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Dark                                                         David Sparenberg

The Invitation                                           David Sparenberg

Us                                           Claudia Anne Krizay

Estrellita                                   Sherri Godsey

Touching Fire                                            Jan Teaford

Tune                                                  Claudia Anne Krizay

Space                                       Claudia Anne Krizay 

Dark    -by David Sparenberg

a poem in the mood of archetypal psychology

Let it enter my heart

as it enters my flesh:

dark night

of vermilion stars.

Blood-stars

of the human soul.

Outside this window,

a river flows:

ten thousand stars

and dreaming faces.

Dark wings

of moon-owls unfold.

Death

will come soon enough.
Now, in warm September,

love, in a black dress, whispers.

Night breathes velvet.

And wherever a god is

the polarities of ambiguities

seduce us to passion.

Soon enough

awareness is consumed through mystery.

Dark: unconscious art of

letting go.

The Invitation             - by David Sparenberg

There is nothing you can bring

to the banquet tonight

the candlelight is exquisite

the bread and wine

utterly fine

the garden perfume

could not be matched in a thousand years

the air is still

the moonlight soft

and bright

there is nothing you can bring

to the banquet tonight,

there is only you.

David Sparenberg

21 Feb. 2009

Us                  - by Claudia Anne Krizay

I once stood alone, then,
I followed your lead.
I slipped through your grasp, and
Fell into oblivion.
It was just you and I together,
Gazing into each others' eyes,
Just you and I …dazzling they were, those eyes,
Piercing and lingering were our glances-
Our smiles, frozen, and
Your countenance, pallid, but
Not lacking expression-
That was the day I tried to
Pick up the pieces of our nightmare, after
Too much hail had come down.
We had both slipped and fallen, and while I rose to my feet,
You lay quietly and motionless.
I walked into the twilight sky, as
The sun was setting, and simultaneously
The full moon was mounting over the horizon…
You stood and walked slowly, following in my footsteps, as
The sky blackened-
The man- in- the- moon laughed and laughed as
You followed my lead, and in that moment
I broke into a run. You tiptoed slowly behind me, until
I looked over my shoulder and saw that
You had disappeared somewhere inside the hovering fog.
I may have picked a bouquet of wilted dandelions for you and
Handed them to you, if I were to hear you calling my name, and in turn,
You would pick for me wild violets and forget- me –knots,
Though I never would have surmised-
I can still hear your tears
Splashing, one by one onto the pond where
We used to meet.
I stand here alone, never again to follow your lead, although
I f I could I would
Give to you every flower I could pick, and together
We would walk into the starlit night,
I can now feel your pain, cry your tears and look up towards the sky, as
The man- in-the- moon would grin wryly and just
Keep on laughing and laughing…

Claudia Anne Krizay

Estrellita -  by Sherri Godsey

I rode, once, a mare colored like rust
through grapevine fields (olive and malachite)
spliced by ribbon-thin roads of thick brown dust,
‘neath a sky hard-blue and white-sun bright...

Horizon to sky, the sharp leaves cast
shadows on grapes, blue and blood-red.
Bronze-skinned workers smiled as we passed—
I smiled, too; the mare tossed her small head.

Estrellita!  Red coat burnished by sun,
taunt as twisted wire; your dark eye
saw monsters everywhere—tense! Leap! Run,
West wind—Oh my heart!--blowing by.

How many miles did we go, West wind? 
Diamond-hard hooves hailstones on earth;
the heat of your body, the sweet-sour blend
of sweat and warm hair under the girth...

I shut my eyes and see once more
‘tween trembling ears the world's bright rim—
blue gleaming on green--where you boldly tore
through cool, high grass ‘til the day grew dim.

Do you still graze the sweet Spanish land? 
Snorting in fear at trash by the trail? 
Rolling, contented, in patches of sand? 
Inspecting the fence that ate mane and tail?

Sometimes a small star burns in the sky,
purveying brightly the coming of night—
With the dream of your rhythm caught in my eye
I wish I could mount you for one final flight.

