Crystal Landscapes

And then you said, These are wild dreams and
mesmerising schemes, how can I go on, how
listen to the song; and I said, But you are strong,
your wings are wide now that they have stretched
to encompass the biggest scenes your mind can
hold, your view enlarged, your song won’t die,
just go and please try to reach yonder horizon

Then you flew with arms outstretched, you jumped
into the abyss, all seemed lost but here you rise
again, carried on currents of brilliantly coloured air,
the dream is so great, the ideal so beautiful, it in-
flates the mind and carries the spirit to the green
pastures of old which now start to seem like crystal
landscapes glittering in diamond and gold

Shining in azure, agate and aquamarine

poem by Margaret Alice Second
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Responsible Intelligence

Intelligence, energy fields filling space
with filigree fingers of lace, interconnected
energy fields form all units of time and space

Mind forms the cosmos and beyond
part of a universal intelligence,
mind changes natural law

As spiritual beings having
a human experience, we
have created it all

Quantum physics describes
far-off action without discernible
cause, consciousness determines
outcome, belief setting direction

Shine a light through a split while
visualising light as a wave, see
smaller waves appear on the

[...] Read more

poem by Margaret Alice Second
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Existing As Ideals

Dreams need no corporeality, a
dream fulfilled becomes one-
dimensional reality without
power to draw desire and
passion through us

I love dreams as ideas, romance
as mirage, an image in the mind:
therein lies its power, a vision to
be filed for later use when it fails
to entice

Materialisation shrinks infinite
dimensions of enchanting
vision, I cherish dreams
until threadbare,
I love

Ethereal ideals as Quixotic
schemes fighting windmills:

[...] Read more

poem by Margaret Alice Second
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Your Humble Servant (Revised)

As a child I endured toothache pain stoically
practicing for persecution of difficult times as
Apostles in the Bible recommend, but today

I take antibiotics, accepting pain has no place
in fate chosen from future forks of a different
trouser leg of time; we are free to go any way

The gods knew I used earache to stay trouble-
free in translating my three documents, they
double-folded earache pain to make sure

Every work triumph has a price - uncomfortable
as the ear is, I'm thrilled by the deal, it is
a dream come true to do my work efficiently

Paying for such privilege in physical pain is apt -
makes me feel better about shortcomings, the
gods enjoy keeping me humble and quiet

[...] Read more

poem by Margaret Alice Second
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I’m Dead (Revised)

I’m dead, don’t know how or when I died
although I do know why – endless lists of
French political news items broadcast in
stereo-audio booming with journalists’
machine-gun-fire voices have destroyed
my ability to prioritize

the senseless violence in African and
European countries facing like financial
crises coalesce into a grim grey stream – I
realize I cannot read these journals sanely,
much less memorise for language class,
my empty mind inanely vacillates

I do not care – with no substitute aims and
no alternative my mental gyroscope becomes
unsteady, even if I could seek help I’d still
lack the terms to describe my dilemma,
I cannot formulate the problem – unless
the explanation is I’m dead already

poem by Margaret Alice Second
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Invisible Inner Power

Chronic pain is unstoppable, the doctor said,
I remember a time I was pain-free, a time of
joyous being, I wrote line upon line of new
delight in the belief great effort would make
the world different; then the challenges set
before me kept growing without respite

I learnt that the way of the believer is steep,
life took its toll and my body gave up - time
to turn my eyes to the invisible inner power
diffusing physical life, fighting chronic pain
for so long means only meditation is left
and I should stay in the eye of the storm

The book I wrote is the life I have led, challenges
faced and overcome and the things I discarded
after trying them out in my mind and finding that
harmony and beauty led somewhere else…

19 June 2012

poem by Margaret Alice Second
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Return To Sanctity

When allergy symptoms become unbearable I
always end up sitting cross-legged on my bed
reading the Bible - Proverbs and Ecclesiastes
the Sermon on the Mount and Ephesians, if
feeling adventurous a quick detour to one
Corinthians thirteen

Why love is more important than faith and hope
though I believe wisdom is required to apply love
correctly – without it, love becomes impractical
even faith and hope only acquire value if led by
wisdom as blind faith and false hope are sign-
posts leading nowhere

After reading everything prescribed and required
and all that appeals to me; I return to the sanctity
in the words of the scribes to rest my mind, taking
my thoughts on a religious journey to calm
my soul and release my feelings...

poem by Margaret Alice Second
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Too Suggestible (Revised)

Time to escape ‘A Thousand Ways to Die’
fast becoming one of those nasty to all
and sundry jerks who died as a result
of their own malicious vindictiveness

Thinking ‘there she goes, law-breaker
posing normality, fraudster underneath,
happy with unethical tricks until she fell,
fracturing her skull into a million pieces’

– and –

‘Here she comes, woman who thought
living in her mind was good enough, just
fooling herself, no life in reality at all’ –
I shudder because of these thoughts

Cannot retrieve my happy inner world;
time to stop watching unloving people
hurting one-another and thus meeting

[...] Read more

poem by Margaret Alice Second
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An Eternal Étudiante

Ah, tiara on my head, approved by my colleagues
I opened an SMS to be informed our class has been
cancelled for this afternoon, now doing sentences
we would have done in class but there is no joy, one
needs an enthusiastic trainer to suffer repetition of
grammar rules in meaningless sentences

The only fun I have is to change my name and address
in an application to become an actress - comédienne -
yet I could never could be one, when strangers look at
me I sprout horns and turn into a hunchback - I might
get a role as the Hunchback of Notre Dame but this is
hardly something on which I wish to base my fame

So I shall remain a traductrice, an eternal étudiante

"traductrice" = translator
"étudiante" = student

poem by Margaret Alice Second
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Refuse The Bait (Revised)

Sitting where Victor Frankl was before me
where Richard Wurmbrand has also been
many long years, knowing the kind of pain
they suffered staying calm and civilised in
the face of great provocation, I'm glad and
sad at the same time

Faced by institutionalised crime, watching
arrogance reaching its prime - condoned
and approved by weak managers who don't
take responsibility for their decisions, not
held accountable for anything; makes me
sweat blood and tears, the ultimate test

of my moral fibre; follow Frankl's example,
choose to be well-mannered in the face of
vile actions perpetrated on those I respect
and honour, spiritual growth indeed, might
break my heart - or make me stronger if
I refuse to take the bait or lose my calm…

poem by Margaret Alice Second
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