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No Regrets Journal
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Spring 2011 Issue 5
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No Regrets
No Regrets is a journal of poetry, prosing and images articulating the twists and turns in the human condition, the search for love, meaning and community.
Editor
Clayton Medeiros is a poet and collage artist.
Neil McKay (Johnny Trash) is technical consultant to the web site
Submissions
Submissions are by invitation of the Editor Copyright May 2011
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All poems in this issue are by Clayton Medeiros and dedicated to my muse, Gemma Jane Medeiros.
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Love Suddenly
What if Love came Suddenly Relentless Like incoming Tides awash In white caps Swept you away Off your feet to Swirl in blue skies Like cumulus clouds
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Spring Love
Grey branches Web blue skies Lovers scrunched in parks In chill April huddled Against green buds On sunlit days Leaves and litter scurry In unobserved antics Brief pirouettes Paid no mind By singing flesh In angled caress
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Love Comes
Love comes like fog in the night Blankets the hilltops Peers into the valleys Holds dawn at bay Waits patiently for a sign Of reciprocal passion Over each blade of grass
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You
You ring in my mind No mere chapel bell but Booming Romanesque insistence Calling me to worship High pitched fantasies The dim past’s blithely elegant Confusion sets the tone And my ripped mind’s Shredded thoughts careen As time does not stop for me Everything rushes rushes Bound to future events And I skid each curve
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Love’s Time
Birds fooling around Bare trees with hidden buds Until day lilies replace daffodils In my quiet flower garden I absorb the moment’s light See the past’s distant glow With the knowledge that Love knows no bounds but time When the fragrant blue afternoon Curls to evening fall approaches Everywhere wind swept golden leaves Blown toward winter’s night The garden rests under the snow I wait for love once again
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Oliver Sachs’ Seventh Avenue Sitting looking out At the world of People streets cars Making them my own By the gesture of an eye Curve of my sense of things Unobscured by that stranger But tainted by love for you
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Love’s Counsel Inexplicable hearts Stand against all comers’ Advice and counsel Family, friends, the world, Cannot break passion’s truth, Star-crossed or not. Rushed heart beats Tightly twined Like maiden’s hair A medieval triptych. Spirits rise and fall, Moment to moment. Rosy dawn, soft dusk, A rush of starry night, Dreams will surely come.
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Soliciting Cupid
Unsolicited love may be best, beyond judgment, Present in the ether, silently conveyed, Never told outright, a state of being, Without expectations, continuously incomplete Inexplicably ineffable. God’s unspoken name Against worship’s grain, shattered covenants, Forever misunderstood, across constellated night’s Shapely disarray. But my love moves in Stealthy continuity cantilevered beyond time Unless some Mobius strip brings back all lovers Even one night stands, Manhattan high rise Sex and Christmas invites, never seen again, But still here, in this moment’s poetry. Life’s rhythms, Bossa Nova, Cunningham, Forever hopeful that love could stay.
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Possibility
The mystery of possibility That out there somewhere Someone thinks of you, Would save you if they could, Reach out a hand at the moment When your heart must be Swept up in arms, Caring, no matter what You had or hadn’t done. Someone, listening hard, To hear what you said, Help to think about What brought this feeling About you and the world Returning again to love.
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Embroidered Pillow
The beloved’s lips, Held by the pillow’s rose, Embroidered decades ago. Loving hands, thimble clicks, Rocking chair on a hardwood floor, Long boards worn golden, Buffed by slippered feet. Cat’s paws whisper to the hearth’s Glacier rubbed stone, Caught by the plow before Fields held summer bounty, Too soon to be canned, Snapped warm to the mouth. Jars come later with Steam out of the pot Sealed tight to cellar shelves. Solstice longest day, Quiet dreams come, The beloved’s lips Held by the pillow’s rose.
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An Unlikely Yes
If someone had asked I would have said It is an unlikely thing For all my joy in the World’s large and small My yes would likely be Conveyed in solitude An unshared transcendence Except perhaps to Some stranger reading An unsung poet’s words In an obscure journal Not a complaint mind you Solitude has centered wonders
If someone had asked I would have said She is unlikely to be For my quirky innocence In moonlight’s wonders Would make her blind To the possibility of us Put off by a lack of artifice An inarticulate poet With a simple statement That might open doors To the nature of us Just below the surface Of time and events
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If someone had asked I would have said It is unlikely A turn of hands in The dance’s movement Could bring this Moment’s rightness Understood heart to heart Told straight and true Along with the silent joy In smiling eyes Tender hands, lips New love’s birth Between us
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One Day at a Time There is no sadness In my thoughts of you, It has been wrapped up, Stored away in another life. My love for you, New in the universe, Takes you as you are, Beauty in the world, Lovely in your self, Hard won through time And no regrets. The poetry of us, A whirlwind Of possibilities, One day at a time. But your stories, I can hear on and on, Into moonlit walks, Star filled nights, Noon time blue, Rosy sunsets, Our infinite yes To the cosmos And one another.
