Emptiness

From distant past Man has asked "What does it mean?" "What's the goal unseen?" This sad refrain, Of empty pain, Reveals to all A life that's small. As if into an upturned hand Is piled some hard and gritty sand Concealing from the owner's sight A diamond's shimmering radient light. The seeker scans the distant sky, With hope to see some priestly lie, Distracted from present. Look! Within yourself, not musty book.

Intimate Embrace

When I walk into an unlit room I know you're there by your perfume. It comes to greet me waft by waft Diffusing without need of draft. As though in form of tenuous ghost Intangible amorphous host Your presence fills the darkened space, Surrounding all in your embrace. So when I dive into your cloud I am within you, deep inside. Your essence spreads from wall to wall Like woven web its wisps enthrall. Your sweet seductive voice, though fair, Is simply ripples in the air, Compressions driven through the gas Without which no sound would pass. The image of your lovely form By speeding quanta it is borne. It's only what you don't absorb That reaches to my optic orb. But odours are more intimate Free molecules that emigrate. Your substance, loose, my flesh surrounds My very breath with you abounds. In public places we conjoin Each nose in touch with scented loin. No monogamous restraint For each enjoys the others taint. From the room you have departed Fragrance still has been imparted. This privy truth you must allow I still abide within you now.

Ego

An empty field, an open place
Uncluttered, lacking hedged embrace.
An open space, wide, wild and free
Warm sun, wide sky, wind spread – pure glee.
 Then thought arose, original sin,
Who knows from where it came creeping in,
‘If this were mine alone, for evermore,
And I would here abide behind closed door’.
 No sooner had the grasping thought gained form
Than I became assailed by fears, new-born.
‘What if I should lose this chosen site?’
Acid anguish did my whole heart smite.
 What can be done to save my Eden,
How can this paradise be hidden?
Protecting wants consumes my time,
Naught remains of bliss sublime.
 The high, hard granite castle curtain
Ensures my life – and death – are certain;
Titanic efforts raise each ward
None may plunder what I guard.
 Yet when I look, what I grasped has gone.
What sign do I find of freedom?
None.

Green

How can a word, alone and stark,
On such a mission dare embark?
'Green' to one who knows but dark:
What will they know of lawn or park?

What wordsmith could pretend to you
Within their verse was just one hue,
But rather in the mind that knew
Already shades of green and blue.

The thusness of a colour's flush,
Unique to every tree and bush,
It chromatic newness, lush,
Say to ashen verbiage, 'Hush!'

To reduce all such to 'green'
Thin, undernourished - sadly lean.
The very lexicon's too mean,
Squeezes nature - crushed, obscene.

From full sun to thundercloud
With spectral range thus broad endowed
Speaks to the soul but not aloud
Unfettered by mere words, uncowed.

Within a shroud of bark interred
Was Merlin's magic doomed, ensnared.
So verdancy in cage of word
Is sentenced to a fate absurd.

The logos does the soul demean.
Oh, weep for those who see but 'green'.