Okay, okay. I took the plunge. Why does that make me feel so uneasy ? *shrug*
Because I am in the company of greatness!!!!!

Solitude 7/89

And in the sadness;
In the silence;
was accompanied
by drops of rain
knocking at the window.
And she sat;
absorbing
the meaning
of it all;
still not acknowledging
but just
feeling; and the weight
on her chest was lifted
as silently
the tears coursed
down her face;
Tracking their
well known
path to a
well known
destiny of
unimportance; and
the release
of her pain
was deafening.

Wow, Gali, that's a lot of feeling packed into a few words. I'm glad you took the plunge and shared that .

BTW, what happens when you try to do an embarassed face? If you type :o in your message it should come out -- doesn't it?

I'm glad you took the plunge too, Gali....

Much emotion there....

Love,
Rainbow~

------------------

Glittering GALADRIEL,

That is solid GOLD.

Robert Chancellor

Galadariel you warm wonderful sensitive being ... what a POEM !!! ... that's just the way it is with me ...
And you ne'er took the plunge lady, you just sent cupid-arrows flying high on the wings of Poesy ... An Archer taking the plunge ?!!! With their eyes arched upwards ... the sky's the limit ! Thank you ... Mucho Gracias ... Merci Beaucoup ...
for rejuvenating this wonderful thread ...
love ... druid

PS : Shagun, pixie dearest, your Piscean thread is waving its flag magnificently ...

Dear Gali

BRAVA !!! !!!

Much LOVE
essence

Gali..How beautiful...I felt a tugging at my heart strings ...

Crystal.

Thanks you guys. I think I felt strange opening the latest poets' thread, cos I don't think of myself as a poet !! But I appreciate all the love and support you guys show. You all are so GOOD at this stuff and I'm just a newbie !! So I thank you.
~Gal

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*********!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**** *********************...(Etc, teehee)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**********!!!!!!******

Libra Sonnet I

When God created day as well as night,

He did not praise one more, but called each good.

He saw with equity, just as we should,

For each reflects the justness of His sight.

All men and women also have two sides,

A multitude of traits yet to be weighed

Before the final tally can be made

And judgment passed on where our heart resides.

And even though our judgment often fails,

Some angels walk among us as our tools

To set aright the bias of us fools

By weighing us with love in golden scales.

With Libran beauty, peace and harmony,

You set aright the biased fool in me.

by Robert Chancellor

To the endlessly talented rc,
beautiful.

Sweet druid sent me here, and I am pleased I made the trip. You have an awesome gift. As I read your beautiful piece, the tears just came to my eyes. You are an inspiration.

Would you mind terribly if I printed 'Libra Sonnet I' out on my computer? I promise I will take good care of your lovely wee child. (after all, us Librans have to stick together!)

I love your work!

Much love,

Laura

Sir Robert,
I just adore your poem...I would dearly like to include it in our first news letter for the academy...which will be published in the fall...Perhaps I should have communicated this by e mail...but we are among friends..so I am sure its okay...

An Abundance of Blessings

Crystal.

Wow! Such kind words from everyone! Thank you all so much.

Lasting Laura Mc,

You may certainly print it out on your computer. That's a great honor you do me.

Concordant Crystal,

Of course it's ok! Please feel free to use it in the newsletter and share it with anyone you wish. I'm as purple as the plates in the Linda shop right now, but that's ok because it's a "good" purple (both the plates AND my face, I mean.)

Robert Chancellor

Dear Most REGAL RC

Belated Compliments to your LIBRA SONNET I -
It is so RICH, BEAUTIFUL & TRUE, like You, Kind Sir !!! !!!

Much LOVE
essence

Sir Robert.........yes, Libra Sonnet is.........I sometimes feel at a loss for words......and don't want to overuse the same ones over and over..... and parrot those that have already been used to describe it....so I'll just say...it is....

SUPERKALAFRAGALISTICEXPEALIDOCIOUS! ! !

