Rhapsodic Wind

•Celtic Poet |•Romantic |•Dreamer

[rhapsodyinblue80]

Poet’s Canvas

Paint your voice with shattered remains of pain,

let echoes waltz through hollow halls of memory.

Feel former expectations evaporate as dawn unfolds in quiet liberating hues.

Blend your palette of lilac and somber days—

Invent a peace-filled spectrum you can thrive within.

Let midnight’s hush weave constellations, a quilted resolve across your skin.

Your heart, the Northern Star, your words, powdered stars

spilling light upon

life’s mortal stage.

Guiding lost sailors through tides of whispered dreams and silent longing, a compass charting mystic courses, guiding souls toward untutored shores where waves compose ballads in longing and return.

Lift the silent brush, spread colorful verses, reclaim the canvas of your voice.

[rhapsodyinblue80]

And then the poetry returned . . .

as a mourning dove to my heart’s window sill, enchanting and wooing me with its somber beauty. I felt again the thrills of exotic lines lifting my breasts with ecstasy and erotic whimsy. I fell prey to the vibrations of a poet’s kiss, and poetry took me to bed again and had its way with me. And so, I woke up naked, drenched in rhythm, a poet reborn.

Rhapsody

[rhapsodyinblue80]

Sometimes, we distract ourselves from personal pain by wounding others. We ensnare them with arrows meant for ourselves. Then, we have to wonder- Are our conflicts with others really a projection of the interior battles we are waging? Do we choose friendships and lovers as kindred adversaries for testing our growth? Those equipped to handle our verbal barbs prove themselves able warriors and brethren we want to go into life’s battles with. When we are truly tested by life’s assaults, these are the friends we want holding our heads in their laps reminding us to stay strong. They hold our armor until our hearts are steady to begin the next summit. And when we come to our end, these loved ones will place the wreath upon our bodies, place coins upon our eyelids, and send us lovingly across the River Styx toward home.

[rhapsodyinblue80]

I love to see you slip

through the gate, your smile

radiant and warm

with tenderness and eyes

that glisten with a tincture

of love sickness. Might I have

a sip of that stare?

And your tongue swirls

around my passions,

churning up the sediments

of faraway love stories

I’d assembled in my head

long before you held me,

like this,

so tightly,

as if your tongue, your thoughts

dominated my every whim.

And so, I fall

headlong

into your kiss.

-Rhapsody

[rhapsodyinblue80]

Tree of Life

Poet[tree]

the bold act

of capturing winged feelings

channeling flight into

free verse

unfettered, unblemished

dappled, scintillating-

words glistening,

ripe sweat, palmful

of crystallizing dreams,

hopeful long lashes

dipped in last

season’s tears

draped in memory’s

extended sleeve-

a dimpled arc

tree-ring dating

through Time’s

prismatic River

we sip upon wonder

Poetry- dream catcher

for our nightmares

-nautilus

for our midnight fantasies

to teethe

u p o n

Rhapsody

10.25.23

Image: Pinterest (Deviant Art)

[rhapsodyinblue80]

For the first time in years, I’ve met someone who is genuinely kind to me and supportive. It almost takes my breath away. I don’t worry about ruining it. Just keep saying, God, keep it coming. This is amazing. We are worthy of kindness, calm, respect, genuine interest. Lord, please teach me that this is normal because I love the generous feeling behind kindness. Men as gentleman. Oh my gosh. I’m in love with normalcy.

[rhapsodyinblue80]

The Ravages of Death

Death, a mistress

wisping through

thoughts, flickering

candlelight, stirring

midnight delusions

She wipes his identity

with soft hands

leaves him numb

emptied of dreams

which filled his head

Death’s grip lays waste

the ecstasy of exquisite melancholy, a poet’s jilted heart marred by grim fingerprints

Her smoke teases

his room- Death

and Life sitting in bed

lust-filled eyes

everywhere

He dare not surrender

her fingers entice,

to soak his love in laudanum, mad elixir, swirling haze

spilling from his mind’s

poisoned glass

Oh Death - ripe nipples

wide arms, beautiful sunset

rolling naked together

in the abyss with no future

in mind

slender fingers

gripping thighs

dewy slumber

til soaked

in death’s sheets,

he succumbs

to her seduction

handsome headed

Adonis lying upon

ivory breasts

his last breath

~forsaken~

by ruby lips’ taste,

a kiss exchanged

for timelessness

final portrait

his lovesick duel

with death’s

enchantress

A collaboration by Rhapsody and TK

Image: Pinterest by Whisperedenvy

[rhapsodyinblue80]

one day, unsuspecting, he

will emerge from un-rinsed vapors,

the culmination of a decade’s dream

each word unrehearsed,

elevated as if erected

on stilts- a causeway

penetrating her castaway

heart, journeying inward,

ever deeper through ventricles

where no trespassing laws

do not deter him

until his soft bite

pierces the very marrow

of her sadness

rapturous poison

feeding her need

even as he feasts

upon her flesh

a symbiotic romance

Rhapsody

[rhapsodyinblue80]

Once you remove all the pain cluttering up your life, fill your soul with stained glass windows and let the light pour in with jewel toned patterns. Treat your heart like a chapel and keep it sacred. Only spiritual guests are permitted in. They must wipe their feet before entering. You will no longer permit the muddy footprints of toxic speech and another’s past pain to lash out in your spiritual home. Only love, gratitude, and kindness are permitted. If guests can’t honor and reciprocate with positivity, they will be asked to leave. This is holy land reclaimed; you are precious..

