The hand open
can always be filled.
You had reached for me.
As cherry blossoms swirled
~ a white fragrant snow ~
our kisses were full of spring.
The heart open
lets love flow.
Cherry snow draped the bench.
I swept away a drift. You settled
beside me, leaned upon
my shoulder to
whisper in my ear.
Time is only a current
within a larger river.
Tree’s memories run deep
where the earth becomes liquid.
Love kisses eternity
where it meets forever.
In these life times, I never
know when you will fill
the bench, be beside me.
11:07 PM
9/29/07
Alexandria, VA
In a list
A contest entry
- It's All About Quality by Heavenly Angel.
475 points, ended October 9, 2007, 17 entries
Gold trophy winner
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Please tell me what you think
Comments
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You do write from a true and full heart. Very much so worthy of the gold; inside and out.
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Thank you. This one truly does run deep.
Peace & Love, Tom B.
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I left a comment on this awhile ago...I just wanted to congratulate you on the Gold...
Soulful Woman -
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Thanks for your kind support. May I always be able to engender such gracious and kind remarks.
Love, Tom B.
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I knew i had read this..its still beautiful today, well deseving of the gold my dear.
Be well
much love and upmost respect
tory
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Just my thanks for your support.
Love, Tom B.
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Tree’s memories run deep
where the earth becomes liquid.
Love kisses eternity
where it meets forever.
That's so incredicly beautiful**
Wonderful job!!!!
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The dance of love is a movement we spend lifetimes learning. The River of energy that flows around us carrys far more than our minds want to willingly comprehend.
Love, Tom B.
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I found this to be a brilliant piece that inspires. You lifted the veil to expose an esoteric glimpse beyond times Earthly limitations. Very impressive!
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We live in a world of our own convincement. I just wanted to show what else could perhaps be seen and what it means.
Thanks for sharing the joy you found in my poem. Joy shared multiplies.
Love, Tom B.
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Your words paint such an exquiste picture of captured moment in love, making time stand still...i loved this write..it shows the depth of Your soul.
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This life and all lives past cast a shadow upon the path where we walk in time. The spirit runs far beyond but we are held by mind in this present defined. The world we have is what we all have a hand in creating.
Love, Tom B.
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nice
sort of haikulike -
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Thanks. Yeah, I can say I am deeply influenced by oriental poetry. Nice insight. Love, Tom B.
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GREAT!
i think its breathtakeing! what a wonderful choice of words! -
this poem is beautiful! great job! i love ur words
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Thank you, my friend, the joy in your words is a gift to my heart. May your day be graced with joy and many blessings.
Love, Tom B.
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*gasp* wow. This is so breathtakingly beautiful. I thoroughly enjoyed this write. IT is so beautifully written. It feels so peaceful and flows flawlessly. I adore this write. Fantastic work!
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Thank you for your kind words. I am glad you appreciated this gift. May you also be blessed with visions that run from your pen.
Love Tom B.
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Masterful Write
You have out done yourself! Bravo! Amazing! Magic! You spoke words from the heart of a true romantic.
With a soft sensual vibe; I adored this read. The word embraced me...........Novy
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Glad you enjoyed this. I thought you would. There is an understanding in this one. Time and distance collapse as we can see the River and realize how we all swim together.
Love, Tom B.
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Gorgeous imagery and I can see the cherry snow.I wish I had more time for AP but alas nooooo.Beautiful work Tom.It touched me and made me sit for a minute and relax.
H
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I am honored that it touched you. This is a quiet poem. It's tenderness is found in the heart and how it abides. Thanks.
Love, Tom B.
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Stunning.
I really enjoyed this piece. What a love story, really...and the last part made me cry...the thought that two people have been out looking for each other for lifetimes...and still hadn't found each other yet.
Wow. So beautiful. You have enchanted me yet again.
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Sometimes love is just a dance across eons. You know when you've found it and you accept when it is just not time yet. What else can I say?
Love, Tom B.
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This is so beautiful
I love the title - perfect.
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Thank you from my heart. I thought long on the title, since I write the poems and then pray for the right title. I once had a creative writing teacher who couldn't understand how you could do that. He went title then poem and of course for him there was no other way. For me, it is a first line. Who would of thunk.
Love, Tom B.
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this poem is timeless...my only wish is that i can hear you read it out loud at a poetry reading one day
to say it is a beautiful poem is an understatement...this is just breathtaking. i wish i could live in the midst of your poetic words tom
i miss you and hope you are well
Rohina
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you pay me many honors to feel yourself as part of my poem is a great one. The missing is mutual. I hope all fares well. This one is a gift to me from my muse I am glad you feel gifted by it as well. Love, Tom B.
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This was beautifully written my friend, and shows so much compassion for life itself. Thank you for sharing this with me. You have a true gift...GETS
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Thanks. We are all in the same River and all of us caught in the current of Time. We swim the best we can and some of us are lucky enough to see the more than our own stream in the currents. Love, Tom B.
