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.)