HARLEQUIN STAR

Weary of empty earthly prate,
my Harlequin Star I await

of frisking flash and 

skipping gait,

anon to glide 'pon an

inky spate,

for wretched spirits to elate...

Wherefore, dear Star,

doth thy fire abate,

thy rainbow glow attenuate?

Thine argent flourish

hast thou shed,

a subfusc cape waveth

in its stead, 

this Night; thou affectest a

timorous tread,

as though slowed by some

nameless dread.

Fret not, dear Star, nor take

fright, bewail not

thy faltering flight 'cross

plains of livid, aqueous Light,

for thou seekest that

which thy soul hath seen,

each radiant stound,

the darkness between.

'Pon this wintry tryst, dear Star,

do not quail; thy name 

didst thou etch 'long this 

louring trail. Fate enfoldeth thee, 

thou shallst not fail.

© 2015 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image: EVENING STAR OVER THE SEA
Source: www.the-athenaeum.org
Artist: Evelyn de Morgan 

CLOUD

Cold fire I hold, drops

of blue flame,

as I sail over phantom

mists dotting 

frigid northward slopes. 

Adrift am I in candent

halls; Eyes that

divine the soil's kindling, 

previse the thirst

of ruddy veins and black

roots, hold me aloft.

Along mighty archways,

I tide upon roiled

waves beneath the sky's 

Autumn slumber, 

over Nature's amber 

dreams flecked with

evergreens, over silver

grey chains that

link the heavens to Earth,

Infinity to breath,

starbeams to temple

blazes, divinities to souls.

Their clear, thin melody

intones through

the bleakness, past Eyes

that expand into

distant stars, looking with

peace upon chaos

and calm alike, speaking

in a tongue holier

than words inaudible to

man alone of my sacred

purpose, of the life

my death shall bring forth.

© 2015 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image: STORM IN THE MOUNTAINS (edited)

Source: commons.wikimedia.org

Artist: Albert Bierstadt

OCTOBER SKIES

October muses upon Dawn's aisles,

keeping her solitary path,

transposing the Season's outlines 

onto endless turquoise miles. 

By beaming beryl berms, she pauses, 

as nascent veins of white

fire course past bright billows, 

through brindled ranks, to the black

vanguard of a distant battle front. 

A quickening, a glow, shudders over

spades and curls of flame,

over the darkened riverbed, through

shimmering, water-laden air.

Here, Earth yielded her riches at

harvest, where Autumn, now clad in 

brazen robes, to September 

whispers fond adieus, as yellowing

moss and purple bells await

October's storming of hilly citadels.

Her grey celestial ballistae, she bids

discharge their liquid spears,

smiling through blossoming brume

upon frost-rimmed sedges

and burgeoning becks, upon the

slow march of silver drops

into Earth's womb. Golden sighs 

glide from her lips, tint the sparkle

dust she goes to sift

upon boundless blue miles.

© 2015 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image: AUTUMN RIVER LANDSCAPE

Source: www.liveinternet.ru

Artist: Jasper Francis Cropsey

BLOOD MOON II

The blood moon waxed and waned,
crimson, alive, in the storm-weary sky,
now radiant as a deathly wound, 
erelong paling to dry, empty greyness,
as florid flames fluttered amid 
crumbling rock bleeding wet shadows
and sibilant spouts.

All eyes save yours gazed upon a cold,
red Goddess; red moon, red earth, 
red fire, red-gold leaves, your broken red 
life-thread twisted around the tangled
dark in my throat - a fitting reliquary for
your words unspoken and tears unshed.

Our debts are paid, sister, in part; your blood
no longer stains my dreams; red candles, 
red moon, repel me no more.
The red ground yet singes my skin, 
red reproach rags my tongue.

I yearn to know your peace in white spaces,
infinitesimal, yet infinite, upon a propitious
blood moon, where twilight meets the waters, 
where breezes graze the leaves, 
where music skims the silence.

Upon that sacred Night shall I recommence
Her worship, cleansed of the red that taints
my spirit, our souls' burden a fading memory
of direful bygone blood moons.

© 2015 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image source: lunareclipse2015.com

BLOOD MOON

Your Pearl of Hope and Peace

is this night a blooded

Harvest moon, child. No claret

rose in Night's tresses 

am I, nor the keeper of dragons, 

sigils and eldritch incantations, 

nor a harbinger of cosmic

wrath and damnation.

I do not blush for shame, nor 

bleed my anguish, nor am I with

rage afire; Earth's shadows

I bear this night, my white seas

and plains tainted carmine, 

my ivory face eclipsed, for I align

this moment with the god

and goddess, that man may see

his deepest self.

A crimson glass am I this sacred

hour upon a dark vault,

bound by the Red of Life or Death,

after man's own choice.

The spirit's joy would he perceive

upon my sanguine sphere who

preserves his fellow man;

an ocean of blood confronts one

who spills his kindred's own.

My form wears your 

soul's Harvest.

© 2015 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image source: thenaturalistscorner.com

AUTUMN MOON

Upon Autumn's esplanade, I

steep myself in your

silver anodyne; life and death, 

tranquility and turmoil,

swirl and surge in the sliding 

satin of your sanative song,

a translucent alabaster

entity of light and tone, gentle, 

as the embrace of a divinity.

As a wind from the beyond it

blows through my spirit, 

driving the dust and webs of

illusion from my dark

soul-scape, draining spurious

chill and warmth from 

its vital centre, renewing its

columns and plinths,

its architraves and vaults.

By the hand you lead me home,

past the abodes of 

seeking spirits who worship at

your altar with hymns

and incense, with quill and brush,

by the light of hearts

that hear your own heartsong.

One such would I be, 

great goddess, for then would I

never know loneliness.

© 2015 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image: MOONLIGHT ON THE LAKE, ROUNDHAY PARK, LEEDS

Source: www.the-athenaeum.org

Artist: John Atkinson Grimshaw

DARK WATERS

Dark waters stir in wrath alone;
Life's pinions battle
their cumbrous, treacly vapours,
shedding Her white 
feathers upon hoary, haunted 
banks amid grey marshlands.

Through a miasma of despairing
pasts and present I
ponder the seething reflection of
my lifeless presence,
its black tentacles stabbing
through dank air, piercing
my heart, leeching my blood.

My vampire shadow burrows into
my spirit, drawn to
swathes of swelling rage, feeding,
growing, in the liquid dark,
filling its dead vessel with the
terrible animation of
desperate fury.

My bitterest truths float upon dark
waters, submerse their
congealed mordants within its
voracious, viscous crypt. 

And I shall catch a floating white
feather and quest after
nurturing waters that would mirror
a wholeness that could still be.

© 2015 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image source: ru.freepik.com