Rhapsody

Image: Snowy Owl Designs - Pinterest

[rhapsodyinblue80]

All of this thinking hurts so much. Delving within the layers of mistakes and sadness, this pulp of wounds feels like ache and longing. When do you stop crying; when do you befriend the loneliness of your inner child? How do you bring her out of her despair and hold her? How many times do you have to whisper, You are enough? And when will she finally listen and believe you?

You can intellectualize emotional pain and childhood trauma endlessly, but the answer is this. You have to resolve to sit with your pain, hold its hand, ruffle its hair, and befriend it. Only then does the fear of suppressed pain stop scaring you. Name your pain. Stare into the eye of its storm. Wait patiently for the tears to subside. Then be honest with yourself. You aren’t perfectly rendered. You aren’t divine, but you are beautiful-not because of your physical traits, but because you are willing to ply your depths and squeeze out the dripping mess within until only the rinds remain.

And at the very bottom you will find forgiveness. Forgive the people who hurt you. Forgive yourself for lashing out and hurting others. Forgive yourself for not having the tools at the time to serve as the therapist for your soul. You possess them now. Use this time. Don’t waste another second; live wisely in the days ahead. Then, soak up the tears with your heart and say, I love you. You are enough. You are my mine. You belong to me. I am now your mother, father, best friend, and lover. Treat me as sacred. Therein lies the secret. Once you embrace her for all her worth, your relationships will be an extension of your self love and respect.

Rhapsody

Whew! That was painful as hell to write because once you feel the interior of those words with your heart, you recognize their truth and power.

[followcb]

Kaleidoscopic Wonder

warriors armed with

poetry and prose

life-force from stardust

celestial spiritual ethereal

essential universal wisdom

eternal DNA stranded

amid earthly situations

desire for reinvention

love as breakthrough innovation

such an unconventional

convention

creative expression

to exorcize suppression

an antidote for repression

infinite wisdom carves

into ebony, our totem’s story

testament scribed,

our life’s glory-

poets’ veins bleed

compulsive need

a shared telepathy

stained of empathy

originating from divine

perception, dual conception

twined between stanzas’

waltz - our exalted words

an emotive evolution . . .

unrehearsed feeling to aching

beauty captured, wriggling

beneath pens’ ink

intuition stitched, we

commit to being

complicit with syllables

express what's suppressed

undress that which is oppressed

attempt to puncture

balloons of institutional thinking

dysfunctional gerrymandering

redefine freedom as a spiritual design

a concept to realign

love and empathy for humankind

that we might . . .

rediscover what matters

from the tatters bleakest night

shrouded in frosted manacles

hindering our words’ movement

elongate shadows

into dawn, writers sipping

sunlight’s elixir

we sweat and swear

through our laughter’s

exchange, deranged

poets in love with language

pour us another sip

permit these lips

to cipher lyrics

preserve faith

rupture disbelief

imagine honesty

a constancy bender

into unreality

where love prevails

a dreamscape dripping

of Kaleidoscopic wonder

this cosmic verse -

our healing remedy

from a world splintered

with overthinking

☆☆☆☆☆

©️ @followcb & @rhapsodyinblue80

April 9, 2023

This is our first collaboration since Oct 2022, and months of life-changes, that have given both of us, newfound wings - each in our own way!

Thanks @rhapsodyinblue80 (Diane) for your friendship and willingness to share your creative muse!

CB

[rhapsodyinblue80]

I could never carve the statue

you see chiseled within

these fractured hazel eyes

I’m the essence of hopes

and crescents where I fell

beneath the hoary glass

but even blood forms

a cherished stain

recollection of a former pain

that we have wrestled from darkness and reclaimed the will to fight

If you follow every wrinkle

and smear,

you’ll see the typography

of my journey’s soul

smile and never fear

these ridges deep

they’ve formed

a steady foundation

for the prayers

I now nightly keep

and when tomorrow comes

you’ll find a smile so deep

secure in self preservation

an eradication of “I’m just fine”

My irises defy the night

forge daylight in shovel loads

of ecstatic praise

a new life awaits me now

place your hands upon mine

together we’ll soar

beyond today’s limited shine

we soar upon tomorrow’s wind

stay constant toward the light

and we will glisten beneath

love’s shimmer

Fly with me

Rhapsodyinblue80

💕

[rhapsodyinblue80]

After so long, I feel completely unfettered and it's deliciously sumptuous in its simplicity. The night belongs to heels with denim and unexpected conversation. My best friend and I stroll to the bar where energy ignites. One glass of sauvignon in, and we are toasting with the crowd; strangers meld into friends. And there it is-- the magic of swapping stories, laughing with older folks we will never see again. There's something divine in the act of exchanging words without having to make good impressions. When she and I leave, the crowd waves and cheers like we've shared something sacred and pure. We are simply ourselves and so are they - minus the politics, economic woes, and worries.

