crooked with age?
Translucent skin accenting blue-black veins,
Contrasting tendon cords of white through spots
Of brown upon the backs of her old hands?
Those hands were once the strength of our household.
They fashioned us into a family core.
They bound us with the mastic of their love.
Without apparent weariness they cooked,
And cleaned, and washed, performing endless tasks.
No motion lost in their resolve, they spoke
In silent speech.
Articulate, when truth involved;
Elequent, in matters of the heart;
Convincingly, when we had misbehaved.
On rocking lap, their touch would calm my troubled sleep;
Madicinal was their caress on fevered brow.
Restive age has slowed the winging of those birdlike hands.
[...] Read more
poem by Lynn W. Petty
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
An Abyss of Faith
I leapt from the precipice of reason
Into the supernal abyss of faith.
Uprising on the winds of mystical contemplation,
Discharging all senses and actions of thought,
I came into a darkness, a darkness that is beyond light,
Without seeing and without knowing, to see and to know
That which is beyond sight and wisdom.
Through the abstraction of the essence of all perception.
I rose into a void of nothingness, the quintessential darkness,
That outshines and obliterates the light of all rational things.
A darkness not caused by the absence of illumination
But, caused by a profusion of light that blinds
And dazzles the spirit with super radience.
Unaware of ego and self, I was beyond boundries
and limitations, free of physical obstructions.
I was veiled in an obscurity of permeating and profound
Secret Silence.
[...] Read more
poem by Lynn W. Petty
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Madonna on the Amtrak
Taking my seat, I noticed across from me a young
Mother with her child.
The soft-shawl like waves of her long brown hair
Delicately framed her face, as it swept over her ears,
Spilling onto the plateau of her shoulders,
Streaming down her neck, ending like a gentle waterfall
Blown to a mist by the wind.
The serenity of her countenance was stirring.
Lost in heavenly musing, she gazed with adoration
Into the face of her sleeping boy.
Through the windows, prismed ribbons of light
Were cast upon her features, accentuating her quietude.
Mysterious, tender, quiet, deep.
A subtle vapor of something divine enveloped them.
I sat silently, listening to the murmuring sounds of a mother
As she nestled her son in the cradle of her arms.
A peaceful touch was laid upon my soul.
[...] Read more
poem by Lynn W. Petty
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Before It Becomes Too Late
Death, be not unkind.
Do not hold her long in your embrace.
Do not cause more pain by her unwanted continuance of this life.
I know that transition is inevitable, though I grieve
To think of her departure.
Suffering in the vacuum of her absence,
I shall not mourn, lest my mourning hinder the flight
of her soul.
But, hold just a while that I may talk with her.
That I may say the things I should have said:
Of her courage; of the void she has filled in my life;
Of my love for her. Why do we wait to say
The things we should have said.
What? I have said those things before, you say?
Surely not. Surely, not enough times.
I fear she does not know.
You say I delay conclusion? Yes, if I could.
[...] Read more
poem by Lynn W. Petty
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
The Bridal Chamber of Thought
From where do the words of poetry come?
Where, in the bridal chamber of the brain,
Is poetic thought concieved?
We do not know.
Could it be that concept is impregnated
Through a positive attitude of reception by a 'word, '
Thus, resulting in a creative impression;
Then, a unit of meaning, becoming recognizable
In its emergent form?
We do not know.
Where, in the belly of the mind,
Is the dilatable expanse for thematic gestation?
We do not know that, either.
What are the propelling elements that add
To the progressive embryonic change;
That prefetal product of conception,
From the beginning of implantation,
[...] Read more
poem by Lynn W. Petty
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!