(a Mayberrie poem)
.
Once a week
she braves the village,
trades her woven scarves
for bread and cheese,
and candle sticks.
She offers just a veiled smile
and searches every face;
she dare not speak
of things she shouldn’t know.
.
At dusk she climbs the deer path
to her cottage on the hill
and there she lights
one candle stick.
As wisps of smoke
slide up the wall
like lovers twined
she gazes at the flame and sees
the battle-weary men at rest,
tending to their fire.
And in the shadowed edge there stands
a single silhouette.
.
He turns her way
as though he feels her near
and as he does
she reaches through
the waxen light
and hangs her heart
around his neck.
Then throwing kisses
to the night
she banks the fire
in his eyes
and blows the candle out.
.
© 2012, 2017 Betty Hayes Albright
Seasonings 
Hi Betty
what a beautiful mysterious poem! 🙂
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Thanks, Ina 🙂
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Oh, Betty!!! I did the GASP thing again–and my hand to chest, too. These are just too good to quit, seriously–I LOVE them!!! Thank you so much! love, Caddo SOS
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Caddo, thanks for your reaction (as long as gasping is a GOOD thing, lol!) I won’t be quitting them, it seems – until they stop coming. This might be an endless series….
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Oh, YAY–I feel so much better knowing that, Betty!! You have to know how good the series is, when people are begging and crying for you not to stop! Maybe I can help–get you a 2nd clipboard!! Hope you’re have a great, albeit wet, day–love, Caddo SOS
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Reblogged this on Greatpoetrymhf’s Weblog.
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So beautiful, passionate, and tender! Thanks for sharing!
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Thank you for your nice comment, Wendell!
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Now this is truly gorgeous and mysterious, timeless, yet in the past, of course.
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Thanks for continuing to follow these, David. I always appreciate your comments!
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This is magical. I get the image of Cold Mountain in my mind….
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Thank you, Grandfathersky, for seeing the magic. 🙂
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An exquisite atmosphere of sadness and longing. As this series expands, I am more and more realising that it ranks alongside in scale with Thomes’ Dragon Epic. Are these newly emerging sections, or pre-existing pieces of work?
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Ben, that’s quite a compliment, comparing it to Thomas’ epic. Thank you! Though I think Thomas has a lot more control over where his story is going – and he is so much better than I with detail and form. Mine are always like pieces of old memories resurfacing, and I never know what’s coming next. Plus they aren’t coming in any particular order. But as promised, I’ll put them into a more readable sequence soon – working on that!
And yes, most all of these recent poems are new. This one was rough drafted Tuesday, “finished” yesterday – but even this morning I was still tweaking it a bit. 🙂 Thank you again!
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They mystery continues, Betty. Romantic, with more unstated than stated, the stories of longing and reaching out, this time through a candle flame, mayberrie is a place of exquisite beauty and much sadness.
There are so many images that are beautiful in all of these poems:
She watches wisps of smoke
slide up the wall
like lovers twined,
but always the mystery. Why are the two main characters in the poem apart? Why can she not speak of things that she should not know? Why should she not know them? The silhouette is with a group of
…of weary men
gathered ‘round a fire
Where are they? He reaches out toward her as she reaches toward him. She
hangs her heart
around his neck
But then
banks the fire in his eyes
and blows the candle out.
as if she felt the connection made was dangerous, or improper, or…
Part of what makes these poems work is the mystery in them, the imagination that sparks the reader’s imagination, creating storylines that the reader has to make into stories in their own mind. The questions engendered create the foundation for the collaboration between reader and poet. This is a unique, fascinating work that goes on and on. I hope to see it in book form someday.
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Thomas, again I thank you so much for your thoughtful and encouraging feedback! Hopefully when I arrange these poems into their chronological order, they’ll make more sense.
Each poem comes randomly, so they need to be integrated into parts 1, 2 and 3 (the core of the story) – or into the prologue or epilogue. The only “problem” is that the poems continue to come into my heart and head, so the story might never be complete.
Thank you once again – I hope you’re having a good week! 🙂
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P.S. Thomas – I tweaked this poem a little since you read it. The men around the fire are “battle weary”. That was how it was originally written yesterday, but then I had changed it. Middle of the night I woke up and realized it needed to be changed back! (My poems are never finished!) “He” is a soldier, a leader of men, and is far away geographically. And for various reasons their relationship must be secret.
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Just keep writing, Betty. My bet is that at some point the whole sequence will pop into your head, and then you’ll be able to put it all together. I actually agree with Ben Naga. This is a major work of imagination and deserves to be acknowledged as such.
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Oh..this is just lovely…a wonderful sense of love from afar.
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Thank you Charlie – glad you thought so!
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This is gorgeous Betty. Very haunting and swirling with mystery 🙂
Love
Christine xx
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Thanks for continuing to read these, Christine! 🙂
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Big huge happy smile at the truth and beauty. Gorgeous.:)
-Jennifer
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Thank you so much, Jennifer! 🙂
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That is so mystical Betty lovely!!
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Willow, thank you!! 🙂
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I have NEVER, ever read any better lines describing how lovers send their heart messages back and forth:
“She reaches through the waxen light
and hangs her heart
around his neck
then throwing kisses to the night
she banks the fire in his eyes
and blows the candle out.”
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Granbee, thank you – that’s a wonderful compliment!
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Oh, Betty, this is romantic, dreamy, mysterious and a bit melancholy of a distant love; just simply beautiful!
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Lauren, thank you so much! 🙂
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I’d enjoyed your poems before but, until Thomas Davis drew my attention to this, I hadn’t realised that there was a Mayberrie series (I don’t think I came in until well after the beginning). I’m reading them in context now and they are a formidable work of imagination.
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John, thank you – I’m honored to have you read them! (As mentioned to Thomas and Ben Naga, I’m working to get them into chronological order. Hopefully soon. They weren’t written in any particular order.)
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Elusive and yet so real.
Absolutely love this line:
‘She reaches through the waxen light
and hangs her heart
around his neck’
That just gave me goosebumps!
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Diane, thank you! 🙂
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