Our lives touch in tongues
	in ways spun and woven
Twin flames of art
	and reason are spoken
Enchained act of freedom
	weak links it has none:
Unburdening seasons
	like deer leap and run...

Thrill this awakened heart
	dancing being of light
Enveloping, opening oceanic sight...
	intently scry thy inner eye,
Compressing time, intensify,
	pour molten meaning
		into my conversation:

Our lives touch and part
	affecting far paths
		and choices, glancing
Unto the moment,
		 and returned 
			alert:
	trembling at thy doorstep
		openly sublime
			to thee I bow.
Alone I enter
Alone I leave
For me alone my own will grieve
And I will lie unknowing
	though my deeds will carry on:
		ripples on the nightwind
	carrying my song
What child of light has seen the night?
	What night has known full day?
If I should use a master's voice
	his servant do I stay.



© copyrights claimed by Richard Romero, 1996 



 ...back to poems

The swells run long beneath the keel
	Out from the combers that seek her heels
Farsighted horizons beyond all bays
	Where White Cloud sails for all her days

Salt wind and gulls in the sunlight long
	Gazing there where the moon went down
Beyond the yonder, her eyes still pierce
	Awash in the passions thundering fierce.

The strength of the storm was his embrace
	With clean salt heat to thaw her race
But then he sailed, before the dawn
	And she gazes out toward where he's gone.

O walk with me
       	While the moon swings free
And the lonesome wind moans high
       	And we will see our destiny
In a lover's lullaby.

Grown still as silence in the mist
	Remembering the lips she’d kissed
Resurrecting life from bardic lay
	Once lost within our yesterday
To hear the singing of the stones
	And know their waking in our bones
Captured from soliloquy
	A spiriting, in harmony
As night becomes the dawn:
	Weave dark and light of melodious stones
With singing steps in a season of tones
	So fair was she of braided hair
And handsome was her he
	But out upon salt waves he'd dare
A White Cloud on the sea...

Come dance with me
	While the moon swings free
And lovers rule the night
	And sing to me of destiny
And  dwell within my sight.

In golden calm of morning’s dawn
	The killdeer skims the dune
The kestral scrys a marsh hare’s run
	And seaward breezes tune.

The woman knows
	Wild winds will blow
The winter from the sea
	And then her windward sailor’s sight
Will turn again from lee
	And so she hears a ghostly aire
As from afar, the lover’s song
	Now ages past, yet savored long:

Come dance with me
	My maiden free
Upon this hallowed night
	And you will have the best of me
Before the morning light.

© copyrights claimed by Richard Romero, 1997 
 ...back to poems

Your fires burn in me hot and bright
	No discipline can withstand it
Your heat glows deep within the night
	No mortal can contain it.

		 Passion seems all that matters.
	Your dancing slides with tiger grace
		Your ice-fire eyes consume my face
		and my plans shred all to tatters,
	Like spiderwebs to a hunting cat.

Yet in the deepest morning song
	When I awake and listen long
The tenderest strength enraptured sings,
	swells up and fills my own heartwings,
That would you open up those eyes
	and give me an adoring sigh
I'd chain myself,
	and think it freedom...

But no enchained though untamed beast
	could long provide a novel feast
For a woman who devours at will
	Who captivates me still...
	So I bind myself to unchained ways
And conjure up seductive lays
	To snare you, sensual tigress.

© copyrights claimed by Richard Romero, 1996 
 ...back to poems

Holding to the center

The eternal rose in the circling garden
Shines like a star of living radiance:
Within this cusp I see you
Smiling in still water.

White pebbles form the pathway
Beneath the graceful arch:
There your hand caressed
This fragrant petal.

Because the wineglass rests
It is not empty.

© copyrights claimed by Richard Romero, 1996 
 ...back to poems

Like hovering flames in the wind of the night
Hoping on hope that the wishing is right
The captives of time in this life mystery
To soar or to grovel, in debt or free
Where all in each moment is both lost and gained
And each of all lovers is pleasured and pained
Where servant and master are humbled and praised
And the dreams of the nations are lowered and raised...
What constant is present when all else is gone
When even the stars are the heralds of dawn?

© copyrights claimed by Richard Romero, 1996 
 ...back to poems

The lady seems to always know
The secret paths that make dreams grow:
Toward the light that satiates
Awareness gently gravitates.

Though swayed by winds that waft unseen
Her sensual dance has always been:
Since time began for humankind,
Desire has moved the heart and mind.

Her body holds a slumbering fire
That from a man must draw desire:
The hunter drawn by her enchantment
Finds himself on his knees rampant.