Peace and Love,
Rainbow~

This is not my poem.....but a poem by a Native American...who has not resolved the bitterness in his heart....but these are his feelings...and they are legitimate and valid......his expression....

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>

RED REBEL

by E. Donald Two Rivers

I am the Red Rebel
and this is my song...

My humanity was choked
by school book lies
devoured by historians
with their breath of rotted flesh
their false words
they call
the light of knowledge

someone hates the likes of me

I am the shaman's grafitti message
on the subway walls
banished
from the human race
I am the skeletons
burried in Dixon Mounds-
uncovered to become
a raciest tourist
attraction
that whirled in anger
until
returned to rest
in final peace

I am the anguished
cry of Indian mothers
sterilized
in government clinics
on
western
reservations...

someone hates the likes of me

I am the spirit of Geronimo
Crazy Horse, and Louis Riel
I am the ghost
of Raymond Yellow Thunder
that cannot
and will not rest...
beaten to death in a V.F.W. hall
full of cowboys
with no balls
dead and eaten by cannibals
of South Dakato's injustice
I am the story with no end...
the cause...
with no effect...

someone hates the likes of me

I am the song of the winds - singing in a voice
eloquent with rage
I am sharp-edged words
that twirl
like a windstorm
in a dance of resistance

Mine is a thirst for freedom
never quenched...
my dream is the dark
and elusive silhoutte
called dignity

I am the Red Rebal
proud of a past
that you can't hide,
forget, silence, or steal

I am the human spirit
that will not die...

someone hates the likes of me

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< <<<<<<<<

Peace and Love,
Rainbow~

------------------

*******************************************

KNOWFLAKES

Like snowflakes
there are knowflakes
who have fluttered
each uniquely
to the earth
to shine so brightly
sometimes daily
sometimes weekly
to a haven
in the cyberworld
where each knowflake
will find
many knowflakes
from ALL over
but all will be
of like mind
(for the most part)

Peace and Love,
Rainbow~

Radiant RAINBOW,

The creativity blossoming now in that spectrum of colors that is you, is AWESOME!
It really MUST take a little rain to make all things bright and beautiful grow!

rc

Dear Rainbow,
That was a beautiful poem
Lots of Love
Seamistress

Thank you Rainbow, for those two poems. The Knowflake poem was touching because I think we all feel that way, this is such a nice place to come and feel welcome, a haven away from this crazy world "we borrow from our children"!!! I just love to read your words, miss lady !!
Blessings,
~Gal

Dear SWEET Rainbow

!!! !!!

Much LOVE
essence

With embarrassment, I must confess, I pulled a boo boo....

On Budding Poets II, I posted a poem by my mother called TRAIL OF TEARS....and when I proudly showed it to her the other day, thinking she would be happy to see her poem here.....she said, "But you've started it, in the middle." And indeed I had....and how, I don't know...I suspect that I accidently deleted the first part some how...

since I did her that disservice.....I would like to post it again....in it's entirety...

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

TRAIL OF TEARS

Ths soft sound of the rustling wind,
In the dead of night
Broke the rythm of their steps
And on until the night
With heads held high
and feathers bright
Across their shoulders hung,
The long long march of many moons,
For them had just begun

Across the streams and mountains high,
Through the glades and dell,
Over meadows wild and wide,
Now only time would tell,
Cold north winds blew frigid air,
Bringing with it snow,
Not many of them would survive,
As onward they must go

Cold and hunger took its toll,
Of the helpless and the weak,
The children small, the old and sick,
Marched on with frozen feet,
They heard the weakened babies cry,
From dusk until the dawn
As the women huddled close to them,
To keep their babies warm

Still the march went on and on,
Many dropped to earth,
Never more to rise again,
In their land of birth,
Time would heal, some would survive,
To come back from defeat,
We still have our honor,
This we'll always keep
A nation born of courage strong,
Is etched in memory,
You'll never break our spirit
Or take our dignity....

by Dorothy Medacco-Pete

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Mom will be 81 in september....