Down through the sunset that washes the prow
of a distant horizon with opaline spray;
a small ship, through seas of dark grapes we'd plow,
into the vast night and forever away...

Touching Fire            -by  Jan Teaford

Perhaps, in the autumn of my life

I will sit near a window

in the late afternoon sun

drinking tea from fine china

or cheap red wine

depending on my mood

and the weather

Perhaps I will sit

wrapped in an old blanket

watching trees

release their leaves

one by one

much like one deals with loss

in small increments

to soften the blow

Yes, perhaps then I will

reflect on him

tincture of time is a wonderful healer

so they tell me

only time will tell

Perhaps then

emotions will not run high

I will no longer stop in my tracks

at odd hours with thoughts of him..

those eyes looking back at me

as only  a lover can

Perhaps red wine will dull that ache

Perhaps I will no longer miss noisy sex

and will be able to eat raspberries

without the first thought of him

Perhaps on that autumn afternoon

after my third glass of wine

I will forget that I once

touched fire

felt the warmth and the burn

love changes everything

if you let it

Jan Teaford © 2009

Tune                        -Claudia Anne Krizay

In the night, you enter,
Unobtrusively and
Cautiously,
Donning your dancing slippers.
You would tiptoe past my bedside-
I do not listen,
Though only the silence would settle,
As would dry snow would upon my rooftop-
I can barely hear your heartbeat or
Envision your spirit,
Past midnight, as it has always been-
Your garbled but enticing words
Play tricks with my mind as would
Static on a radio, toying with my thoughts-
Gently tapping upon a keyboard,
The music that you play-
Cacophonous as it is,
I could sing to its discordant though harmonious melody,
None but patiently…
Life, amity and solitude have never
Seemed so pleasing, though in actuality I am never alone.
I carry you with me whenever I travel.
That snow keeps falling and falling,
Settling upon my rooftop
That I shall never see only because
I have escaped reality and
In this moment
I can hear the sound of you
Surreptitiously fading into the night.
You are still present in all of my reveries.
I have you padlocked in
Every facet of my imagination as
I am always dreaming and as
I may walk along another path someday,
In my essence I know that
Some light always remains constant.
You shall forever shine upon me
Forming a shadow that shall follow in my footsteps-
In this moment I know I have fallen in love, and
You shall never slip from beneath my stance,
Only because-
You are a part of me.

Claudia Anne Krizay

Space                        -Claudia Anne Krizay

When it rains
I hide behind
A world I cannot
See and this world,
Nobody else could believe in, so I
Just listen to the pounding of my
Fingertips upon an imaginary tin drum…

I take my walk alone and
Never give into the
Rain that falls and falls…
The beating of the raindrops upon the roof as angry
Little tarantella dancers twisting and shouting- like myself,
They live in their own little world…

Can anybody hear the song I play through the pounding of the rain?
As I tap my fingers,
I cannot stop
My mind from spinning
Spiraling out of control- exciting as it may seem..

Black nights,
Dark fear
Bright and blinding rays of light
Cut through the darkness upon this night.

The sky emptied itself last night while those
Tiny dancers that haven’t a care in this world
Listened to the pounding of my fingers upon
That phantasmagorical tin drum
Steadily,
Dark is the fear as the
Blinding light

Starlit and moonlit days-
I see the moon rising.
I see the stars scintillate, I adore.
The sun I have yet to see-
Everybody worships the sun-
Except for myself-
I would rather touch the stars-or even hear the rain…

I suppose I do not believe in anyone
Because-
Nobody
Dances when it rains and
Chants happy tunes
When the sun
Creeps out from behind the fog

I am so in love-
With myself and
I am just content to stand beneath the moon and the stars alone tonight, or
Perhaps even dance and sing in the rain…

No one sees me and I see no one-
I suppose that is why
I never cry anymore, and I just keep
Tapping my own rhythm upon my
Imaginary tin drum…

Claudia Anne Krizay