Quand j'étais jeune et fier et que j'ouvrais mes ailes,
Les ailes de mon âme à tous les vents des mers,
Les voiles emportaient ma pensée avec elles,
Et mes rêves flottaient sur tous les flots amers.

Je voyais dans ce vague où l'horizon se noie
Surgir tout verdoyants de pampre et de jasmin
Des continents de vie et des îles de joie
Où la gloire et l'amour m'appelaient de la main.

J'enviais chaque nef qui blanchissait l'écume,
Heureuse d'aspirer au rivage inconnu,
Et maintenant, assis au bord du cap qui fume,
J'ai traversé ces flots et j'en suis revenu.

Et j'aime encor ces mers autrefois tant aimées,
Non plus comme le champ de mes rêves chéris,
Mais comme un champ de mort où mes ailes semées
De moi-même partout me montrent les débris.

Cet écueil me brisa, ce bord surgit funeste,
Ma fortune sombra dans ce calme trompeur ;
La foudre ici sur moi tomba de l'arc céleste
Et chacun de ces flots roule un peu de mon coeur.

Lawrence Hall
[email protected]  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                               Seven Haiku for the Pleiades

The seventh poem – think of the Subaru badge – is not seen. That thoughtful poem is the one you will write.


1.  Two Goddesses and a God Come to Visit

All in the same sky:
Luna, Venus, Jupiter
While the soft winds sigh


2.  Barefoot in the Stilly Dawn

Barefoot in the grass
Eyes to the east, the stilly dawn
The stars have withdrawn

.
3.  Dachshunds on Their Dawn Patrol

Every dachshund thinks
That she is a timber wolf -
Perhaps it is so


4.  Summer Lingers

Yes, summer lingers
Crickets sing throughout the night
Their October hymns


5.  A Prison Visit

The horizon has no meaning
If the prisoners look up -
Concertina wire


6.  The Prayers of Planets and Stars

The planets and stars
Need not our prayers; they never sinned -
Do they pray for us?

Sheep do not Scratch
The Tup,
Painful Birth,
Brief Spring of Frolic
In Lush Grass,
Nor butchers Knife.

Precious Poets,
We Bleat and Baah
Our Small Woes,
Big Loves,
Insights and Dust.

Such small Season
And Gone Gone Gone

Autumn almost feels like it belongs to places like these
Places that lounge in the waning maple sun
Places that graze on slow, foggy hymns of October
It's like they are quiet testaments to the dream that is Autumn

Our lover has our hearts
and we theirs

You can hear love on the wind
in stillness

if love has your heart
love has your song

and your song is of love
as love has your heart

Silent and so calm
Heads peeking through leaves and trees
Bright eyes stare, yearning

sparklers are for the people who
love more
than they could ever
be loved in return,
for the ones who
exhaust
extinguish
their own light for others
to only appreciate them
for a moment and then
be forgotten,
for those who run out in rainstorms
for people who won’t even
stay with them in the sunshine,
for the ones who wait until
everyone around them is shining before they
ignite their light and glow.
but you can’t live by just
borrowing love for an instant or
living with the
ashes of other’s achievements;
you die a fresh death every time you listen to
those voices
that crash down on you like hail until
you’re too numb to move
you’re too over it to try
you’re too cold to ignite
at all.