For those who may not be familiar with the Indian Removal Act...Native Americans in the east had to leave their homes forcefully and sent west to reservations....and the trail of tears, brought them much misery....some left in handcuffs...many died...it was a sad time in history...

Peace and LOve,
Rainbow~

Thanks for posting this again, Rainbow ... so beautifully written and so sad. Please give your Mom our love and compliments.

It's a mystery what happened to the first half of this poem on the other thread -- I'm almost positive I've read the whole thing before ... maybe it accidentally got edited out somewhere along the way. No matter, it's here now.

!!! !!!

MUCH LOVE
essence

Dearest Rainbow,
What a beautiful poem...so sad...do thank your mother for sharing it with us...What a talented Lady! You must be very proud of her.

An Abundance of Blessings

Crystal.

Has anyone seen Sir Robert?

At your beck and call, M'lady!

So sorry to have been absent. Perhaps I can make up for it with a poem?

Robert Chancellor

A brilliant offer!

Lady Crystal and Noble Knowflakes,

Your Sir Robert humbly sends,
These, his works, to make amends,
Thus he strives to grant your plea,
And here arrives with poetry. . .

Translation of Sully Prudhomme's "Prière"

Prayer

Ah! if you knew how one can weep
Alone and hearthless, then, alas,
Sometimes by this abode I keep
Perhaps you'd pass.

If you knew just how one can raise
A sad soul by a sole pure glance,
Upon my window you might gaze
As if by chance.

If you knew what balm's brought to play
By one heart in a like heart's sight,
You'd sit beside my door the way
A sister might.

If you but knew that I love you,
And most of all if you descried
How much, perhaps without ado,
You'd come inside.

Translated by Robert Chancellor

The Two Roses

There is a mountain, somber, silent,
Stretching slope to painful peak,
Bearing both the calm and violent,
Burgeoning with growth, but bleak.

On this mountain, in the aspen,
In the fir and evergreen,
Is a garden, not a garden,
Hidden in a starlit sheen.

In the garden, not a garden
Infinite earth uncultivated,
Rocks that soften, earth to harden,
Two beings longed and waited.

Two beings not yet even born,
Seeds that laboured in their soil
Till their dungeon's dirt was torn
As they themselves were from their toil.

In the hallow, in the hollow,
Grew the two into young vine,
Unaware the path to follow
Would lead their stems to intertwine.

Emerald stems to cling together,
Tenderly the air to climb,
Up from clover, grass and heather,
Up from clay and moss and lime.

Upward was the path they chose,
Putting lesser flowers to scorn.
Each became a perfect rose,
Perfect petal, leaf and thorn.

Living there, Loving there,
Making love through starry night,
Never knowing lone despair,
Holding each other close and tight.

Then to the garden, not a garden
Came a serpent to their base,
Came a serpent to despise them,
To destroy their sweet embrace.

The roses do not fear the snake,
A trifling worm for them to scorn,
But they know well the mortal ache
Would be from one another's thorn.

For their love or their affliction,
They merit well pathos and sorrow.
He sheds blood tears for his addiction
To his mate's petals of snow.

by Robert Chancellor

More than beautiful, as usual Sir Robert. What a wonderful way with words you have, and such a poignant sense of the glad-sad in life.

A Knight in shining armor you may be ... but bard, methinks, is your true calling.

And is today truly your natal morn? Then

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
dear gallant wordsmith friend, and many more to come!!!

Gallant GREGORY,

Yes. And THANK YOU!!!

Robert Chancellor

RobertO, You are truly a Word Wizard mon ami

Peace & Love

Olinda

SIR ROBERT,

On this your Special Day,
My heart summons me to say,..Dear Knight in Shining armour and extraordinary Charmer with a LOVE of Life, Literature and Prose.. WE LOVE your story of the Rose ...Do you suppose...Do you KNOW........We LOVE you so!

Have a GREAT BIRTHDAY Charming Knight

Crystal.

Wow, that sure was poetic!

*Aries* Kate

Dear Most REGAL RC

Your WONDERful Words DO SHINE, Kind Sir, as do You ALWAYS!!!

