In silence

A voice calls

Straining my ears I seek
the direction, the person
Straining my mind I seek
the origin, the meaning

Unpuzzled strangely,
I can identify none of these but still…

The voice calls
from within and from without
the voice calls

In hope but without expectation
I answer with questions

“Who calls? Where are you?
What do you require of me?”

In the silence the wind speaks
in the silence the river laughs
in the silence the stone sings

A voice calls

In the stone the God sings
in the river the Goddess laughs
in the wind Creation speaks

A voice calls in the silence
Aloud I say “I am here, teach me!”

Kim James
8th May 2009

In the shadow of stars

In the shadow of stars

There is a woman
with stars inside her eyes
she walks in starlight; the night
sky claims her shadow
for a robe

See where her shining
footsteps trace her passage
through the dark hours

There is a woman
with stars in her heart
she loves in starlight; the night
clouds cover her nakedness
like a blanket

See where her shining
eyes light up her lover
quiet in her arms

There is a woman
with bright stars in her hands; she
holds the waning and the waxing moon;
my heart's tides are drawn to her
gravity.

Kim Helen James
26/2/04

Waking up in Avalon

Waking up in Avalon

Somehow it seems sacriligious
To impose
A day's order on a day like this.
The space between sleeping night
and waking day stretches elastic
as if I occupy a hole in time.
Others pass by
and disappear,
but the mist lies magic below
promising a day of enchanted delights.

Today
or tomorrow
I shall wake up
in Avalon

Kim Helen James
31/12/1999

Riding a rhinoceros

Riding a rhinoceros

I would ride a rhinoceros for you
ride it to Timbuctoo
and bring you back
all the golden sand of the desert in a bottle

I would overcome an octopus for you
dive it to deepest Atlantis
gathering up
pearls, sapphires, coral and rubies in a shell

I would bridle the biggest eagle for you
fly it to the cheese-green moon
collecting
shooting stars and sunbeams in a fine feather basket

I would sing a silly song for you, or
write a pretty poem, a nonsensical novel,
a dictionary
of brand new words to describe the lexicon of you

Moving faster than Wonder Woman, I
would go around the world in seventy-nine days
saving a day just for you
(bringing it home, wrapped in spices of the orient)

I would - if you asked me to -
stay up all night for a year, repainting the stars;
leaving them in your room to dry,
just to light up your dreams with silver.

Kim James
7-Feb-2000

Come kiss me, love.

Come kiss me, love, and make the time stand still;
seconds to hours and hours to years extend.
Come, kiss me, love, and with your lips' soft thrill
my heart will leap and all my passions send
a song of love; a melody so pure
that all the world will pause its frantic rush
in wonder that a touch so soft and sure
could bring the universe to such a hush.
Come kiss me, love, and make my world so spin
that all my mind, heart, soul and body dance
at your command; my love your prize to win;
a true God-given hope and second chance.
When all the world is still and night brings sleep,
come kiss me, love; come rest in slumber deep.
Kim James
2/1/2003

Two Haiku on the Train to London

Automatic doors
let in people
and draughts automatically

As the darkness grows
the faces in the window
become more real

Kim James
8/1/96

Waitress

Quietly efficient,
working behind a mask
of fine sculptured bronze
you bring my food
with studied, patient attention;

And then you smile
illuminating the soft
pillared elegance.

Kim James
9/1/96