Posted in Deep Water, Maeberie series, tagged ashes, Deep Water, fire, goddess, Love, Maeberie series, memory, passion, poem, Poetry, Prometheus, time on September 27, 2017| 28 Comments »
.
After the fire plays,
after he’s gone
she leaves her heart
in ashes
nestled on the bed
and slips outside
to bury time
in earth
where it belongs.
.
And sometimes
there’s a spark
when her trowel
hits a rock
and she smiles
at the thought
of that blazing
stand of man
and how she became
a goddess
when he touched her
with his flame.
.
.
(c) 1996, 2017 Betty Hayes Albright
.
(re-post from 2012, revised)
Posted in Deep Water, Maeberie series, Poetry 2010 - present, tagged candle, fire, hope, Love, Mayberrie', passion, poem, Poetry, smoke, visions on May 15, 2017| 14 Comments »
(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
battle-weary men at rest
tending to their fire;
and there!
in the shadowed edge
a single silhouette.
He turns her way
as though he feels her near.
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
.
(A re-post, revised)
Posted in Deep Water, Poetry 1990's, tagged Deep Water, eros, eternity, fire, heat, Love, memory, passion, poem, Poetry on May 7, 2017| 5 Comments »
.
She holds a sphere
of white hot light
in hands stretched high
to reach the night.
“Oh Eros”, she prays secretly,
“come take this round
of your creation,
guard its flame
forever more
and I’ll dance gratefully
in the embers,
one man’s fire
seared into my palm.
.
(c) 1995, 2017 Betty Hayes Albright
.
(a re-post)
Posted in Deep Water, Poetry 2010 - present, tagged candleholder, creation, Deep Water, fire, heat, lathe, light, Love, memory, passion, poem, Poetry on April 26, 2016| 12 Comments »
.
.
She feels the golden stand
between her palms,
follows every curve
with fingers
searching for the essence
of a splintered block of tree
as he spun and shaped it
on his lathe,
then polished gently
with his sacred oil.
.
Now she lights the candle
and watches
as the blush of flame
smooths up the walls
inside her heart
and out into the night.
She muses on a memory
and wonders
if he’ll ever know
how his soul-fire
lit her world
and turned the sky
a warmer shade of light.
.
© 2013, 2016 Betty Hayes Albright
(a re-post)
.
Candle holder in photo created by the DutchMan.
Posted in Poetry 1970's, tagged endurance, epitaph, fire, Love, old age, passion, poem, Poetry on February 20, 2015| 6 Comments »
(from 1979)
.
When our skin
grows thin
and our eyes
have finally dimmed
we’ll blow on that
charred piece of coal
(the one that never cooled)
until it catches fire again.
We’ll crawl inside
and melt cold bones
into an alabaster stone
and there we’ll carve
our epitaph:
Never Say Die.
.
(c) 1979, 2015 Betty Hayes Albright
.
(re-posted from 2011)
Posted in Deep Water, Poetry 1990's, tagged Deep Water, endurance, fire, frozen, ice, Love, passion, poem, Poetry, snow, sublimation on December 27, 2014| 9 Comments »
(a re-post from 2012)
.
And after the blaze, what?
Would they,
like snow on fire
end in vapor
against the starry night?
She stands below his mountaintop
frozen to her ache
and lights a match.
.
(c) 1995, 2014 Betty Hayes Albright
.
Posted in Poetry 2010 - present, Poetry for children, tagged children's poem, Earth, fire, lightning, poem, Poetry, rain, storm, thunder, wind on September 23, 2013| 7 Comments »
(Just a silly little verse, written during one of our recent thunder storms.)
.
Said Lightning to the thunder,
I am in charge of you!
You haven’t any color
but I’m electric blue.
.
Said Thunder to the lightning,
I’m the one they hear.
You’re just a random fork of light
but I inspire fear.
.
Said Lightning to the thunder,
I turn night time into day,
I’ll crack my whip and sheet the sky
while you just roll away.
.
Said Thunder to the lightning,
‘t is I that moves the air.
You’re just a ziggy-zaggy flash
but I give earth a scare.
.
Said Lightning to the thunder,
watch me – I’ll make a flame
by striking every target,
but thunder has no aim.
.
Then from the ground rose Fire
writhing towards the sky,
I am master here now,
both of you can say goodbye.
.
But just in time came Rain, who cried:
this land is all my own.
I’m putting out your careless fire
now go – leave Earth alone.
.
And still they argued back and forth
till Wind came out to play.
He laughed and roared with wild delight
and blew the storm away.
.
© 2013, 2016 Betty Hayes Albright
Posted in Deep Water, Poetry 1990's, tagged authenticity, candle, fire, Love, passion, poem, Poetry, shaman on September 5, 2013| 10 Comments »
(A re-post from 2 years ago)
.
She goes not lightly
to that place,
Image via Wikipedia
not without a candle
does she climb
to where he waits
in ancient cave.
He wears no mask,
just polished sight
as he tools words
on skins of truth
then tender-lights
her candle
in his fire.
.
(c) 1995, 2013 Betty Hayes Albright
Posted in Deep Water, Poetry 2010 - present, tagged candle holder, Essence, fire, flame, heat, lathe, Love, memory, passion, poem, Poetry on February 28, 2013| 15 Comments »
.
She feels the golden stand
between her palms,
follows every curve
with fingers
searching for the essence
of a splintered block of tree
as he spun and shaped it
on his lathe,
then polished gently
with his sacred oil.
.
Now she lights the candle
and watches
as the blush of flame
smooths up the walls
inside her heart
and out into the night.
She muses on a memory
and wonders
if he’ll ever know
how his soul-fire
lit her world
and turned the sky
a warmer shade of light.
.
© 2013, 2016 Betty Hayes Albright
.
Candle holder in photo created by the DutchMan.
Posted in Poetry 2010 - present, tagged clean slate, fire, inner light, now, Poetry, reality, spirituality on January 7, 2012| 46 Comments »
Each moment
is a clean slate.
We write on it
with ink that burns us,
weep on it
with tears that boil,
toss it on a hickory stove
and melt its glow
like muddied snow.
But every second
rights itself
into a guiltless fire.
Each instant
is a longing grace
that scalds us clean
with each new conflagration
and lo!
we learn to temper self
and kindle our own flame.
.
© 2012 Betty Hayes Albright
Click on image for more info.
Seasonings 