MUCH LOVE
essence

p.s. - Please tell me that the Birthday Boy did have a Majestic Day

Sir Robert......as ususal....beautiful.....

Peace and Love,
Rainbow~

------------------

Love's Gone A-Haunting

How carefully I built the coffin for my love,
With four sturdy sides and a hardwood lid above.
I lined it not in silk, but with myrrh's bitter herb,
And buried deep the vessel that none should disturb.
I buried it alive, if living it were called,
To have breathed in the dungeon where it had been walled.

But my cunning love's not as buried as it seems,
For it seeps through the joints and trickles out the seams,
And as it escapes into the surrounding earth,
Seeks the one responsible for my passion's dearth.
So seal up your chamber, close your door in its spite--
Don't be surprised when love comes haunting you one night.

by Robert Chancellor

What have we hEAR ???

Why only some More, PRECIOUS, PEARLS of our Most REGAL RC's pOetry, as Sublime as EVER

!!! !!!

Much LOVE
essence

Endearing ESSENCE, and ALL KNOWFLAKES,

With such loving support, I could practically write another "War and Peace" length novel! Deepest appreciation for all your encouragement and sustained kindness.

In heartfelt recognition,

rc

Beautiful Verses RobertO,

Very haunting indeed!
Every single one a Masterpiece

It comes a hauntin me every night you see?

Blessed Peace

Olinda

Nearest and Dearest of KNOWFLAKES, stand tall!
Will you hear the lion whisper this call?

AMICI MAGNI (Great Friends)

Sometimes when all my universe is dark,
Not like the night, nor as a candle's end,
Yet blacker still, and stabbing chill and stark,
As if an ice age newly would descend,

In panic, to some haven I'd embark;
From my soul's manic quarry I would rend,
A striking flint, a single saving spark,
On which my battered bastion could depend;

A buoying hope, an uplifting remark,
At such grave times strife's greatest crimes could mend.
Then none too soon, I often comprehend,

That when I've sought such boon, life's bite and bark,
An only lonely destiny portends,
Had I not hit the mark of you, my friends.

by Robert Chancellor

Thank you Robert. Your poem is a double blessing, not only for its beautiful language and haunting imagery but also that it's offered in love to your loyal friends here.

It still blows my mind that you write so fluidly using the classical forms with such familiar confidence, not letting the flawless precision of meter and rhyme distract one whit from the flow and portent of your verse -- NO ONE is writing like this these days, and it is truly a brilliant and most wlecome gift!

Now tell us if you will, our most esteemed RC: we know you are a student, but you haven't told us what it is you study or your academic aim. So what is it, dear knowflake friend? What do you want to be when you grow up??

Grinning GREGORY, and Nascent KNOWFLAKES,

I would like to be a human being when I grow up! (but I hear that market is rather glutted right now.) (hee hee hee!)

Actually, my undergraduate degree is in Liberal Arts. Right now I am in the Masters Degree program at ASU's Department of Foreign Languages, with a concentration on translation. What will I do with that degree? I would like to go on to get a PhD.
Just think, then I would be DR. Chancellor!
I might even work my way up to the position of Dean, and then I would be CHANCELLOR Chancellor. Both titles suit my warped sense of humor.

Seriously, I would like to earn a PhD. I wouldn't mind being a professor at a University. Before I can be concerned about that, I have 3 more classes to take for my M.A., then I have to take the comprehensive finals, and then I have to write a thesis. Would you believe that my favorite professor, Aquarian Dr. William Hendrickson, had to practically twist my arm off to get me to take even 1 translation course?! But as usual, his direction proved to be brilliant.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should be when I grow up? I'm open to any ideas. (Well, ALMOST any!)

