Natural Beauty

by Steven for Meegan


Sunrises pass by
as glimpses through car windows
Sunsets exchanged for streetlights
Misty morning trails unwalked
A world of trees waves
without a friendly wave back
A universe of stars spins by
without notice
without music
without applause for an encore.
Red columns of ancient sand
stand nameless,
stained by the bloody rust of eons
defying armies of wind and rain –
stone Spartans
against Persian Time.

Here is a great mystery –
why do I see this beauty?
And a lesser mystery –
why do I turn away from it?

When her smile
or the curve of her neck
is all I long to see,
when her touch
is all I long to feel,
why do I go away from her?

Because beautiful nature bites,
chews on flesh
and gnaws on bone
Hear Her cold claws scrape the door?
Feel Her frozen breath around the seal?

Stones must be stacked against the wind
Cover pitched against the rain
Wood must be made to burn
or money

Yet even as the storm approaches,
we marvel at Her beauty
Sublime and terrible
Lightning and thunder
Our awe is our most archaic worship
Her beauty
is our recognition of our ambivalent Mother,
Creator, Destroyer

The marrow of our bones hums
an ancient song of the sun rising and setting
The moon pulls our blood out to sea
Generations rise and fall like
waves in the ocean
In our hearts we know
we are just the same
and nothing more than waves
We are born of the deep blue
turned red by the gasped breath
a whispered verse
in a song She writes
another verse follows
and another
and another
in a song with no beginning or end






(© 2008 SPH. All Rights Reserved.)

This Woman

by Steven for Meegan



By the faintest magic,
you found me
there in the corner by the window
Outside, the cold December wind
whispered around hard corners
to lonely hearts,
go home
Inside, I almost didn’t wait,
but did
a little longer
tied down with the merest tendril of hope

Then suddenly, at last
you were there
this woman
this walking smile
this summer sun
In that moment, I wondered
if I could fly in your blue sky
or if I dreamed too high
and, like Icarus
I would fall away from you
into liquid blue
loneliness

Two years later, now I see
I never dreamed high enough
The deep blue sea, a forgotten friend
fades away below me
and I soar
my wings stretched out into the vastness of everything
in your blue sky smile






(© 2008 SPH. All Rights Reserved.)

Am I Your Water?

Water is a blind and reckless, 
beautiful and restless traveler. 
Am I your water?
If I evaporate into the sky,
if I land far away,
if I trickle through the tall grass
and tumble over stones, 
if I carve valleys out of mountains
to return to you,
will you drink me in?
Will you pour me over your skin?
Will you melt whatever's frozen
and launch me to the sky again?

Trees Have Crazy Arms

Trees have crazy arms -
Some bent, some broken,
patiently resilient,
desperately persistent,
maniacally, haphazardly hopeful.
If I had crazy arms like the trees,
would you be my sun,
so that my fingers can always 
reach for you?

(© 2007 SPH. All Rights Reserved.)

Valentine's Day Poem

What would Valentine's Day be without love-struck goofballs like me writing corny poems for their Valentines? Probably just a day to make chocolatiers, florists, and card-makers rich. Here's my strike against the commercialization of everything sacred!


No, really, it's just my corny little poem from my Valentine, Meegan. I proposed to her last Valentine's Day. So there was no way I could top that.


I love you, baby!



Forever My Valentine

What filled this year -
this arrow stretched between two Valentine's Days?
What treasures to share -
memories only we can know?

Joy
and more joy.
Days that close with smile-aches
and tummies tired from laughter.
Love
and more love.
Kisses so tender the earth quakes
and trembles with the sighs that come after.

Through your ears I whispered
my love to your soul.
Through your eyes you answered
you love to mine.
Promise me, my love
that you are forever my Valentine.






(© 2007 SPH. All Rights Reserved.)

Shipwrecked

I wrote this poem for Meegan during our second honeymoon. We loved Cancun so much that we returned just three months after our honeymoon. We can't wait to go back. I am tempted to blather on about how much more in love with Meegan every day, but that's what the poems are for. So, for my true love, here is a little poem.





Shipwrecked

She blossoms in sunlight
vibrant
her toes curled into the sand
her hair swaying in the ocean breeze.
My hands caress her dunes.
My eyes inhale her landscape -
wet with sweat and shimmering
like a sensual, golden El Dorado.

An artist
with the wind for hands
and waves for fingers
sculpted her curves into a beach
upon which my shipwrecked heart has crashed.

I smile as my burning ship
floats past the horizon.
I toss the torch into the waves
and turn to watch her
blossom in the sunlight.




(© 2007 SPH. All Rights Reserved.)