Rhapsody// night out

[rhapsodyinblue80]

your eyes taste of remote places where street lamps curl over cobblestones in painted landscapes I want to touch

your lips hover as a scented vapor stinging every syllable I utter with longing - how I want to seduce these words comprised of you, pressing you into and through these rivers where I soak my thoughts

I want to possess more of you

than mere hands or touch

my arched back against

a shadowed alleyway

curving into forbidden

I want to walk barefoot

with you on your soul's

coastline, listening

eternally to the decades

within your voice, that accent

I smoke sensuously

wafting its sounds between

my lips - I want more

my desire to scour your

depths consumes these

nighttime reveries

til I'm held prisoner

by the beguiling amber

of your eyes' cordial taste

let me drink you in

until the inebriation

soaks me into slumber

Rhapsody//the very thought of you

Image: Etsy

[rhapsodyinblue80]

between this heart's fissures,

I am suspended by resolute faith

leather strands weathered

through chill and palpable silence

til my tongue's emotion

grew numb; yet hibernation

is a temporal state- we

are not bound by static hurts

worn threadbare from years

long before, nestled in drawers

the heart no longer wears- we

are this singular crescent light

stretching her soft palms

towards dawn; I hear

the first quivering birdsong

echoing within - flushed hum

awakening my vagus nerve

signaling a velvet desire

to love intensely, more fully again

Rhapsody

[rhapsodyinblue80]

today, he signed the papers, and so it seems we commence upon an unknowable future . . . but how could I, knowing him as I have this quarter century, continue the feigned smiles, a mere charade for the masses watching our performance, awaiting applause and final curtain just so we can scurry off stage to breathe . . .

now, each inhalation feels sacred, how long I've waited to skim the leaves with fingers wide, relishing in these bundled moments saturated in elegant silence- no tv chatter or podcast or padded footprints of a yellow lab to interrupt these musings - some say the early stage is feeling numb, I don't think so, maybe

it's learning the solitary breath, easing into the late afternoon's slanted sunlight bleaching my skin and absolving her of sin - I drive my son home from practice; we tease and genuinely chatter about dinner and tonight's episode of Squid Games - we smile guiltily, for now we freelance each day, savoring this chance to live on today's terms and the luxury of endless awakening tomorrows.🌹

Rhapsody// the signing

2.10.23

[rhapsodyinblue80]

Letter to my 12-year-old self

In two weeks' time,

you attend a Valentine's dance

your porcelain heart chipped

at the hands of a boy's prank

flinging your poetic soul, carelessly,

for the sake of a friend's jest

you'll cry harder

for that freckled boy

than decades later when

cancer's sensations swirl

beneath your breasts

or that helpless limp

catches at every step

allow yourself to feel every

pungent sensation

blood's salt between

gnashed teeth

there's no greater burn

than the singeing smell

of love's roasted rejection

channel these crimson memories,

shape renewed understanding

when later you scrape

another's heart raw

through the callous tongue

of forgetfulness

years blow past

like flecks of decayed

dandelion seeds

years glisten as silvered

streamers

beneath lunar fog

your Lazarus skin

grows soft again;

call it a distant muse

who transforms your

words, converting

dormant thoughts

to unbridled melody

call him vindictive,

intentionally cruel,

yet credit his skill-

for he will skim the sea's silt

recover frothy depths

of buried passions

stirred into cloudy residue,

you'll sift through

clumped chaos marveling

at the sunken booty

of a submerged heart

pressed to his chest

unsteadily

sinking, scared, unblinking -

feel the cracking quakes

of fear, toxic words

spiral upon tempests

trembling your fractured

love into splintered

regrets, but temporal

pain can puncture

faith but once

write your heart's

salvation as a message

pressed into paper,

curled within

a glass courier

whisper your prediction

fortune's fate for a soul mate,

scripted words tossed

faith-filled

into turbulent seas

upon the scintillating

spray of crested waves,

he will emerge from

winter's violet breath

cipher of your ship's distress

his words, an amorous reply

to your heart ache's

desperate cry

Signed,

Message from the future

Sending out an S.O.S//

Rhapsodyinblue80

Image: Creative Market (Pinterest)