An old man walking by the sea
Related all of this to me:
Whoever would behold true glory
Let them craft of life their story.


© copyrights claimed by Richard Romero, 1996 
 ...back to poems

Life runs like the tumbling dice
We wager with each throw:
Searching through the fire and ice
Without the means to know.

In answer to our questing dream
Inspiring ardor's goal and stream
Forever evolving each and other
Falter not, my younger brother:
Without the courage to carry on
There is no quest, nor hope of dawn.

Faded in a shadowed veil
The old man has his tales to tell:
The journey of humanity
Is very much the same to me.
Beyond the grave, and out of date
In my heart I still relate.

Time beyond
And now time still
Knowing how we really feel
Life and breath in every heart
Timeless, ageless, works of art

In this life are those who care:
Between them bonds a common share...
Are hearts so odd at soulful root
When moved to mourn the bitter fruit?

When winging wild in twilit skies
Or singing songs and lullabies
Or kindling up the freedom flame
What difference find, save flesh and name?

If naught is common in the bond
That poets share, in soul beyond
The reach of weak mortality,
Then where is Man's nobility?

© copyrights claimed by Richard Romero, 1996 
 ...back to poems

My darling's eyes
Are distant with pain
Despite which she smiles:
Sunlight on Rain.

Her smiles haunt me as echoing dreams
Eyes a-sparkle, rapt, it seems
A soul in a cusp of mystery
Sipping a twin to history:
Spiritual presences, present always
Echoing steps in wooden hallways...

In the night, all too alone, 
    Utterly vast where starlight shone
       a whorl of worlds
sworn and swirled
   pinwheeling in godsbreath, reeling...

    What is my task? Why am I sent?
Which gods watch her, that I am spent?
Insightful endurance
       Beneath her awareness
               As she converses
                       With clinical glance
Her heartful of whim
       She adroitly reverses
                       And, wonderous, shyly asks me to dance.
Such a magnificent soul
       fine as pearls on black silk
               incisive as a Toledo blade
                       loving as mother's milk
Sweet bringings of happiness, boon to her aid
               as if of one we two were made...
                       and she thinks to ask:
                               Why is it?

© copyrights claimed by Richard Romero, 1996 
 ...back to poems

The vixen pauses on upthrust stone
       Panting, hot, almost alone
Below, in the crystal pool so clean,
       Reflecting the ring where tall trees lean,
The quenching water awaits her tongue
       As her ears search about for her playful young.
Above the forest the hawk careens
       The winds arise, and the tall tree keens:
You ARE beautiful, daughter,
       May every happiness fill your heart.

© copyrights claimed by Richard Romero, 1996 
 ...back to poems

A million temptations
       a handful of rhyme
Scatter the ashes
       and break out the wine...

© copyrights claimed by Richard Romero, 1996 
 ...back to poems

My campfire warms my calloused hands
In misting morn in Irish lands
And honing up my well-worn blade
I see a warrior lass well made.

In silence as my wont to be
I note the heavy heart of she
And reaching for my battered cup
I fill with broth for her to sup.

And noting in her eye a tear
Where shines a pride that conquers fear
I give her my embattled smile
And bid her welcome here awhile.



© copyrights claimed by Richard Romero, 1997 

 ...back to poems

Potent femme, of poise and balance,
	I sometimes speak awry,
but when, enrapt, you bond my glance
	my motives clarify.

I pace you for a further mood
	engaging every step
deep into your darkness woo’d
	to see a secret kept.

And when across the vasting gulf
	I seek to catch your eye
My thoughts arrayed are not enough
	Until they to you fly.



© copyrights claimed by Richard Romero, 1996 
 ...back to poems

Like an aging Lion
The importance of my pride
Grows in direct proportion
To the absense at my side.

No true companion to share a good meal,
No welcoming smiles, to make my home real
No conversation to make my thoughts bright
No way to know if what’s wrong is alright.

Cold swirls of logic wash sandy wet stone
Where I am left breathing with soulheart alone
To gaze back upon the well-meaning dance
And quietly mourn the loss of a chance.

Like the swift bird
	She flew.


© copyrights claimed by Richard Romero, 1996 
 ...back to poems

A sphere of light
Within the dark
Where mingling hearts
Have caught a spark
Outweighing all reality
And promised immortality.

The sweep of time gathers up my chords
And scatters dreams among her wards
Each chime a bell of found relation;
Each a crown of new elation.

Her hands pluck tones from out of air
New thoughts stir us up to care
Blending in melodious tunes
To strike upon the breast like runes:

What night is this beneath the star
That sleeping we see who we are?