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Tomis, Tomis, Tomis.........
.....I think you already know what I'm going to say ~
.....if there were more clappys to give this, I would, but since there are not, you have to picture me standing in ovation over here in southern CA ~
This is one of the prettiest writes I have read as of late....especially from you ~
You are a genius in your own right, but when you start penning such as this,
I might actually begin to understand the insides of that deeeep Inkwell you possess ~
....or not ~
:)
The imagery.....superb ~
The Flow....fantastic ~
The Theme....ironic that my highest scoring Poem in the POM is
about a tree....nature.....self ~
....and in this write, I could only imagine the connection between nature & man ~
Soft, tender, passionate, everlasting, benchmark love ~
Don't really get the Title, but so what, I loved the write ~
Each stanza, couplet and last triolet held its' own power ~
There was a story in each, a new corner of the heart discovered,
a new dream awaiting to be birthed....a new chapter in the book of life ~
Very well penned Bubba ~
Sandy is going to love this piece of Art ~
Be well,
Bear ~
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I thought you might enjoy this.
I never know what will really strike to the heart of anyone. I just give my best shots and pray alot. Bookmarks ~ we mark moments on the net, in books, in our life, why not our lives. This has so many layers, I keep discovering it is not straited as much as it is leaved and like a tree the ones that fall away to early in the season are replace. I have so much to learn about poetry, and so often I am at a loss for what the right words are. I come out of a good one exhausted and walking on the ceiling.
Love, Tom B.
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Tis Lovely
I like this one on how it speaks of memories locked forever in a tree, and that by sitting next to it he is able to sence the love that he will always know even now that she's gone, or he's gone, however.
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Interesting insight into this piece. Yes, we are remembered. Until all is ash we are all of a piece. Love, Tom B.
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I love everything about this work and the fact that I entered this contest and used the same visual. Mine came out as it did because I felt a need to get the feelings I wrote out, and into the air. Yours is passionately written with consciousness that swells to near busting from within this heart.
You remind me of my grandmother always saying; "a closed mouth cannot be fed and a closed hand can neither give or receive." She taught me many life lessons with words. You teach them with poetic words, and musing from the soul.
Beautiful in every measure. I wish you well in the challenge my dear friend.
Much Love Always ♥
Renee
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'Tis true. This poem found its wings in my soul and flew from there to my pen. Once the first line was written it was only a matter of allowing myself time to write the words.
Thank you for seeing so clearly the power behind this simple piece. I am blessed by your perception.
Love, Tom B.
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Beautiful as always, reminds me of Neruda yet stays so very true to your own style also.Love, C
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I found a current that led to the River, I felt the River and all of its strength. I knew I was just another fish swimming in the waters, but suddenly their was a difference. I knew I was swimming and that all that I touched were in the waters as well. I would keep swimming life time through life time till I purified all that I had touched in the swells.
Love, Tom B.
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Your words are amazing.
Good luck in the contest.
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Thank you. I can only strive to keep the world awake with visions. Love, Tom B.
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this is sweet and a true love story, you have a wonderful way with words.
Riftkin -
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Thank you. Love is a larger current than Time but we are not caught in its currents as we are in the swift sure one that Time runs.
Love, Tom B.
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while i see the desire for parallel structure, i have issues with this line in particular, "Cherry snow draped the bench." just cuz i dont think the word 'cherry' does your description of winter any favors (was it winter? i read it as beginning in spring, and then turning into wintertime...)
however, the rest of the fourth stanza, with the fifth following, is really great -- subtle and sentimental.
perhaps work on the last stanza? i could just be reading it wrong, but it seems a bit choppy and/or confusing.
gorgeous as always. ha! what do i gotta do to get you to write *me* a poem that gorgeous? hahaha.
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Walk through the spilling spring and see the petals as they fall gather in drifts so that you know that the last snow is not the cold but the rapture of cherry blossoms drifted and draped around. When we find the currents of the River we are entwined with the spirits of life times before showing up in our lives, we can only hesitate, catch our breath and breathe in the waters of love and swim.
Love, Tom B.
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"You had reached for me.
As cherry blossoms swirled
~ a white fragrant snow ~
our kisses were full of spring."
This is so reminiscent of Neruda's sensual yearning to be with the one he loved, my Friend. Lovely, fragrant, filled with blooming far beyond despair. Good luck in the contest, Poet. Wanda
"Love Poem XIV: from 20 Love Poems and a Song of Despair"
by Pablo Neruda
as translated by W. S. Merwin
"Every day you play with the light of the universe.
Subtle visitor, you arrive in the flower and the water.
You are more than this white head that I hold tightly
as a cluster of fruit, every day, between my hands.
You are like nobody since I love you.
Let me spread you out among yellow garlands.
Who writes your name in letters of smoke among the stars of the south?
Oh let me remember you as you were before you existed.
