might just be the perfect time...

when you are on my arm
or holding my hand,
for what it is worth...

I feel ten foot tall
and like the
luckiest man on earth.

for
we all have a story to tell
and if you are lucky
you may have two...

my first is how
I lost myself
and my second,
finding you.

if only you could see
that sparkle in your eye,
everytime you smile.
it stops my heart,
for a beat or two...

(or maybe it is all that goat's cheese!!)

i have given myself such a hard time
for not being ready to be in
whatever this is.

You gently remind me
(one night,
behind the safety of closed doors):

that
"sometimes,
being in something
when you think you are not ready
might just be
the perfect time to be
in something."

(or words to that effect)

and then
you smile again,
the world is perfect
& everything in the universe
is as it should be.

yes,
we all have a story to tell
and if you are lucky
you may have two...

my first is how
I lost my eyes
and my second,
seeing

you.

(c) Brent M Harpur, 2011.

"At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet." (Plato)

excess baggage...

between us,
you and I,
we proberbly have
more baggage
than all of Sydney Airport

but since I met you
I've started tossing mine
into the sea

now I'm really
in trouble with
Greenpeace!!

(c) Brent M Harpur, 2011.

watersign...

(Bondi Beach, Sydney, 16 Feb 2010.)

would you take me

for a ride

on your beautiful rising tide?

I am love's castaway,

lost in your waves & sea...

the fish & the birds

are all lost for words

but in your ocean's bed

I am so alive & so free!!

thank you for reminding

this sailor

lost in uncharted waters...

that my heart is always my compass,

your smile is my steadfast lighthouse

& your arms

will always be a safe harbour.

- for JMC.

(c) Brent M Harpur, 2011.

the failed astronomer...

& the first time
that her eyes touched mine,
I suddenly felt the
subtle beauty
the sun must feel
when eclipsed by the moon.

I remind stargazers & scientists
long since turned away...

That I am the failed astronomer,
a glimpse of her distant star I caught;
But I was looking through
my telescope the wrong way
& she wasn't as far away as I thought.

Her light & her heat
may take eight minutes to reach me,
but studying her eyes
inner constellations, they teach me;
To put all my trust in intuition,
put all my trust in hope.
To give up on science & superstition
& to throw away my telescope!

Yes, I am the failed astronomer,
a glimpse of her distant star I caught;
But I was looking through
my telescope the wrong way
& she wasn't as far away as I thought.

I close my eyes
& wherever you are;
Your smile continues
to burn inside me,
like a star.

(c) Brent M Harpur, 1999 / 2011.

Princess Leia: "I love you!" Han Solo: "I know." ('The Empire Strikes Back.')

Scarlet (erotic poem 176)

I could
write to you
of love, in pastel shades
& yet!

Here,
tonight
on your
full canvas moon / back:

I
long
to
paint
you...

Scarlet!!

(c) Brent M Harpur, 2011.

"Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her, & to wonder what was going to happen next." (Lewis Carroll)

like living braille under my fingertips...

and in my dreams
there is nothing wrong with my eyesight.

alone with you -
my heart is in my mouth,
can you taste it?

if i offered you
my love
would you waste it??

i am still wearing
my heart on its sleeve
& since that first time we kissed:

i'm even
considering
having it
tattooed upon my wrist.

we are awake now,
it is morning.
You in my arms,
your breath upon my neck.

the touch of your skin
upon mine,
is this how it feels for a lizard
to lie upon
sun-warmed rock?

i attempt (once more)
to read the freckles
on your perfect shoulders,
like living braille
under my fingertips...

before your
disarming  / sleepy smile
makes me
lose
my
place.

we kiss
and kiss
and kiss again,
liquid lips becoming one.

i am no longer
a stranger in a new town,

feeling
all at once
welcome, lost
& homeward bound.

as you touch my face
something primal,
yet gentle

stirs in my very core.

am i out of sight
or just
out of mind?

once again,
you have performed
the miracle of miracles

& restored sight to the blind.

(c) Brent M Harpur, 2011.

