Castles

CASTLES

(A note: within this poem I have quoted from 3 poems by Pablo Neruda. They are,

‘The Stolen Branch’

‘Maybe We Have Time’

‘Poetry’

I hope all who read this poem find it enjoyable)

My Muse once said,

“Hey Red, let’s build a castle.”

A safe place for words

to run, play, or hide

and finding them,

or living through their meaning

is like an architectural myth

springing from a forested kiss.

Let’s build a castle

with a really tall turret

that reaches all the way to the sky,

so we can hold hands

while leaping to distant horizons

as we create poems in red,

or blue if you will, instead.

As long as they are new

and point to unknown

and challenging paths.

Poems that flower in

avant garde and

are harbingers of Spring.

oo0oo

“We shall climb over the wall

in the darkness of the alien garden,

two shadows in the shadow.

In the night we shall go in

up to its trembling firmament,

and your little hands and mine

will steal the stars.”

(‘The Stolen Branch’~~Pablo Neruda)

oo0oo

Let’s build a castle

where the moat is deep

with human touch

and love is not only found

in roses blown by summer wind,

under an apricot scented sky

and sunlight reflected eyes,

but also in the dusty corners

of cold, dampened rooms

and stairways

drafty with shadows,

for we need to rescue truth.

oo0oo

“Maybe we still have time

to be and to be just.

Yesterday, truth died

a most untimely death,

and although everyone knows it,

they all go on pretending.

No one has sent it flowers.

It is dead now and no one weeps.”

(‘Maybe We Have Time’~~Pablo Neruda)

oo0oo

Let’s build a castle-

stone, mortar, baked clay,

rising into the sky,

built on top of the ruins

of ‘common knowledge’.

Let our hands shape

a May day wind

blowing endless

like tears filling the ocean.

Let’s build a castle

where we can be warmed

by the hearth’s fire and the language

of words heats our hearts

and new truths spread out

like green grass

‘neath uncountable stars.

Our poems will be

like crashing waves

reshaping the rocky shores,

and like the claps of thunder

announcing life giving rain.

And in those days, years, forever…

oo0oo

“And it was at that age… poetry arrived…”

(‘Poetry’ ~~Pablo Neruda)

oo0oo

 Hey Muse,

let’s build a castle.

Aztec Warrior/ redzone 10.7.08

(Further notation: ‘Poetry’ is from a collection of Neruda’s poems called

‘Isla Negra A Notebook’, 1964. Both ‘The Stolen Branch’ and ‘Maybe We Have Time’

are found in “The Captain’s Verses”, 1972)