No Dark Side

Eros never sleeps

in pitchy rooms.

He wakens

in a roll of laughter,

pulls us to a clearing

in the forest

where he strokes our cheeks

and gives us up

to dance.

When life inhales

Eros grins:

there is no dark side.

.

(c) 1996, 2012 Betty Hayes Albright 

Read Full Post »

Rites of Summer

Seaweed breezes

lose themselves

in her long hair.

She dances over sharp rocks

to the beach,

twirls and spins

in pirouettes,

her long skirt swirling circles

in the sand.

 .

© 1995, 2012 Betty Hayes Albright 

Read Full Post »

Turning Out

(Re-post from last August – for lack of anything new. )

.

.

Children

are free flow

like liquid Jello,

sparkling

splashing

filling any form.

Why must we chill them,

make them set?

.

(c) 1982, 2012  Betty Hayes Albright

Original pencil drawing (c) 1965

Read Full Post »

First Love

1957, trip to California

.

.

When I was ten,

all the rides

at Disneyland

could not compare

with that first sight,

that maiden rush

across the sand –

that first kiss

of the sea.

.

©  2012  Betty Hayes Albright 

Read Full Post »

On Top

(from 1976)

.

I can’t be held down,

I’m the ball bouncing back,

the unsinkable raft,

the bowl that won’t crack.

I can never be slain,

my core’s made of steel,

wherever I’m punctured

I readily heal.

Trample on me

and I’ll spring back to life -

I am the blade

in an ever-sharp knife,

the magical candle

that can’t stop burning,

the inner child

who never stops learning.

Knock on my window’s

unbreakable glass,

mow me down, I’ll grow back

like invincible grass.

Light as a bubble

I can’t be detained –

I’ll conquer the treetops

and ever remain.

.

©  1976, 2012  Betty Hayes Albright

Read Full Post »

Living Color

.         (from 1966 – age 19)

.

At first I lived in black and white,

the nights were dark, the days were light

and in between there was a grey

that hardly changed from day to day.

 .

Laughter sprang from shallow seas,

leafing elms 3-8-2012

my tears were trivialities.

I walked on by and couldn’t bear

the colors burning everywhere.

 .

But then one spring the blue-bells tolled

of leaves in green and suns in gold,

of hearts that pulsate ripe and red,

love burst in rainbows ‘bout my head!

.

(c) 1966,   2012  Betty Hayes Albright

.

(It’s not quite spring yet, but it’s coming! )

Read Full Post »

Hello Sky (a children’s poem)

.       (from 1970)

.

Someday I’m going to climb a tree

to reach its very highest limb

and there I’ll sit and listen to

the merry music of the wind.

Spying on the world below

from my secret hiding place

I’ll chuckle softly to myself

each time a bird flies past my face.

I’ll hug a branch and sing out loud:

way up here my eyes can fly!

Then climbing down most carefully

I’ll whisper, see you later, sky.

.

(c)  1970,  2012  Betty Hayes Albright

Read Full Post »

Melt

Like silent statues

Image via Wikipedia

in the wind

we’re trees

in freezing rain.

Our branches wrap

in rigid ice,

we comb our thoughts

with icicles

and cease to move

except to break.

But then it comes,

the thrust of sun

to melt our casings

into tears

freeing us to hunger,

and to thirst, and

to pine -

but joyfully.

.

©  2004,  2012  Betty Hayes Albright 

Read Full Post »

Dove

.

I’d fly on white wings,

one of joy

one of sorrow

balanced

on crosswinds

above

and below

to mate

in mid-flight

with a prayer.

.

(c) 1990, 2012  Betty Hayes Albright

Read Full Post »

With Child

          (to both my sons)

 .

It turned out

not to be the flu

but instead, new knowledge

soaked in seasoned hormone.

The days grew round  -

I’d done something right!

And the old lady winked

as feet and elbows

drew taut arcs

pushing at their cage of ribs,

poking out my navel,

aching my back.

And still we toasted

to your soul

with gratitude and joy

as you were born

into the bloodprint of time.

.

(c) 1993  Betty Hayes Albright

Read Full Post »