metamorphosis 

from the mulled rain 

in the quiet of absence 

a turtledove flew into my heart 

bruising its flight within my chest 

cooohr, cooohr rings out in echoes 

against the rib-vaulted narthex 

waxed liquid jewels spilt over the altarcloth 

earthquake and tsunami waking 

to rolling thunder, lava sparks and hisses 

rushing spiced blood streams 

drumming in ears 

whispers chased into chrysalis 

and pupate, turning 

a thousand times, and 

a thousand, thousand more 

flames given wing at rain's suggestion 

a foretaste, smelted on the tongue 

transmuting a common wine 

extraordinary 

- kmf (RedSonja)

Tags: poetry writing RedSonja love spiritual elemental cathedral

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Visceral "Derivatives" 

I can't help but think of 

(react to) 

a four-letter word 

I associate with scatological banking 

and bad behaviour 

and bad loans and risk pools 

and those who stacked the deck 

in their own favour, with no regard 

for the house-of-cards 

that must eventually fail 

once it reached the stratosphere 

when the weight of all the crap 

the flimsy cards themselves 

would succumb to the jet stream 

undercutting somewhere further down 

or farther off in time 

but now, ripened 

into the stinkiest, nasty bitter-fruit 

one bad, bespoke apple 

of spoiling, consecutive harvests 

around the world 

whilst the doers 

absently wiped the reeking sauce 

like dog leavings 

from their ostrich cap-toe Barker Blacks 

slumming in ready-mades 

and the secondary mortgage frauds 

and forgers gave out 

their plump who me? gazes 

crowding the door 

in braided tight, faintly martial, uniforms 

from the musical they all sang along in 

tugging their forelocks 

and swinging wide 

for the insurance and ratings princelings 

neither standard, nor poor 

but well-fed, complacent and cruel 

who sailed through 

willing to overlook 

the damage for some money 

well, a lot of money 

to sell their best marks 

keeping the tottering going a bit longer 

'til they could get out of the way of its falling 

those empty towers, 

skyscrapers in Babylon 

greedily sent skyward 

whilst all the architects and builders 

held their noses 

excepting the ant-workers 

way down on the ground 

and climbing the trusses 

strung out on empty dream calories 

then buried in the inevitable rubble. 

It was fat while it lasted. 

And maybe they'll hit the stroll again 

in another suit 

cribbed from a different deck 

with get-out-of-jail-free cards 

and aces, peas and walnut shells 

stuffed up their sleeves

at the ready

Tags: poetry writing RedSonja GlobalFinance Crash theGreatRecession politics

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Tae A Moose

Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie,
O, what a panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty, 
Wi' bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee,
Wi' murd'ring pattle!

I'm truly sorry man's dominion
Has broken Nature's social union,
An' justifies that ill opinion
Which makes thee startle at me, 
thy poor earth-born companion,
An' fellow-mortal!


I doubt na, whiles, but thou may thieve;
What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!
A daimen icker in a thrave
'S a sma' request:
I'll get a blessin wi the lave,
And never miss't!


Thy wee bit housie, too, in ruin!
It's silly wa's the win's are strewin!
An' naething, now, to big an new ane,
O' foggage green!
An' bleak December's winds ensuin,
Baith snell an keen!


Thou saw the fields laid bare and waste,
An' weary winter comin fast,
An' cozie here beneath the blast,
Thou thought to dwell,
Till crash! the cruel coulter past
Out thro' thy cell.


That wee bit heap o' leaves an' stibble
Has cost thee mony a weary nibble!
Now thou's turned out, for a' thy trouble,
But house or hald,
To thole the winter's sleety dribble,
An' cranreuch cauld!


But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang oft a-gley.
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain
For promised joy.


Still thou art blessed, compared wi' me!
The present only toucheth thee:
But och! I backward cast my e'e
On prospects drear!
An' forward, tho' I canna see,
I guess an' fear!

- Robert Burns

(and if one of my Scots friends would be so kind as to record and post  this as they read aloud, I'd be so grateful)

Tags: poetry classic

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email II

Friday night, whilst sleep-deprived
and perhaps—a bit—tipsy
I went to cook from scratch
and awoke in the wee hours 
Saturday, in my shimmy
under a wide open window
on the floor of my office
cold, and a little stiff
then wandered down to the kitchen
to find I'd conjured a demon:
nuclear, lava lentils
which I et, the next noon
with a piece of crisp toasted pita
going back to sleep 
sans coffee, but with a stuffed chili
-medicated nose and cough
then awakened briefly
to partake again, Sunday
catching a short
but astonishingly violent, movie
that ended in an act
of time-bending, corrective altruism
then sank back into sleep again
while you traced delicate lines
instead of flowers and chocolates
onto my web page, kisses
to break evil incantations cast
on a scruffy princess, immobilised
under an arcane piece of lab glassware—
or a cheese-keeper—
waiting for your touch

 - kmf (RedSonja, aka RunswithScissors)

So, how's your weekend been?