© copyrights claimed by Richard Romero, 1997 
 ...back to poems

Legacy of three thousand years
This pillar in the breeze
Beneath the same bright brassy sky
Above the Ionian Sea
A slave boy sat and polished stone
And whistled all the while
Not knowing that his work would stand
When the palace was a pile:
What is worth the doing then?
What stands when all is ruined?
Its just the heart of a whistling lad
Though I don't recall the tune...


© copyrights claimed by Richard Romero, 1996 
 ...back to poems

The well is in your heart
And the pool there is clean:
Drawing up from within,
       the act is refreshing.
Close the door on all the world
For a moment of calm knowing
Feel the seeds within your dream
Within your own life growing...
	Honor your innocent desire
Focus on aspiration's fire
Uphold the consequence of details within:
			To know is not a sin.
	The world is in your grasp, and fair,
	You are here for a good reason
	Just move the puzzle with care:
	And success is in your season.
     Target the target
Aim not too low
       What you can believe in
Is where you can go.

© copyrights claimed by Richard Romero, 1996 
 ...back to poems

Like walking shadows about a dark place
	The nomads worship their passion's face
To seek an amusement that flickers away
	So petulant it can last but a day

Though seldom arising to evoke the new,
	Directing their eyes to avoid a bright view
Scorning the compasses guiding the few:
	Scorning Polaris, who’s guiding our sails,
Scorning the Moon, and scorning the tales
	Telling of journeys of heroes and scouts
Preferring to scribble their dabbling pouts.

A poet creates to inspire the passions,
	Regardless of boredom, regardless of fashions;
Arising from ruins and braving the flames,
	Grimly determined to write the gods' names,
At last striding free from their heart’s devastation
	And urging the brave to establish a nation.

© copyrights claimed by Richard Romero, 1996 
 ...back to poems

	I stand in check,
At the threshold of your world, trembling,
	Arrayed in a thousand manifested dreams
		Enmeshing sensations into our now
I step
	Into solid, of dreamlight, 
		Bare warm foot to cool marble: 
			Moonlight and stars sharpen my hunger
		Sensing beyond, from the garden, a fragrance of dew:
	Integral core to furthest vision
		Defying probability and reason
			A divine madness surely
		Is this love, unsought, unbidden, inevitable...
Through this door
		to begin
		seperating cause from effect
			moment from eternal silence
				crushing doubt with decision
To hold you
To cherish you
To be, in a kiss:
			Like shadows thrown by firelight
			I awaken, rising to your scent
			Clean as water.

		Lips to a rosebud:
	so we touch again, tentative,
Sensing skin silk to silk, heart to beating heart,
	A strong hand to lift you, full and ripe,
		Driven hearts pulsing ever ahead
			The racing horses in their own wind...

	to pause in a sip, eyes over rim:
		I know the crystal loves the wine,
			and savor your mouth.


© copyrights claimed by Richard Romero, 1996 
 ...back to poems

When all the world has been and seen
These tokens of our mortal dream
And young men age who've never been
		Creators, yet unspoken,
Then climb the mountain and tell all
In heavens reach, from where stars fall
Within the sphere that now defines
The secret depths and hidden signs
‘Til wondering dawn rises to view,
And spreads her glow on questions true,
Which, brought to light, can evoke change
Though not quite all within our range:
	Overlooked, the details show it...
Then go you home to carry on
Before the light is wholly gone
To sing aloud the last refrain
And write your verse upon the rain
To reach and grasp and write their hearts
As if a demigod of arts
To plow and plant the yet unseeing
Upon their very ground of being:
	Planting there, would you grow it?
However sure and deft your hand
Respond to what is never planned.
Far down the echoed way ahead
Where others write and we’re long dead
So far beyond this mortal frame,
So far beyond this clever game,
Please speak mine only in my name
	Though of your heart I stole it.
Hearken now and scurry fast
The vineyard’s son is home at last!

What alchemy transmutes the line
From new crushed grape to finest wine?

Is it not you, the Reader?

© copyrights claimed by Richard Romero, 1996 
 ...back to poems

Sunrise east and sunset west
Cross my hands upon my breast
Now has fled my dying breath
My footfalls touch the halls of death.
Where now wanders our sweet love
Forgotten by the gods above?
Tears are fallen in the dust
And yet you go, as the living must.
At the sounding of the bell
Solemnly at evening knell
Take this rose from my hand fell
Find happiness, and fare thee well:
Know thee love has conquered all
Hearts forever in sad thrall
Hearts forever in sad thrall
Find Happiness, and love thee well.

© copyrights claimed by Richard Romero, 1996 
 ...back to poems

Go onward to more poetry...