Christmas Morning

Oh Christmas morning
After the solstice
The light returning!

There are lines of colours

In the sky

Changing everything -

Unfolding silver paper,

Pink cotton to warm my skin.

This day begins

Differently - 

The music matches

The sky.

C. LJ 2020

Christmas Eve

Outside, the cold air
Doesn't seem to move.
Inside, in small spaces,
We sit with long nights.
But a tea light,
Advent candle,
Fairy bulb, or
Reflective bauble,
Paints the dark itself
Into a coloured glow,
Just as a star was tasked with
Making stable straw
Silver, long ago.
See how even the little light
Of a doll's house lantern,
Transforms the play room,
So too we can
Replicate the stars
Against dark walls,
And watch
While we wait.


C. LJ 2020

Circles

The World
Is not round
It has sharp corners
Hard walls
And
Stop signs.
But among
These straight lines
You curve,
Show me what circles
Look like -
Mirror the moon
At night time
And what Nature
Tried to be
Ever -
The soft side.




C. LJ 2020

Lamp posts

It is pitch black outside

You can only see under the projection 

Of spaced street lights

And even they are surrounded by fog.

It would seem eerie,

But tonight 

The glowing mist

Is the electricity 

We are feeling - 

That high hope

Above the cold,

Damp pavement

The lamp posts dim,

But winning.

Copyright LJ 2020

The Flowers

Flowers 

Are scooped up pages,

Petals in cupped hands

With writing we cannot see

But each stem holds

 A story from the Earth.

We give each other these words,

While saying something else.

I

Hope

The Flowers

Don't 

Mind.

Copyright LJ 2020

Beauty

Trying is exhausting.

When I sit

And see beauty

For what it is,

There is energy.

Copyright LJ 2020

In the Midst

In the midst of
Chaos
Or
Peace
We must still
Pause
To
Reach
The beautiful things so
Hard
To
See
Yet always there.




Copyright LJ 2020

Sharing

It is dark around me,
Winter dark.
The surfaces are touched with frost
Like the thin layer of sadness on me.
I try to make the most
Of the clear sky 
And look up -
Above the rooves and the roads
With the man-made lights,
Above the space
Around me
Of things I can't explain,
And see the singular stars 

Of this night.

I don't know what they are saying, 

Or what sign they are showing,
But they too are standing
Out in the cold
And for a moment,
We are sharing.

Copyright LJ 2020.

Energy

I give so much 

Energy
To
Fixing myself
When
Finding myself
Creates
More.

Copyright LJ 2020.

Streams

Our minds are unique oceans

In goldfish bowls,

With colours we cannot always name

And some waves without a way yet,

Bubbling over each other,

Beauty circling without an escape.

Sometimes it takes another, looking in,

To see the sophisticated patterns the 

Swirls make against the glass 

And call out the streams. 

Copyright LJ 2020

Waves

I walk along a beach
And as the tide comes in
So does a friend
That helps me decorate
The sand with seashells,
Or fights with me against
The sea wind.
Then they retreat
As the sea goes out
And I don't know why.
But as I keep walking,
The tide returns

With a new face
In the waves.
I think maybe it's because
There are shapes to be made
On this part of the sand -
I am on a different part of the shore,
That only the water knows
And gathers in for. 

 

Copyright LJ 2020.

Queen Catherine of Aragon

Sicut erat in princípio, et nunc, et semper,
I am anointed by God in heaven
As Queen of England,
Daughter of Isabella
And I will not surrender
Caro autem infirma
I hold on to the truth
As you hold on to my jewels
You touch whatever you please
Yet I will forgive you Henry
For you and God
I bow my head,
But I will never yield.

Copyright LJ 2020

Floating Dinner Plates

I watched a water rat

Eat out of curled up leaves 

At the bank of a stream.

They were drifting

Like paper boats

At the end of a race,

But the little rat

Pulled each one close

And peered inside eagerly to see

What it held.

We look for magic everywhere,

While every day

Nature transforms 

Dried, fallen leaves

Into floating dinner plates,

Herself. 

Copyright LJ 2020

Autumn

 

Autumn arrived.
But instead of a woven blanket of acorns and dandelions
That the world prepared to be tucked into,
The ground gave way to the stirring Sun, covered with spices
And the beings crawled out blinking.
They marked the falling of leaves as floating movement,
Saw the shaking trees of the season as awakening -
Nature was not slowing for silence and snow,
It was being noticed -
It was finally being known.

 

 

 

Copyright LJ 2020.

Amusements

(For Jane)

My carousel love ended.
The music stopped.
And in the rain -
I clung on to the sculptured horse
Suddenly with no course
Of my own.