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Hearts Like the playwright, I might Tell my heart to be still, But it will not be so. There is too much joy In your presence As each day’s light Comes over the horizon Into my window. I wake from dreams Of you, me, us, Each moment spent, In wordless endeavors, All the stories told. Hands move in time Lips, arms, torso, Across the separateness Of melted boundaries No longer necessary To protect my heart, This particular day.
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Cape Mears Cape Mears juts into the sea, Reaches for children Left behind in endless battles Of wind, wave and rock, Belied by the satin sheen Of curling surf’s continuous Caress across the sand. Certain is my love for you, Each shared moment Of days together, Sitka Spruce perfume, Sun drenched diamonds Frame tidal mists Where time stops. Whales head to Mexico, Tell stories to the coast, Anyone who listens, Us now, holding each other Among spinning, Spiraled galaxies In star bright night.
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A Movement in Two Parts Love’s movement between us Morning light’s slow reach Shares our beauty With sunrise shadows Our hearts call out Across the hours Until we are once again Our story’s pages fill Day follows day Night follows night Lives entwine Souls embrace In wordless wonder A hand’s touch Music only we hear Begins a dance With the sound of moonlight Against the breast’s curve Whispering our truth
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Your Face
Among these island windows, Ever changing light, The curve of your face. Evening comes across The bay to your eyes, Where I see our love, Shared in stillness. Blue day darkens, Prepares for star bright night, Company for a windy walk, Blowing our words On a journey to Andromeda. Perhaps lovers there too, Twine their passion with ours, Fill galaxies’ emptiness A web of embrace Expresses life itself, Generations gifts, but Now is the time of us, Karmic wonders whorl. Hands touch, I see the stars In your eyes.
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Beloved
Early morning whispers Sunlit skin against The day’s separateness But with me still As I move task to task At the close of day You come to me Out of the darkness Endless eyes In a moment’s stillness As bodies ache To be one again
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Slow dance In today’s clear light We find each other at last Write the shared story That unfolds each day In desire’s fulfillment Laughter reigns over This chosen kingdom Love comes of A gentle turn Our slow dance Opening possibility With early morning Whispered intimacies Passion’s tousled sheets Frame twined limbs
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Knowing You
I hear the world differently now, Though I knew it well, Even intimately, Or so I thought. As the song writer says, Then there was you, A melody that stayed, Day after day, Night after night. Touched by your hand, My heart cannot be the same, There is music everywhere, The sound of us with me always, I turn to your loveliness In the quiet morning light, Begin another day with you.
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Morning Song Each day begins, Light and shadow play, Bring dawn from night. Sunrise, a window, Silver hair, a pillow, Shoulders, quiet covers Against cool morning. Dreams disappear With galaxies Intimate dance, Hidden from us now, Yet, ever spin With fractious time In all directions, As we turn, Touch.
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The River Tides wash against the river’s Desire to join the sea Reluctant lovers battle Over shifting sands Shape dunes Sea caves’ depths The sun disappears Into the world’s edge Prepares for dreams Green light across the water Shimmers against the night We are joined now In each moment’s joy Hand in hand exploring The world’s by ways Eyes and ears tuned To humanity’s music And endless stories Across the days Of time’s passing
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The Old Man The old man tells his story, Once again, to a new audience. The ocean back drop, Waves and rock, continuous In their tempestuous relations, Documented sandstone curves. They listen carefully. California, he said, Too expensive now, So he conscientiously Pays less rent for his RV Across from the beach. Garden gloves hold the cane Against salted wind. He tells the lovers to listen As the horizon bound sun Sizzles into the sea.
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Time and Words
Time between us comes, goes. We speak of people, The stuff of our lives, Things shared and separate.
Early morning light words, Noon blue conversations, Quiet afternoon reveries, Candled dinner stories.
Time between us comes, goes. Pillow murmurs, Wind blown sheets, A sense of place, always.
Lights disappear tonight, Secrets of the dark, Dreams come quietly, Filter the things of the day.
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No Regrets Journal www.norgretsjournal.com claymedeiros@noregretsjournal.com
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