"There is a budding morrow in midnight / there is a triple sight in blindness keen." (Keats)

an intro to Rumi...

Every now and then, I am going to use my blog to introduce a favourite poet. This one's from Rumi... (Happy Valentine's!!)

 

 

The next is born from the last
look at love
how it tangles
with the one fallen in love

look at spirit
how it fuses with earth
giving it new life
why are you so busy
with this or that or good or bad
pay attention to how things blend

why talk about all
the known and the unknown
see how the unknown merges into the known

why think seperately
of this life and the next
when one is born from the last

look at your heart and tongue
one feels but deaf and dumb
the other speaks in words and signs

look at water and fire
earth and wind
enemies and friends all at once

the wolf and the lamb
the lion and the deer
far away yet together

look at the unity of this
spring and winter
manifested in the equinox

you too must mingle my friends
since the earth and the sky
are mingled just for you and me

be like sugarcane
sweet yet silent
don't get mixed up with bitter words

my beloved grows
right out of my own heart
how much more union can there be?

-Rumi.

an older poem...

(i)

Lying still on Harpur's Hill

a setting sun it warms my face;

& while you're near its all so clear

you're not so out of reach.

(ii)

Later on you have gone

I wonder, did I say too much?

Words I said could have mislead

and are much clearer in a touch.

(chorus)

And if you listen hard

on a summer's night

you can hear the angels weep;

For the things in life

they longed to own

but knew they couldn't keep.

(iii)

The lost souls of a thousand gulls

echo across the beach.

I lie in fear, wish you were near

& not so out of reach.

(chorus)

And if you listen hard

on a summer's night

you can hear the angels weep;

For the things in life

they longed to own

but knew they couldn't keep.

And for the ones in life

they longed to hold

but knew they loved too deep.

-For Alan Whiting.

(c) Brent M Harpur, 1991 / 2011.

"There's a little magic in everything & then some loss to even things out." (Lou Reed)

when it comes to love...

and when it comes
to love
I feel I've only
just begun.

I've had a few near misses
and a lot of
hit & runs.

(c) Brent M Harpur, 2011.

"Love is in the eye of the beholder - get it out with Optrex!" (Spike Milligan)

this sweetest of eclipse...

In your eyes,
reflected back at me;
I finally see the man
I've always wanted to be.

Forgive me lass,
if I stare;
It has taken forty-two
(long)
years
to find myself
here.

Sunlight / birdsong
tease us gently awake.
With your hand in mine
let us stop the world awhile,
& cancel time.

Skin on sacred skin,
lips on fluid lips;
Only dawn can break
this sweetest of eclipse.

Intoxicated by your hair,
my head lingers
on your chest;
for a brief moment
of moments 
I am a
god amongst men...

Truly,
utterly,
completely:

blessed.

(c) Brent M Harpur, 2011.

"The heart is an organ of fire!" (Michael Ondaatje)

it is the tiny things (for elsie)...

It is the tiny things
that remind me why
(way back in 1989)
I decided to go to artschool
& become an artist.


Last weekend,
it was watching a little girl
dance and giggle and smile
with delight;
when she saw the mural
I had painted her
for her 2nd birthday.


there are some feelings of pride
that all the money in the world
could never buy.


[for Elsie & Sarea]


(c) Brent M Harpur, 2011.


"What we need in this world are more people who specialise in the impossible."
(theodore roethke)

Year of the rabbit...

For every painting
I ever painted
& every drawing
I ever drew;
Every poem never published
& hidden from review...

If you look into my eyes
girl,
you know it is true:
Every other woman
I have ever met
has prepared me
just
for you.

(c) Brent M Harpur, 2011.

"Tell me... What is it you plan to do with your one wild & precious life?"
(Mary Oliver)

luckiest man in the world...

sometimes in life
bad things
happen to good people...

but life can often
(when you least expect it)
offer a compromise;
and good people can
happen to good people.

& since I met you,
I've been
kinder to spiders.

(c) Brent M Harpur, 2011.