Perpetual Passionate Peace,

Robert Chancellor

Sir Robert................buy your own island, where the gentle breezes sway the palm trees, and the hypnotic sea, is turqouise, and orchids bloom all around, and there is fruit and coconuts, aplenty, and clear spring water tinkles from a fountain......... and then invite all the knowflakes to come and live there...........and you Sir Robert, can be our King....We will make you a crown of silver and gold....left there by pirates years and years ago....and then you will find a beautiful island girl with flowing dark hair down her back, and wearing a constant natural tan...who has intelligence and spirituality galore, and she can become your queen....for her Venus will be in Leo, and and your Mars will be conjunct her Venus and Sun...and oh I could go on and on.....but *sigh*.....wasn't it a wonderful thought??????

Love and Peace,
Rainbow~

PS....oops....forgot to say that the island girl will ALSO be wearing a sorong....
------------------

Rainbow, girl, you are amazing !!! I've got a great mental picture of us, the subjects and knowflakes, bowing at King Robert's feet whilst the island lady in the sarong waves a big huge fan to cool him !!!! *teehee*
Another one sits at his feet taking dictation for his translations, which support his island kingdom.
~Gal

Gali...............yup

Love and peace,
Rainbow~

------------------

Said the Hyacinth to the Orange!

It has been IMAGED and ORDAINED

(And when you grow up? just be yourself RobertO)

White Witch of the Arabian desert has waved her Magi(c)WAND dear Wizard of the Arizona desert

Gee whilickers, KNOWFLAKES,

Haven't you heard that kingships don't pay well nowadays? There's always the risk of all those revolting peasants, one can lose one's head so easily, and they're even making royalty PAY TAXES!!! Oh, the horror of it all!

rc

A Prayer for Knowflakes to Recite

PRELUDE

Each day brings us morbid news
Of battles we are bound to lose--
Pollution, poverty and death,
Fire and famine in one breath,

Wars and crime, disease and hate,
Problems that will not abate,
Scandals, tyranny and fraud,
Misquoting prophets and their God.

These sorrows on my shoulders rest
And I'm not equal to the test.
I meet impossibility
And know of life's futility.

"For what can one soul do?" I cried,
"to turn back the night or stop the tide?"
Then in the depths of my despair,
I offered up this solemn prayer:

PRAYER

Lord, I cannot change the world
Into a heaven pinked and pearled.
I cannot feed each starving man,
Nor bring the dead to life again.

I cannot clothe the multitude,
Nor have my words not misconstrued;
But one thing is within my range,
To make within the world a change.

I can speak a loving word,
And if it's small or goes unheard
Or has its very meaning broken,
it matters not -- the word was spoken!

I can love a single soul,
And if that does not make it whole
Or cause all woes to disappear,
I changed one second of a year.

I can do a loving deed,
And if the world pays no heed
Or even worse, the deed they shun,
it matters not -- the deed was done!

So never let me make excuse
To try to dodge the world's abuse
By saying I am all alone
And have no power on my own.

I have the power to change me,
And though that's not all destiny,
I bless the gift of free will's curse,
For I can change the universe!

by Robert Chancellor

RC, you're so good it's disgusting!

Snicker, snicker, hee hee hee!

rc

Yes......as Grego said.....disgustingly good......HOW do you do it? Just a king's birthright, I guess...

So the King idea, and the island, didn't move you, huh? I didn't realize that kings were losing their heads these days....dethroned, maybe...but heads?...(shades of Louis and Antoinette!)..... In Henry VIII's day, it was queen's heads that were rolling....maybe you're right.....it's far too dangerous....

We'll have to think of something else....

Love and Peace,
Rainbow~

------------------

Dear Most REGAL RC

I can SEE it now - DR. CHANCELLOR, eternal, beloved Resident of the Land of OOBER ...

MUCH LOVE
essence

Eloquent Elegant ESSENCE,

Why thank you! I'll take that "much love" you sent and invest it in as many kind fruitful hearts as I can find. Then you can draw the interest! (and it just keeps on compounding!)

rc

P.S. I'll also sprinkle a generous portion on other hearts, 'cuz, well, you never know what might grow!

Refreshing Renewing RAINBOW,

Let's call the island "Earth," and have all the Knowflakes be kings and queens, and YOU'VE GOT A DEAL! Hurray for RAINBOW'S dreamed realm, where every ELF can be proudly be him or her s-Elf!

rc

Sir Robert Chancellor,

You are disgustingly amazing!!!

