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impey | Poem

 
 

Poetry Offering from Jeremy Impey
of South Africa
 

CELESTIAL DEW-DROP

 
Suspended dew-drop Earth,

revolving in Heaven's berth.

Planet of immense girth,

our home and place of birth.
 
 

Rolling through corridor Time,

collective place, yours and mine.

Nurture her from this grime -

rehabilitating her to prime. 

1987
 


MOMENT'S HOPE

 
The rain patters outside my window,
a century has passed in time,
all those yesterdays and tomorrows,
which will be the one sublime?

Moments of pleasure, moments of pain,
aeons of action, some with no name.
The adventure unravels the misadventure.
If only forethought before decisions came!

How to explain the impossible
when once was one?
The shadow of darkness
blows clear when there's fun.

The truth of understanding
past phantoms shall spurn.
Let's bring forth a lantern
in whose shelter we'll learn

why we were silly, harsh,
sad or enraptured with love
It's so easy in retrospect,
but hard in that time's glove.
1988


OUR AFFAIR

Warmth percolates my body,
a balmy eve near palms,
I wander bedecked in almost nought,
the wind behind my arms.

A journey has been travelled,
far longer than you'll know,
through spaces that unravelled
the heart and mind and soul.

My love affair with life
started a billion years ago,
many miles have been covered
in rain, blazine sun and snow.

Through voids of infinite darkness,
via places bathed in light,
in beauty and in ugliness,
the differences of sight.

Our forefathers could have told us,
but listen we did not
and bashed our heads on sorrows
that knocked us all about.

But even they did not perceive
the game of lives we've played.
Right now, the game has changed
as new fields and forests grow.

To one of foresight and redemption,
of inner realms acquired,
the stagnant spirit reawakened
with songs newly inspired.

As we turn to face each other
from whence we once fled,
I know that hate and anger
is draining and almost bled.

To friends, acquaintances and strangers
spiritually intertwined we are,
through our disbelief and dangers,
we arrived here on Earth from far.
1987

LOST MORTALS
Granite Armour
Roquefort Forest
deployed senses
all around us.

The glare of wanton eyes
outwardly peer in fear.
You don’t believe in 21st Century cheer?

We gotta excavate
hidden mortals
who are stuck in
life's lost crevices
and coax them forth
to humanity once more.
1988


STARSCAPE BALLET

     Inevitability described the night.

     A starry colossus of eyes -
     constantly staring through mists
     of black and certitude.

     Arching back-over,
     leaning and reaching,
     stretched it to full,
     from toe in pump
     to furthest finger pointing
     with energy gushing from nail
     and surging through arch.

     Clamped forth, sprung, leaping
     never landing, hung in full spring,
     cascading and spraying,
     whose drops hang caught
     in still globs radiating fire.

     We looked back to catch the hidden,
     always there, meandering amplification,
     booming louder than all can hear,
     but protected in liquid vacuum-pack.

     Too scared to prick the glistening silence
     we looked at our feet and wept.

     The drops never landed - new stars were born.
     1998

from Jeremy's book: The Humanity Hunt

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