XO

Tags: poetry writing RedSonja RunswithScissors WeekendUpdate Love

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glimmer

you are a ray of cool light  

beamed in between the stars  

a nimbus of kind promise  

slipped 'round the crescent’s scars  

snuggling a blanket cloudy  

up underneath our chins . . .  

one moon  

you are a ray of sunshine  

the heat sneaks in between  

crashing vaults of cumulus  

spots glistening fields of grain  

while shaking off the steaming  

ripens, reaching for our . . .    

one sun  

above our midnight oceans  

skipping, one star to the next  

like pebbles cast on water  

rippling stones to light your quest  

then, stepping onto dawn's earth  

arrive at where I rest . . .  

one step  

one globe, one ocean  

one sun, one gleaming  

one moon, one doomah

one ray, one promise

one sky

glimmers

- kmf (RedSonja) 

Tags: poetry writing RedSonja L-word

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Making Perfect Sense

I see beauty everywhere

in old faces 

grown gentle or embittered

with storied lines

around the mouth

deepset eyes look out

on the bones of the earth

basalt dozing titans

apt to awaken momentarily

to quake leaves from tresses

tangled in turning over

I hear beauty

in flavours composed from memory

reconstructing a place 

where complex music once played

and again, am really there

I smelt beauty

in ionised air

plinking into still water

even in ugly concrete canyons

under exhausted grey skies 

shot with Flemish light

stooping to touch and gather

empty kicked cans

skied 'round the hydrants

when the game was done

surprising construction

psychedelic witches sinking in asphalt

and felt newness breaching

up like whales

in between the sidewalk cracks

primary colours layered

drawing bright preschool chalks

volunteers show promise

in nearly every garden

yellow beggars in the crabgrass

I taste beauty

in purple cassis sorbet

spilled over

on the hissing of summer lawns

- kmf (RedSonja)

Author's Note:  For those who might be interested, this piece was in part inspired by the 2011 film with Ewan McGregor titled "Perfect Sense," in which the question is explored of what would happen if we were all to lose each of our five senses, more or less simultaneously, one sense after another.  There are two other allusions to the work of others, to whom I am endebted:  to Frank Zappa, for an album cover cartoon describing construction cones as "psychedelic witches sinking in asphalt," and to Joni Mitchell, whose album titled "The Hissing of Summer Lawns" gave me the last line.

Of course, as "surprising construction" itself alludes, the bricolage of this synesthetic piece does anything but (make perfect sense).

Tags: poetry writing RedSonja life

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Stewards of Gardening

the soil is turned

under and over

the cycling suns to moons

fed with loving refuse

composted experience

the careful rows weeded

of unnecessary baggage

weathered accomplices

encouraging, well-timed grants of moisture

and the precise moment

of commitment

seals off

endless unrolling futures

prunes the branching

for a path

from the root

to the best fruit

pay attention, now

don't dither

while hypnosis stills

the vine may wither

or unpinched spent blooms will

go to seed

- kmf (RedSonja)

Tags: poetry writing RedSonja life seeds choices opportunities

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arrogance

inside 

introspective reflection 

in attentive mindfulness

steaming bland instant coffee

a censor streaming in sense

ecstatic Red Scorpions entailed

in a monk's cell

what am I gonna do with my life

not so clever now

listening

in readiness to hear

what is required next

tuning in, turning in

to bells, mandolin, silence

in breaking stasis 

with reinforced waves

in surmounting

Fail Harder!

in my clarion call 

intrepid, intemperate

inaction into action

grace

in sight

- kmf (RedSonja)

Tags: poetry writing RedSonja life

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Inertia

dead calm

adrift 

a vast pacific mirror

waiting

salt-poisoned dreams 

fevered

fish flying

a school

cracks the glass

overarching

my too well-made craft

still afloat

enduring

land in sight

white prismatic floating mountains

cool promise

sending shards of light into

all its brave components

were they really there?

sail tattered

cups the imaginary breeze

the oars a memory

ready for a current

to catch 

a motion

- kmf (RedSonja)

and sometimes it even rhymes with words that aren't there

Tags: poetry writing RedSonja PotentialEnergy Inertia Opportunity

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