What a beautiful MIND and HEART

A TRUE pOet

Olinda

Noblest Nicest KNOWFLAKES,

Do any of you recall ever having seen or heard of a fabric called Dotted Swiss? Perhaps I should have said, do any of you recall having smelled the scent of Dotted Swiss?

Dotted Swiss

That faint but faultless scent of bliss,
Of childhood and dotted swiss,
Which means much more than dye or weft
Or fabric and the past long left.

It still comes back in lengths to me;
Nostalgic bolts of ecstasy,
In memories of cloth and weave
That waft on by, then take their leave,
And leaving, linger but a breath,
A yard by by yard of pleasure's breadth.

Unroll and measure one more length,
Then test and try its ply and strength,
And cut what ever span you will,
Its simple fragrance moves me still.

by Robert Chancellor

YES!!!! It's been discussed on Oprah's boards about White Oleander, this is called Liquid Poetry. This is you, Sir Robert. I can smell the fabric in your prose. So Truly gifted.
~Gal

Gifted GALADRIEL,

I have looked and looked on Oprah's boards,
but I can't seem to find that to which you are referring. Could you help me find it, please? Thanks!

rc

Sir Robert,
They were debating whether or not White Oleander was Liquid Poetry. I have posted a couple of times there but find those boards *SO* difficult to navigate, unlike this lovely place!!! But anyhoo check under Oprah's book club, there is a great debate on whether White Oleander was wonderful or truly awful. That was where I found the liquid poetry reference that so reminded me of your prose.
Blessings,
~Gal

Glorious GALADRIEL,

THANK YOU!

I found the references of which you spoke on the Oprah message boards, and they were exactly where you said they would be!!!

Thank you most of all for the high compliment you paid me.

Powerful Peace,

Robert Chancellor

All you wonderful knowflakes ...

I've been away for quite sometime ... but that didn't stop you guys from winging the words ... and such beautiful "woven fabrics" of words ...
Rainbow, Robert, Galadriel ... simply beautiful ...

So I send one more to you ... with all my Love ...

MEMORIES OF YOU

Faces -
Peaceful-contoured faces
Faint resembling traces
Memories of you ...

Laughter -
Spontaneous flowing laughter
Echoing ever after
Memories of you ...

Cuddles -
Warm and toasty cuddles
While walking over puddles
Memories of you ...

Voices -
Breath-taking lilting voices
Carefree-instant choices
Memories of you ...

Kisses -
Ambrosia-dipped-in kisses
Coaxing heartbeat misses
Memories of you ...

Caresses -
Pillow-soft caresses
Adam-EveTrespasses
Memories of you ...

Squeezes -
Sudden soulful squeezes
Tangy-quoted teases
Memories of you ...

Wishes -
Strawberry-coated wishes
Mango-flavoured dishes
Memories of you ...

Dinners -
Candlelight-tinted diners
Romantic-robed beginners
Memories of you ...

Beaches -
Sandy, rocky beaches
Starry-filled speeches
Memories of you ...

Pictures -
Funny, loving pictures
Sweet and salty mixtures
Memories of you ...

Tears -
Stinging-wringing tears
Defrosting million fears
Memories of you ...

Oh how my heart cries
To hear you again ...
Oh how my soul tries
To reach you within
Oh how my Love sighs
When you will return ...

Memories of you ... till then !

Love to all

druid........thru happy tears, all I can say is I am really MOVED beyond words......that is simply beautiful.....

WELCOME BACK, dear one....

Love and Peace,
Rainbow~

------------------

Welcome Back druid
Oh it's so good to have you back I love that poem, it's so sweet.

druid shines

everytime

she makes life rhyme

Lots of Love
Seamistress

Noblest Knowflakes,

Will you forgive in advance, this long and wandering stream of thought?

