Jean Renwick

Your smile lights up my world
like the sun lights up our earthly one
and my heart sings out in joy.
For I have found you, or you me.
...

The love of time and the grief of time,
the harmony of life and life in change.
Dead eyes have loved and changed.
In the grief of time I hide:
...

Make love in a rainforest,
Make love in the snow;
Through a storm in a graveyard
That’s how it would go.
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I love travelling o’er hills and dipping into valleys,
Moving across mountains and sweeping plains.
I love resting in the shadows and reflections of sunlight in hidden caves.
But nothing can compare to the brimming lake of liquid sweetness
...

Behind the glitter, the laughter, the make-up
Something lies bitter and bizarre
A cast of characters outside God’s creation.
Under the bright, wry smile of a low-slung moon
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Woman of Troy −
You cause what’s called the Sin of the World
Have mercy on me.
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You’ve been working in the garden again.
I love the sweat-sweet smell of you.
I want to hold you,
bury my face on your breast and
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I hear a wind rushing through my mind.
I feel a river flowing in my veins.
I want to be open; to be opened −
Pull me out,
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I am tormented in this flame –
Light that lures and pierces,
Warmth that teases and burns.
...

The first light before dawn
Reminds me of your eyes darkened by desire
And cloudy with passion.
Around me is the soft trembling of a new morning
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I stand by the river looking at darkness.
There is the moon and there are stars
though I don't know which constellations are what.
The moon reflects bright and gently rippled
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Tentative,
Like a blind person seeking permission
To feel you.
Not to feel your skin, for I already know its softness.
...

When we were young, I used to laugh as you kicked
fallen leaves into the air
and slashed with an imaginary sword.
All that aggression giving rise to nought.
...

Sunrise like fire,
bleeding pink, orange, yellow
into the sky and
onto the buildings below.
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I dreamed of solitude.
Now those dreams lie broken and bruised.
You have crawled into my veins
And made a nest in my heart.
...

The sand dunes of tomorrow –
Though they shift constantly with the wind –
Are no more forgiving than your diamond eyes.
...

You spend time with strangers,
Giving your body to lovers
And you think that you’re free.
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What is this grief that lingers
after the time of mourning is past?
What is this joy that fades
before it is truly realised?
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Summer when the sun and flowers and celebrations be.
Summer whose joys and rites are dead to me.

Autumn drying and bare with approaching fears.
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Curious as a new leaf in its first dew,
here at last to drink the sight of you.
I wonder if I compare, under the same scrutiny.
...