In the dark, the kissing lights
Of other fairground rides
Just beginning
Suddenly seemed brighter,
Hurting my eyes.
I slid off my seat and walked past them slowly,
With my head down.

By the exit someone was throwing candyfloss
Onto the ground
To be eaten by raindrops -

Sadness in a sweeter form. 

It surprised me - 

Amongst these amusements,

I had not expected 
To find another broken heart 

Like my own. 

On the surface

I am the skyline
I can breathe in white clouds
While my skin brushes seaweed
I am the level of the birds
Facing feathered faces
With our legs underwater
I swim through nature's history
The trees will remember me
As they do all the creatures
Learning how to
Bridge the elements
Under their boughs.

Copyright LJ 2020

Animal Stories

I am reading myths in the meadow
In the last of the September sun,
When the tree's shadow crawls
Across the clearing
And hovers at my feet.
I rise to go, book closed.
But now is the time
Of the swallow -
I stand still
And water rats and robins appear
So I stay to hear
The animal stories of dusk
Told by the earth itself.

Copyright LJ 2020

Grey colours

We feel
The cold
Repetition
Of rain and
Impediment
But the clouds
Are moving
Change is conjured
Above us

Even in grey

Colours


Copyright LJ 2020

The Dusty Scroll

I stand inside the castle wall.
Anxiety sparks over my skin,
This electric armour
Holds me still,
Preparing.


I close my eyes.
I am a knight that quests
Through the mind,
For words that need
Finding.


Paper is stronger than you think.
When I pick up the dusty scroll,
And speak the ink,
I start
Riding.

Copyright LJ 2020

The Rain and The River

The river hurried

Raindrops were joining their brothers

Bubbling over the rocks 

In reunion

Waiting water sprites

Giggled as sisters emerged 

Underwater

Rock pool families quickly gathered their supplies - 

Now the rain had come,

They could run. 

Copyright LJ 2020

Enchanted

I conjure words
From my palms
Into floating figures.
I shape the branches 

Of turning trees
With letter leaves.
I set sighing queens
With veils of words
Down gently.
Ink mist plays
Across my fingertips
It is enchanted.

Lightning Haiku

 

 

Lightning forks the clouds
Tridents catching cotton fish
Sea above the ground

Copyright LJ 2020.

The Pond

In the forest there's a forgotten, forlorn pond,
Where few ducks go,

Ringed with moss covered stones

And collections of twigs.

All the boughs above are bent and bending,

Curved canopies of tiny green and yellow flags 

Signal the surrounding dirt path, 

That I walk on.

The water reflects the branches so that everything is framed,

Leaves adorn at all levels and shades,

Shading me.

Wherever trees meet and bow in the presence of water, there must be magic,

I think.

Copyright LJ 2020.

Black Moons

Your eyes are black moons
Mysterious to some
But I feel safe near these

Satellites that circle 

My human world

With immortal constancy.

C. LJ 2020.

Expanse

I didn't go far

But I looked up at the blue space 

In the sky

And ran through it

To a different place

Than that with walls

Or structure

Moving is learning

And I returned to the outlines

Carrying a little more

Of the 

Expanse.

C. LJ 2020.

Under the Sky

I don't know what colour the sky will be Tomorrow 

Or what places I will go to

I'd laid out my plans in the clouds

It seems,

Surprised when the wind blew them 

Away.

I don't feel whole

But enough of me is here

To sit under the sky,

Look straight ahead

And be less afraid than 

Yesterday.

C. LJ 2020.

The Lady of the Lake (Mary Queen of Scots)

Her pearls are gone -

They drift out of reach in the green water

Black stones gather on the sand

To adorn another queen.

Her hands are empty -

The sword is held at her

As she reaches the surface,

She is to remain on the rocks.

Despondant and bloody,

She looks into the lake

Her reflection ripples away from the island

And touches the mainland in the distance -

Her magic reaches still.

C. LJ 2020.

The Sea (Mary Queen of Scots)

The outline of that crown

Sank beneath the Sun

And into the sea.

Those castles now were

Underwater cities.

So, too water fell

From her face

To join the murky shapes

Of memory.

But with depth

There is foundation -

She summoned herself

To the other side of the sea

Where her own waves

And wild horses

Waited

To be made or broken

By their unknown queen.

Copyright LJ 2020

The White Widow (Mary Queen of Scots)

Black fabric covers the Sun.

Against her wishes,

A blade of light breaks through

The grieving walls

To touch the white pearls

And climb the lace leaves

Until she is outlined in gold.