Yes, yes Seamistress and Rainbow!!
Brava dear Druid, and may I say, another BEAUTIFUL example of Liquid Poetry!!! Those words were simply TASTY in my MIND!!!!

~Gal

Oops! GALADRIEL graced us before I could get in and begin! I shall try again. . .

MEDITATION ON BEAUTY

What is Beauty? All approach with awe
The vital, vaunted, vague and vast abstraction.
It is not Truth, for Truth demands the flaw
In each cadaver's motley putrefaction
Be acknowledged Man's most mastered law,
His firstborn bastard of iniquity,
The tyrant brat among his progeny,

Whose raging reign, insane above our bones
Finds for Beauty and all else the cure
And paves the lane between the stolid stones
Of graves, and walls the crypts where we immure
The awful witnesses to what Truth owns.
Truth, it seems, has small affinity
For Beauty, which abhors obscenity.

No, Beauty would deny the corpse and worm
And refute corruption with decision!
Could Beauty be the faith that we affirm
When facing this enigma with derision?
A Universal or merely a term?
A concept only, or reality
Autonomous in its integrity?

Is Beauty in the finding or the quest?
Do both or either end in recognition?
Is it a camouflage mirage at best
That leads a thirsting few into perdition?
Perhaps to question this is but sedition,
Immoral in its brazen heresy,
The conquered's homage to despondency.

If one were sure that Beauty held salvation
From all the squalid chaos of this plane,
Approaching it would hold no trepidation
For those who've felt the pelt of blows whose pain
Comes from Beauty's dim interpretation
In every tongue and nationality,
Supreme in its impartiality.

I wonder what, if aught, we bring to Beauty. . .
Can it be said it asks us anything
Other than the reverential duty
Of every sotted earthbound underling
To render our defeated senses' booty
And avow its peerless purity
While ceding all our Arts as surety?

Once ceded will they have a resurrection,
Or stay with Death when forced to realize
The virgin mind thinks Beauty means perfection,
The jaded one has ceased to idealize?
There is no compromise or intersection
For these who see with such intensity
In minutia or immensity.

But as some strive to order form and space,
To fashion shape and modulate mad sound
With growing need for Beauty's voice and face,
May we have grace to know that when it's found
So often that it's then a commonplace,
A something's lost in such ubiquity
To our base race's warped proclivity.

Yet we still hunger for its full fruition,
Such is the legacy of heaven lost,
And sensuality bears the punition
To long for Beauty but bewail its cost.
If not our senses but our intuition
Were our more treasured sensibility,
Perhaps we'd sense what hints Divinity

Has sent and still is sending from above,
On how to mend the broken ugly form,
As time expires and Man dies dreaming of
Making metamorphosis the norm:
Beauty's boundaries start and end with Love.
This sets our distance or proximity
To Beauty's yet unguessed infinity.

by Robert Chancellor

(Golly! Asleep yet? Hello? Hello? Call 911! I think I bored them all into a coma!)

rc

Not comatose, Robert, just pondering deeply. This one's a bit more challenging than some of your other poems, but delightful nonetheless. One of the things I really like about your writing is your sense of movement and direction ... here 90% of the poem paints us into the tight corner of a dilemma that is only lifted with the last three lines. And oh, what a rewarding three lines!

Dear druid Dearest

Thank you for your very moving words. They took my breath away !!! SO Beautiful, like you and ALL yOu DO ...

pOet PAL O'MINE, you REALly SHINE !!!

Dear Most REGAL RC

You, kind sir, take us to such DEEP places, sometimes, always where the truth rings loud and CLEAR

MUCH LOVE
essence

Thank God! TWO SURVIVED! Hey, you two, Gregory and Essence! Help me perform CPR on the rest! Hurry!

rc

Hiya Robert ... ooohhhh ... this takes some pondering ... and though the meaning be deep, layered and layered, your rhythm and flow keeps our mind rolling ... thank you Robert for BEAUTY and TRUTH ...
"A thing of BEAUTY is a joy forever"
likewise your words can never pass "into nothingness"
love ... druid

Essence ... dearest ...

