Various Poems

[Malaikat Maut]

Feel free to ignore, critique, or enjoy these as you wish. Publicly or silently - I wouldn't be posting them if I were afraid of criticism. Some of these were written for (or by) my character in MD, others were written for or about my wife, and still more are fictional works that don't apply to either. I'm always looking to grow as a writer, and one of the finest ways is to seek the opinions of readers. So, any and all comments will be considered as beneficial.

[quote]I’ll never forget how we found this place;
tall ships, soft kiss,
and we sailed away
in a state of grace.
Now when the stars reflect,
in your emerald eyes,
I know it’s ours to protect
from a world full of lies.
And as we stand at the precipice
of our new existance
the Earth sets
behind
the horizon of innocence,
and we're alone,
apart from resistance,
to hold in our hearts the wonder
that this is home.[/quote]

[quote]“Pick up the pace”, I hear you say the ten-thousandth time,
so I sprint a minute until we’re side-by-side.
You check our time and speak of here and now,
and, though your voice is like a dream to me,
I’m intent on watching as these
yellow lines blur with white clouds;
turning tight rounds as they spiral out
from where the sky meets the ground.
And, as you tell me everything you need,
I wonder what we'll see when we reach the end.
Will the earth bend and continue on again
or abruptly stop?
“Don’t look back”, I think as I catch my breath,
and up ahead I can’t help but watch
as your hair sways at its shoulder length
in unison with the golden rays
of the sun as it rises on the horizon.
I run till I’ve caught up again
and maintain my thoughts:
perhaps, if we move fast enough,
impetus will stay with us
and we’ll keep a straight line.
And we’ll blur with white clouds
as we go hurtling out
and leave this place behind.
Then I hear, “pick up the pace have you heard me talking”,
and I reply, “I’m hurt and tired but don't stop walking”.[/quote]

[quote]in the silence of night
it was early June
as we said goodbye
i touched your face
so pristine
in the pale moonlight
and your grace
made me feel
that you’re too perfect to be mine
i’m sorry
i don’t remember what we said
just your silhouette
against a bed of stars
and life will never be as pretty
as it was just then
just before the world turned red
in the taillight of your car
but even if
the emerald in your eyes
no longer shines
i’ll see you as you were
not as you are
you’ll always be that moonlit girl to me
as if the clock had stopped at four[/quote]

[quote]
I once was lost in lonesome woods with scarcely any care,
and without any awareness of my true state of affairs,
though now I wonder how it was that fate had found me there in the first place.
With fetid trees and frozen lakes reflecting boughs so barren,
in retrospect it seems such a dreadful location
that I can’t imagine why I tarried.
As if I were waiting, not really in anticipation,
more like for the turn of a millennium,
which is something that comes upon us though it’s nothing that we race toward.
Then, as I remember, it was mid December
when I first paid attention to what I imagine had always been there.
A chime, the simple ring of bells,
had wafted round my barren dell on a breeze.
So pleasing was its melody, and also so sublime,
that I fell into dreams about its meaning.
It became my goal, my sole aspiration,
to find its source of origin and make it mine.
However, as I walked and witnessed
that those woods had underwent a subtle change,
I too was touched and altered
by the timbre which those ringing chimes maintained, and so I dallied.
Oh, for sunny Saturdays in June,
those bells fell round like fife and lute,
and on the fifth, once placid pools became like falling waters.
No longer holding images of barren woods but keeping them at bay,
harboring my hopes and rushing all I find appalling far away.
How such a nuance made so much difference I may never know,
but I’m grateful it was made. [/quote]

[quote]
Angel, let me touch your hair,
and brush it from your eyes.
Angel, let me linger there
in moon and starlit skies.

Angel, let me see your face
such beauty does beguile.
Angel, let me free the grace
held captive in your smile.

Angel, let me know your fear,
and I will whisper mine.
Angel, let us never care
for moments left behind.

Angel, let me take your hand,
and never shall we part.
Angel, let us never stand
but journey with our hearts.

Angel, let me comfort you,
and you may do the same.
Angel, let us never rue
the course that we maintain.
[/quote]

[quote]The way you linger,
like a vapor, on my skin
it makes me sick.
And, as I breath you in,
the sin of it abhors me
and leaves my
moral sensibilities
undone.
Am I the only one
of us
still feeling all alone
because
I don’t think I can take more solitude.
I can’t fake this squalid love for you -
who’d let your veins
for moments in the sun.
And even as it set
once and for all,
while playwrights screamed
for curtain call,
I’m certain
that you’d fail to glean
the meaning from it all.

Still I need to feel
that burning in my lungs -
it keeps me young.
I know I'll miss this
once it's gone.
I've learned to suffer
from
your culture of
pretentiousness.
Though trite,
the lesson always was that
ignorance is bliss.[/quote]

[quote]
it's a good thing we Americans
have singsongy voices
'cause you talk a lot
and if not for inflection
it'd be more of an annoyance
than it is
don't get me wrong see
my hope was
we could enjoy the same music
but since we don't
could you perhaps
please
let me dance for a moment?[/quote]

[quote]
I recall when first we met
eyes wept in silent sadness
wrapped so delicate in tears
like sheer blankets flowing over mirrors
showing me only my own soul
and yet
they hold a fire no tear can hope to smother
as embers of the purest coal
caressed in flame's ethereal glow
they rest until the blowing wind
of memory are roused within
and then
they're left not discarded but restrained
in consciousness contained in wisdom
known to those of greater age.
Some believe I've seen the secrets of the heart
but in yours I read a tale I've never known
my own.[/quote]

[quote]
There is beauty in mortality.
A casual urgency
in the knowledge that all of this will one day pass away,
and that we exist in brevity.

It's such a simple irony.
Our only certainty
is an unknown end, which grants us both a reckless need
and peace in our fragility.

Our course is through obscurity.
Such grand facility
of the illusion of purpose that all of those among us
seek to leave a legacy.

However...

There is nothing in eternity.
A final vanity
in the foresight that nothing fades, that all is free of change,
and remains in grand stability.

It's such a dreadful tragedy.
To see with clarity
that our every action, and that each decision, merely delivers us
closer to inevitablity.

The cursed move through infinity.
Such flawed divinity
removes all purpose, and shatters all illusion,
leaving only true calamity.[/quote]