three small words...

And I am
only just beginning to realise,
while we are apart...

That photograph,
it wasn't a photograph at all.

It was a bright red flare.

You fired it up
into the night sky
(that wasn't a night sky
but the world wide web);

It burst open the sky
with a blazing message
for all to see...

It said,
simply
& directly...

I

AM

HERE.


And I,
I saw that flare/photograph.

It was the first thing
I had noticed
for quite some time.

It caught my attention,
a welcome distraction
from the
painting & drawing.

And
I took my boat
(that wasn't a boat
but my art)
out into darkened waters...

Drawn on,
mesmerised,
led & guided

by your photograph/flare.

Finally,
after many months
(or maybe mere moments)

I found you.

You did not need rescuing.
You had been
very, very patient,
perhaps a little lost in prayer.

Indeed,
if I am to be painfully honest:

It was me that needed
some saving.

Nevertheless,
you looked relieved
& pleased to see me.
I pulled you into
the safety of my boat/art,
and hugged you
until you were
no longer cold.

Your smile
was not a smile at all,
but a bottle
bobbing up and down
on the crest of waves.

My smile, offered in turn
was not a smile
but a tiny
handwritten note
inside that bottle.

And that smile/note,
consisting of
three small words...

It simply,
directly
reads:

I

AM

HERE.


(c)Brent M Harpur, 2012.

"We cannot save people, we can only love them." (Anais Nin)

-For E.

book club for two...

(i)

Your love's
like a book read

not with eyes,
but trust & touch
instead.


(ii)

Let these lips of ours
be our words,
if you wish them to be;

and if they
write wet letters
on every page,

make a book
from
you & me.


(iii)

Tender friend,
kindred soul,
sacred lover...

Let us write these words
in braille
upon our aching flesh;

I long
to read you from
cover to cover.


(c) Brent M Harpur, 2012.

"Read me like a book that's
   fallen down between your knees." (Neil/Tim Finn)

more than a photograph...

In my last post, I attached the above photo...

It is of a house in Fitzroy (Melbourne) that I used to walk past a lot, and not take much notice of. However, late one afternoon in Autumn (just before sunset), the fading dusk light fell on the house's frontage - and suddenly, out of the corner of my eye its brightly painted yellow walls erupted into an intense blaze of dancing colour!! It lasted all of two minutes, the house seemingly afire... And all of the other houses in the street paled in insignificance, unable to compete with its primary, otherworldly glow.

I chose this house and photograph for my last poem as a metaphor. The woman I wrote the poem for has a smile like this... When she smiles (just for me), my world too erupts in a blaze of colour... And all the other houses  (smiles) will never, EVER come close to the way she radiates & makes me feel...

So, this is not a poem, just an insight into the photos I use on my blog. They are taken on a crappy little 2megapixel camera on my Nokia phone. I have dubbed it "Brent-O-Vision" as most of the time they are (very) low resolution, blurry, and

"how I see my world".

As well as the poems (for want of a better word) you'll find here, these photos have been chosen with care. If you are willing to see it, they have a story (poem) & narrative all of their own to tell...

Just a reminder, girl - You will always:

"Set this watersign on fire!!"

Brent M Harpur, 22nd July, 2012.

1+1=1

Oh, what a sweet, solitary song we sing alone; the naked flame & the lone candle... But bring us (and our art) together and our light burns brighter than a thousand suns... Louder than Angelsong, our combined brilliance threatens to melt the stars!! Burn with me, lover, this honey night: Let us be a fiery beacon of hope for all the disenchanted, the disenfranchised, the disturbed: An all-cosuming blaze of love & endless creativity, showing all the others a way out of their darkness and a way home...

(c) Brent M Harpur, 2012.

"Art is not a thing - it is a way!!" (Elbert Hubbard)

private constellation / may you bathe in starlight...

I am bringing wheelbarrows of stars to your front door... One by one I slip them into envelopes and feed them into your mailslot. And though you are not in, I will let them pile up in your hallway. And when you finally return, find your way home from dark & cold: There will be a wondrous, as yet unexplored private constellation waiting there for your delight, for you to discover... I secretly hope that (one by one) you'll empty your stars into a bath tub, add vanilla, make a bonfire of the envelopes to heat the water... And bathe in starlight!!

(c) Brent M Harpur, 11/7/2012.

"As if you were on fire from within /
 the moon lives in the lining of your skin." (Pablo Neruda)

but I offer for you the moon...

I cannot give you
the stars tonight,
but I offer
(for you) the moon;

I want to be
your Johnny Cash:

Won't you be my June??

(c) Brent M Harpur, 2012.

"Art is not a thing... It is a way." (Elbert Hubbard)