Dear, Dear Galadriel ... thank you ... now will this warm, affectionate, lively Sag, zing more pOeMs into the new forum for Budding Poets ...

and

my dearest Essence ... and out with your winged words, girl ...

love to you ... druid

Reviving the evergreen words of Poetry ... here's a light one for all you magical folk - when LOVE walked through your door, unaware ... ...

Huh ?

Did I just think what I thought
Should I or should I not
Just think this tiny thought

Oh what the heck -

I'll think it any way
Just a second in a day
No harm done

Son-of-a-gun !

Before you know it
The second becomes a minute
And the minute an hour

this thought is gaining power

Not aware, I'm not aware
Of the oncoming sign "beware -

What you think shall come to pass"
For me with Mercury square Mars
Let's just say that's a double

(Oh ! if I can only stay out of trouble !)

Think thoughts sublime
That won't confuse my mind

Yet this thought holds so much more
Perhaps a revelation lies beyond the door
this is making me think, making me think

Look ... I haven't be able to sleep a wink !

This teeny-tiny thought for just a second
Now's got me into more than I had reckoned

I should have taken a spiritualist's advice
Think thoughts where you won't have to pay a price

But, hell no, now its too late
This thought is determining my fate

If only I had the patience to wait -

But I can't ... not when the thought is you
Its racing through me - what can I do ?

A three-lettered thought that has me soaring high
High, high, see ? - just reach out and I touch the sky !
Is this elation ? well then I'm there

Hey, euphoria ... is not such a scare !

At least I'm optimistic
and yes, quite acoustic
(I know its just a rhyme
Got to, got to, pass the time)

Should have known better than to entertain this thought
Ugh, I'm restless - and the weather's not hot

If there's any such thing like Thought-Fever then its what I've got !

Perchance you'd think I'd give this thought away
"You've got to be kidding!", I'd say

Have you ever thought a thought like I'm thinking
For if you have you wouldn't be asking
This thought has a hex on me - its true

But then, who cares when the thought is you !

Love always
druid

Rev up the winged words ... knowflakes

Imagination walks a line
Between infernal and divine
Analysis of truth, my love --
Above abysmal chasms of
The logic of the scientist,
The Truth is in the poet's mist.

And anyway, the final proof
Of any pudding is aloof
From the demonstrable precision
Of its culinary vision:
If it's tasty, that's enough
To guarantee a tummy-stuff!

Dearest Knowflakes : ... calling all poets ... we need the poetry ... the winged words ... that will send a magic call to all ... come here ... and light the fires of the soul ...

Greg, that is indeed is a lovely pOeM ... what practical magic you did weave with your poetry .. I so love poems ...

Do you know that a rhyme
can stop time
bring a light to your eyes
yeah Greg, the poet's mist is wise !

Have you ever had someone write a poem to you
When you are down and feeling blue
Those winged words release your being
Transcends and purifies everything

Holds you spellbound past time ...

Oh, but you will know this only when you rhyme

So come knowflakes, do share with me
the practical magic of poetry ...

Love you ... druid

There are days when to go back and read what you thought you missed is indeed a good thing for the words and blessings in the poetry of those talented and gift souls you be have given to me
the RAINBOW'S Promise
of color and joy and wishes after tears
to I have just gotten to these words today
Gali I hope you do not mind but I wish to print your first poem and gift it to my family this past summer we have known a sadness and the words to help to heal
the date that the poem was posted is of special meaning to me I need my (alone) time
what Libra doesn't but it was posted on the day my Grandmother was buried and so speaks of the double sadness I knew since it had been nearly a month since my mom was buried
and I ask you permission to print this and
share it with my family at those who would understand and find that their eyes mist up as mine do now but it is a good tear the rain before the RAINBOW'S PROMISE
thank you for your words

and to you Robert since you have given permission to share your poem I hope it will be alright that I also print it I want to frame and hang it on my wall so that when my scales get tipped as life will do I have a reminder to help me re-balance them

Rainbow your mothers poetry is a treasure better than the pot of gold

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