Mandela - The Immortal Icon
The Peace Warrior Of Mzansi, among heroes - a colossus!
Sun Of The Nation; a rare gift of Providence.
Once, entangled in the web of racist succubus;
Unruffled he declares before High Justice:
'[I]t is an ideal for which I am prepared to die! ' Silence -
Pregnant with dreadful menace in court ensued.
A beast of burden consequent of unshakeable stance.
In the slammer Symbol Of The Struggle he attained;
But Apartheid demon persisted in its Treachery.
'Coalition Of Conscience' inspired outcry for Liberty;
The Fish
I caught a tremendous fish
and held him beside the boat
half out of water, with my hook
fast in a corner of his mouth.
He didn't fight.
He hadn't fought at all.
He hung a grunting weight,
battered and venerable
and homely. Here and there
his brown skin hung in strips
A Birthday
My heart is like a singing bird
Whose nest is in a water'd shoot;
My heart is like an apple-tree
Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit;
My heart is like a rainbow shell
That paddles in a halcyon sea;
My heart is gladder than all these
Because my love is come to me.
Raise me a dais of silk and down;
A Life-Lesson
There! little girl; don't cry!
They have broken your doll, I know;
And your tea-set blue,
And your play-house, too,
Are things of the long ago;
But childish troubles will soon pass by. -
There! little girl; don't cry!
There! little girl; don't cry!
They have broken your slate, I know;
Over The Rainbow
The morning rays of the Sun cling
On the upper bow of the Rainbow
Emerge after a moment ‘s dusk
Brown Pelicans and Western Gulls
Fly beneath the lower bow
That touches the water
Send fishes into hiding
As I walk along the white beach
Looking at the sea, the blue waters
My Heart Leaps Up
My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.
In Time Of Silver Rain
In time of silver rain
The earth puts forth new life again,
Green grasses grow
And flowers lift their heads,
And over all the plain
The wonder spreads
Of Life,
Of Life,
Of life!
Candy Man
Who can take a sunrise, sprinkle it with dew
Cover it in chocolate and a miracle or two
The candy man, the candy man can
The candy man can 'cause he mixes it with love
And makes the world taste good
Who can take a rainbow, wrap it in a sigh
Soak it in the sun and make a strawberry–lemon pie
The candy man?
The candy man, the candy man can
So Alone!
So alone in my bed
Alone listening to nightly whispers
Alone in my thoughts
Alone standing in court
Alone I stand and fight
Alone I pray for rainbow lights
Alone in the morning I awake
Alone I celebrate my joys
Alone I cry out my sadness
Mattins
I cannot ope mine eyes,
But thou art ready there to catch
My morning-soul and sacrifice:
Then we must needs for that day make a match.
My God, what is a heart?
Silver, or gold, or precious stone,
Or star, or rainbow, or a part
Of all these things or all of them in one?
The Bridge
Between now and now,
between I am and you are,
the word bridge.
Entering it
you enter yourself:
the world connects
and closes like a ring.
From one bank to another,
When The Lamp Is Shattered
When the lamp is shattered,
The light in the dust lies dead;
When the cloud is scattered,
The rainbow's glory is shed;
When the lute is broken,
Sweet tones are remembered not;
When the lips have spoken,
Loved accents are soon forgot.
As music and splendor
Impossible To Tell
to Robert Hass and in memory of Elliot Gilbert
Slow dulcimer, gavotte and bow, in autumn,
Bashõ and his friends go out to view the moon;
In summer, gasoline rainbow in the gutter,
The secret courtesy that courses like ichor
Through the old form of the rude, full-scale joke,
Impossible to tell in writing. 'Bashõ'
Rainbow In Motion Haiku
Red, orange, yellow
green, blue, indigo- violet
mystic vision arcs
Red, orange yellow
green blue indigo follow
Hope Is A Tattered Flag
Hope is a tattered flag and a dream of time.
Hope is a heartspun word, the rainbow, the shadblow in white
The evening star inviolable over the coal mines,
The shimmer of northern lights across a bitter winter night,
The blue hills beyond the smoke of the steel works,
The birds who go on singing to their mates in peace, war, peace,
The ten-cent crocus bulb blooming in a used-car salesroom,
The horseshoe over the door, the luckpiece in the pocket,
The kiss and the comforting laugh and resolve—
Claiming The Rainbow
It was childhood enchantment in the form of song
Which first awoke in me, the rainbow-lover
Entranced as ‘Dorothy’ sang of
Her wish to someday fly far over
She not understanding, as I now do,
That rainbows only exist from a limited point of view
(Or perhaps she might have chosen instead to hover)
Now so many sects of people
Seem resolute on claiming the rainbow
The Bangle Sellers
Bangle sellers are we who bear
Our shining loads to the temple fair...
Who will buy these delicate, bright
Rainbow-tinted circles of light?
Lustrous tokens of radiant lives,
For happy daughters and happy wives.
Some are meet for a maiden's wrist,
Silver and blue as the mountain mist,
Some are flushed like the buds that dream
07 A Cloud In The Silver Lining
When you see a silver lining in the sky
just look for the dark cloud
that it encircles, ready to break
into a thunderous shower.
Weeps itself into nothingness!
Cloud that dissolves into thin air
But would flaunt a happy smile
A rainbow of smiles
Epitaph For A Darling Lady
All her hours were yellow sands,
Blown in foolish whorls and tassels;
Slipping warmly through her hands;
Patted into little castles.
Shiny day on shiny day
Tumble in a rainbow clutter,
As she flipped them all away,
Sent them spinning down the gutter.
A Place Of Solitude
Look out across the windswept hills,
With rainbow hues, with misty blues,
Across the valleys, lakes and rills,
Where landscapes fuse, where eyes peruse,
And rest upon that quaint cottage small,
Tall chimney stack, with smoke of black.
A place of solitude from any squall.
That winding track, that calls you back,
To rest from ills,
To sit and muse.