Oh, Melancholy: Poem

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Oh, Melancholy

You almost tempted me

On wet city streets, in grey city nights

To trust uncaring strangers

Yes, those city knights.

 

Oh, Melancholy, you are my love

I have walked, talked and sung to you;

Years and years have gone by.

Melancholy: I was savage and shy.

 

One day I waited near the river

I saw you pass by on the bridge.

You were all I had ever dreamed of

Me, walking on the river’s edge.

 

I almost lost, ever in love, but

Never, never really wise;

Lost in romantic dreams,

I wished To believe in your passionate lies.

 

When I saw you walking by

On the bridge, your face in shadow

I knew then, you would always

Follow me, go where I go.

 

Touch me with soft, gentle hands

And often take my pain

Letting me believe that

You could dissolve it in the city rain

 

That you would speak to me

And I would for once understand:

My emotions would surge

As we walked on hand in hand.

 

Years later now, I still have you

In every shadow, mirror, poetic line

Oh, melancholy, you know

You will always be mine, only mine

 

Copyright: Rani Turton

 

Poets: Poem

Poets Poets have no tools, never No tangible tools that is to say Some people even call them fools Poets have a different worldview Built on emotions, sensations, lacerations Splinters of pain And all that the heart holds to be true. . Poets have no right way or wrong way (Its true that they often lose their way anyway) : Poetry has always been difficult to define Scrambled thoughts, scrambled lines That is to say Perfect lines, perfect rhymes Clockwork metric thoughts and thou and thine Stanzas, couplets and all the rest of it My emotions flew jagged against the sky My thoughts often threatened to run away Like me; I speak about pain and despair People who are going to die Corpus callosum, existence ad infinitum Transient joy, the rainbow arching Spectral armies marching Tramping, tramping down history’s worn-out lanes And the lines in a stranger’s face His apparent despair, his evident pain Jerk me from those absolute, imperfect rhymes I am myself corpus callosum-like again. . COPYRIGHT: Rani Turton

Ideas, Ideals And Delusions

Ideas, ideals And Delusions

I have some notions of nothingness
I have some ideals of illusions
Into the abyss then with these thoughts
My ideas, ideals and delusions.

I can sweep away those cob-webbed dreams
Wipe clean every troublesome image
But nothing, nothing ever again
Can help me really turn the page

There are persistant and resistant matters
That will come back like a boomerang
Like a half-latched door in a tempest
That will continue to maddeningly bang

Away then and into the vast starry night
I will somehow continue to live;
My ideals of illusions, my dreams of delusions
Can also help to make me survive.

Copyright: Rani Turton

My Solitary Self: Poem

My Solitary Self

I asked my solitary self, shy, splendid and sad
What to do wth the rest of my life;
My solitary self, debating with being and existing
And  unravelling sundry strife.

My solitary self, aloof at times
Decided to ask my soul when and where
My brain and body could join in
And finally all griefs to share.

Wisdom, wherever it lies,
Perplexed by this intellectual discussion
Asked my solitary self to flee
All complicated abnegation.

So, alone with my solitary self,
Again I let my mind wander winsome and wild;
Slowly walking on mile after mile:
And then I saw my solitary self smile.

Copyright: Rani Turton

Paths That Lead Somewhere: Poem

Paths That Lead Somewhere Paths that lead somewhere; do they know where they go? Do they think of the pebbles and the thorns That can wound your feet; do they imagine Or ever ponder that distances are not the reason You set out alone: that solitude could have made you Retrace your steps fast enough if you had known. If you had known that paths that lead you somewhere But do not guide you along; sing, sing a lonely song; That paths are just tracks, trails to be followed And life is still to be walked along. Copyright: Rani Turton

For Tonight: Poem

For Tonight

For tonight, thoughts will cease
For once my blood and body will try to please
My mind and its outpourings; for tonight the world

And its satellite technology can spin its way.
Planets, stars and other celestial bodies
Can leave their trail in the sky;
For why should this persona, that is I
Always try to touch their orbits. That is, my body
And my soul divine must sometimes try
To remain detached, insignificant and not sigh

Eternally after the great, the grandiose and after all the supernova
Can blind the eye and then fade;
Silence in the galaxy, its light can reach millions after centuries

The bright and the dull, light and shade
My poetry has for reason an illogical emotion
That words beyond season, time and rhyme
Touch hearts and minds just for a short year at a time
And then fade.

Copyright: Rani Turton

Home As Distant As The Nearest Star: Poem

Home, As Distant As The Nearest Star

Home, as distant as the nearest star;
Stare at the star and the distance
Seems within reach of the naked eye;
Stare at the star, and you become a celestial clone
In your mind. As far as the sun
As near as nowhere.
Distances that are arbitary, relative
Subject to the extent of the pain
That cloud the pulse, your heart.

Home, as distant as the nearest star,
Sparkling like tears
On a hot moonlight night.
Shining like a lake at night
Lamps that light the way until
The paths get tangled and lost.

Copyright: Rani Turton

Storm In My Brain: Poem

Storm In My Brain

Storm in my brain, no, not again
Suddenly the moment snapped
My life lay broken in my hands.

I yearned for the days
When the future was clear
I longed for the people
Who would listen and hear

All that I need now
Is to know when to stick
Pieces of life together again

Storm in my brain
That sad melody again.

Copyright: Rani Turton

Solitude Singing: Poem

Solitude Singing

Being alone is knowing
That in in this solitary splendour
Solitude, stark and staring,
Solitude, singing a lullaby
Solitude, singing a dirge
Surrounded by so many sundry things;
Things seen and unseen
Factors known and unknown
Solitude singing softly, chanting without ranting
Solitude’s songs that sing of solemn things

Silence singing golden songs
Silence healing ancient wrongs
If only silence could be
More than a memory
More than history
Silence can be more than words
Empty words echoing in an empty world
Echoing in empty valleys
Silence unspoken, unspoken, unbroken
Transfixed by time.

Copyright: Rani Turton

My Soul, I Saw You: Poem

My Soul, I Saw You

My soul, I saw you wandering off
As though thirsting for a drink
You left me to my own devices
I might in shifting sands sink.

I thought of your absence and why;
I might be naive or even naughty
That’s not a reason for your loaf;
Just a problem that is very, very knotty.

My soul, my soul come back to me
You should know above all
You, my ideals and superego,
Come back to me when I call.

Today I was what you might say
Just a shell, a skeletal self;
When you vanish without a word
You left me waiting with myself.

I have waited and wanted and
As the day waned, I even wept
My soul, in another land,
Happily rested and slept.

I have an ordeal and a passion;
You are all my compassion
Come, come, my wandering soul
Heal me and make me whole.

Copyright: Rani Turton