Her gown glisters among solemnity

As it also sung in ceremony

She surrounds herself with shadows

Yet she is displayed in the dark

A white widow

Lost in all she has lost,

Already found by the crown she is.

Copyright LJ 2020.

A Place

I thought love was a place.

I looked everywhere for it

I tripped over stones

In my haste,

Binding my wounds 

While the sign posts 

Faded,

Forlorn.

I found a place.

But paths always continue

Love doesn't stay - 

It walks with you

Over the stones

And under the posts, 

Moving,

Along.

C. LJ July 2020

Constellations

Maybe the stars are named

But some can find the constellations 

In people - 

The connecting shapes and lights

Of like souls

Drawn together

By an artist's brush.

C. LJ July 2020

Kateryn Parr

How fine, how elegant and fragile

Are the ink lines I make on parchment

My words

Are yet 

Warriors,

Carrying their message over the void.

So too, do I balance my feet along them

With poise

Knowing at any moment my line could

Break.

C. LJ 2020

Anne Boleyn

There was always a ghost 

Following me

I can outwit spectors 

I said, you said

And the shadow seemed to

Fade

Wearing her jewels I walked

Forward, lifting my head

She was no longer behind me

I had become the ghost instead.

C. LJ 2020

Marie Stuart

I see petite porcelain figures

On the chessboard of France

Learning to dance

I take them in my hand

Tiny, refined, lined with gold

Cold crowns

Against my skin

That fades in the torchlight

Of dark, English stones.

C. LJ 2020 

Nature

I walk in 

Nature

Not to explore the 

Outside

But to remember 

Myself.

C. LJ 2020

Bees

My mind is like a hive

Full of bees.

I can't make them sleep,

So I invite them 

With ink

To circle the paper for me.

Then I marvel at the 

Shapes.

C. LJ 2020

Animals Haiku

Buying organic

Doesn't make the knife less sharp

For the animals

C. LJ 2020

Morning

It is early morning

I don't need to see the sky - 

I have two crescent moons

Curled on the carpet -  

As peaceful as the pale light

I watch them in.

Nature is inside with me,

Sleeping on blankets.

C. LJ 2020

The Butterfly and The Bird

When I waited, they did not come 

The butterfly and the bird.

Instead I meditated,

Sitting close by on the earth.

I heard the leaves and rustling

When my eyes were closed, 

And opened them to find beside me

Butterfly and bird, both. 

C. LJ 2020

Beauty Haiku

Beauty is born from

 Locating the things you love

Then embracing them.

C. LJ 2020

See Haiku

You can't see the souls 

In slaughterhouses unless

You look with your heart

C. LJ Ireton 2020

Space Haiku

Movement creates space

I run towards open ground

To stand in stillness 

C. LJ Ireton 2020

Day stars (haiku)

Lights fill the night sky

Day stars sit in their flowers

By constellation

C. LJ Ireton 2020

The Trees

The Trees welcome me

They wave their leaves 

Enthusiastically - 

They are happy today.

I smile back

I feel the same

But pause, ashamed

Not knowing their names.

C. LJ Ireton 2020

Clouds

The clouds slide with intention

A grey outline of a dragon

Moves towards another's

Outstretched pink claw

Tiny black birds flit across their faces -

Either unaware of the monsters in their midst 

Or unafraid.

C. LJ Ireton 2020

Butterfly Dance

Pollen and petals and puffs of cotton cloud

Swept through the sky

Like a wave in the wake of a magic wand

From its curve

Bronze wings swirled

A climbing butterfly cyclone

Dancing

Above the drift

And I thought to myself

If I had not looked up

I would have missed this.

C. LJ Ireton 2020

Under the Sun

My favourite thing to do
When I sit
Under the Sun,
Is close my eyes,
Warm my face and
Remember each place
I have done this before.
Because even across the water,
Or with scenery so changed,
Sitting 
Under the Sun,
Is the one thing
That feels the same. 


C. LJ Ireton 2020

Robins

I like robins the best

They come 

Up close

Are

Unafraid to

Wear their heart on their chest.

Copyright LJ 2020

Beauty

Beauty is the self-assurance

Of a feline by the fireplace 

Knowing she's a masterpiece 

Even in her sleep.

Copyright LJ 2020

Moon

Some storms still stir

But the sleepless moon

Sweeps up fragments of fear

So we feel

Stronger

In the morning.

C. LJ 2020

Venus

I thought, at first

You mocked us - 

Shining like a nursery rhyme 

Over our dirt-covered rooftops. 

But you simply said:

'I'm here too. 

The star system is bigger than you.'

And from behind my glass,

I saw that we are far

But not
Isolated.

C. LJ Ireton 2020