#poetry – Breaking the Chains that Bind

Friday Morning Musing

Published by mhelbert on January 10, 2020

A vault impregnable, impervious, impossibly shut and locked
Is the Heart of Humans.
Desires, hopes, dreams, lusts and longings closed within it.
Steel encased in concrete is like Butterfly wings compared with
Its hardened walls of Flesh.

What kind of dark Humors reside therein?
The swirling mist of “Myself.”
Gazing always inward.
Unable to see or imagine a world outside of
Self-imposed confinement, Completely alone.
Companionless.

There is One.
Who has a Key.

Can we allow this One,
With Pure motives
To unlock the Vault?
So that Light may enter unhindered
And, “Myself” might “See”?

There is Hope
That Freedom may penetrate
And the Heart may become…

More.

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Alchemy of Words

Published by mhelbert on January 7, 2020

What strange Majick is this?
What Craft has loosed this power upon the Universe?

Tis not Majick that raises such music as this!
Listen!
The Mind gathers the elements which flow
Freely through the vales that course through
Its fertile folds and hillocks.
Without incantation, wand, or spell,
Sparks ignite within and current races through
The tight weave of thought
Forming,
Sculpting,
Creating.

Behold these words of mine!
Like the Cosmos before them,
Created Ex Nihilo.
Meaning,
Substance,
Language!

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Where The Heart Wanders

Published by mhelbert on January 3, 2020

My heart wanders out into dusk
Not quite night; No longer daylight.
Stars wink behind a light veil of clouds
Reflecting off of the shimmering, blue-gray surface of the water.

“Where are you going?” I asked.
My heart looked back and shrugged.
“Off to the forest where once I found in dappled sunlight
the Love of Life.
Then, across the Savannah in search of Hope Immeasurable.”

“But, what if the Beast of the Forest who hides among the
flowering Rowan should appear?
Or, the ravenous Lion of the Great Grasslands?
Surely, you will be devoured!” said I.

With a gleam in his eye and lilt in his voice, he said,
“My Friend, how can I know the exhilaration of living without
a life fraught with such things?
How can I thank the Heavens for Life and Light if I have not
seen the possibility of Death and Darkness?
Where is Joy when there is no sorrow?”

I nodded and watched as my heart turned toward
his destiny and wondered,
“Shall I ever see him again?”

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Goodbye, Old Friend

Published by mhelbert on January 1, 2020

I was going to post this yesterday.
But, I ran out of time.
Kinda like so much else last year.

Goodbye, Old Friend!
You came to us with a shout of gladness,
Clad in diaper and sash.

Quickly you grew in harmony with the world around us.
From infant to child. The green shoot echoing as it pushed through the frost.

You blossomed into a young adult.
Full of promise; growing in Strength.
You worked among us and shared the fruit of your labor.
We all ate and were satisfied.

All too soon, we saw white, like frost on the grass, appear in your hair.
Like the naked trunks of trees, lines began to crease your brow.

Now, your departure is at hand.
It is with profound thanks that we sing this final goodbye.

As I considered the passing of the year I couldn’t separate it from the cycle of life that we experience here. As the world around us stirs and grows from the cold of winter through spring planting. Sowing and reaping; hope and gladness. Until the circle is joined as we bid farewell to our old friend.

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Bind; Binding; Bound; Loosed

Published by mhelbert on November 5, 2019

Iron links entwined around our hands; our feet,
Like Marley’s Shackles Hobble.
Each loop forged and hammered with strength and skill.
Created for imprisoning; wielded with weapon’s wide arc.

Aren’t we all constrained by fetters of our own making?
Manacles strangle hands and feet to keep us in line,
Trudging step by step, in lock step.
Drum beating time so we don’t fall like so many dominoes.

“No, Children!
Look up!
Let Me Break These Chains That Bind!
Freedom for Freedom’s Sake, May You All Be Loosed!”

Chains Drop! Forged Links Loosed!
Gossamer threads appear and link our hands; our hearts.
Hold each in gentleness and care.
Love released to Wonder and Soar to the Heavens.

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Starre Crost

Published by mhelbert on October 2, 2019

Which Stars in the Heavens are the ones who have Crossed us?
They set the boundaries of our hearts before we could even smile
at one another.

And, what a smile You have!

Your eyes glow from an unseen internal fire that blazes forth
Threatening to consume my heart.

Yet, it is not to be.
The Heavens have spoken,
“No love for You!” they say while rolling around laughing.
“How presumptuous of those mere mortals! They actually thought that their lives matter! Ha! We’ll show them that their loves are worth less than the stardust that created them.”

A Bard once wrote:
But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief
That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she.

Such love must be allowed to transcend th’ eternal dictates of the Heavens!

Mustn’t it?

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Lightning Bugs

Published by mhelbert on September 24, 2019

When I was child I ran around the yard with my friends in the Summertime Evening.

We chased an elusive, yellow glow floating between heaven and earth.

Caught!

Opening my small-boy hand, I peer at the tiny creature walking along the Life Line of my palm.

Pulsating glow.

0ne-Two; On-Off.

Pulse of Life coursing through my veins.

One-Two; On-Off

“You wear your glow on the outside,” says I.

“Your is hidden within,” replies my glowing friend. “Let it out! Shine your Living Glow! Bring Happiness to the One to whom the Inner Beacon calls. Join the chorus of Joy and Praise as we All shine!

Let us, together, illumine the darkness.”

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