Suddenly the wind howls and bangs at my shut window.
The sky is a net crammed with shadowy fish.
Here all the winds let go sooner or later, all of them.
The rain takes off her clothes.
The birds go by, fleeing.
The wind. The wind.
I can contend only against the power of men.
The storm whirls dark leaves
and turns loose all the boats that were moored last night to the sky.
You are here. Oh, you do not run away.
You will answer me to the last cry.
Cling to me as though you were frightened.
Even so, at one time a strange shadow ran through your eyes.
Now, now too, little one, you bring me honeysuckle,
and even your breasts smell of it.
While the sad wind goes slaughtering butterflies
I love you, and my happiness bites the plum of your mouth.
How you must have suffered getting accustomed to me,
my savage, solitary soul, my name that sends them all running.
So many times we have seen the morning star burn, kissing our eyes,
and over our heads the gray light unwind in turning fans.
My words rained over you, stroking you.
A long time I have loved the sunned mother-of-pearl of your body.
I go so far as to think that you own the universe.
I will bring you happy flowers from the mountains, bluebells,
dark hazels, and rustic baskets of kisses.
I want
to do with you what spring does with the cherry trees."
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I only wanted to show the River we are deep within. This love but a current that winds around the spirit and carries on farther than the one that drags the body down. Yes, I can hear the energy and similarities to Neruda for he was full of the passion of being alive and caught in a world that didn't speak to itself except in the voices of its poets. I love the poem you shared with me. I love the keening cry.
Love, Tom B.
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Oh my goodness, I haven't read something this beautiful in a long time. The images you created in my mind are beyond breath taking. And the picture goes perfect with it. An amazing job here, I am definatly book marking this
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That is a wonderful compliment. I only tried to capture the feelings and sense that go with being alive and knowing that what makes us more than animals goes on far longer than this shell. Thanks for sharing your joy with me. May I see more of you in the future.
Love, Tom B.
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Majestic. I know not another way to hold such a thing of beauty. The picture...your words, a hold of utter love and quiet repose. Thank you.
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We learn to swim deeper in the River, but most of all we learn that we swim. May I see more of you in the future.
Peace & Love, Tom B.
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Tom,
How can I even gather enough words to justly tell you how this poem has touched me. If this does not steal the gold, I will scream. It is beautiful and heart moving. I mean that TOm... wow. I hope you do not mind, but I would like to use this photo and the inspiration from this piece to write a poem.. perhaps a dedication to my source of inspiration I have not written in what feels like forever. I needed this.
Thank you.
Love always,
Mel
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To be seen as a gift and an inspiration is a high gift and compliment. I would of course be honored. This is simply about the River and how we travel in it and like fish don't really see the water, it just is. If you needed this than take all that you need for you know you are always welcome to whatever I have. Your friend, Tom B.
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Thought you may enjoy...
"Time is
Too slow for those who Wait,
Too swift for those who Fear,
Too long for those who Grieve,
Too short for those who Rejoice,
But for those who Love
Time is not."
-Henry Vandyke (1852-1933)
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Thank you daughter of mine. This was a sweet gift and a wonderful find.
Love, Tom B.
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its like sitting under a willow tree and hearing you recite this to me the memories that can be conjured up from this is amazing. to just be free and know exactly what you want.
"The heart open
lets love flow."
this is so true in many many ways. but we all close our hearts at some time cause we get hurt too many times. and the love doesnt flow as freely as it should but has to struggle to come out.
Thanks for sharing and as always keep the muse flowing.
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We get hurt for the desire we have that the flow grow a certain garden to richness. We are not given that control.
Thanks for letting me know that this feels so tender and intimate that it becomes personal and private. Yes you can conjur up what you want and use your focus and breath to create it.
Love, Tom B. -
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i have to agree. for what we have been hurt from has in ways soiled gardens but has laid down some stronger bindings that a garden will grow and will blossom into more beauty. i will hopefully create a piece from the feeligns that this one has created and see what i can come up with.
You are much to kind for any of our sakes *lowers head*
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as always, it is very pretty tom. I liked it. It's a very tender piece.
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I must be doing something right
It appears I am touching your heart.
Love, Tom B.
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This is indeed reflective of msytical writings of the east, in a new way. The beauty of the blossoms, the current within the river, tree's memories....truly inspired writing.
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I just wanted to grace the larger picture with doorways for the simple Light within the soul. We pass so many times upon the current of time. It is good to see the peace that can be found and know that Love is never lost in just a touch but flows with us and through us.
Love, Tom B.
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awesome!
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Thanks. I hope it graces well the flow your day.
Lve, Tom B.
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I rarely see the need for a picture added to a poem,for poetry paints imagery but the picture was so delightful it was an added bonus and a pleasure to view.
The one word title has impact and is thought provoking,apt as the poet places a margin within a page in time.
The poem is a complex simplicity of a combination of showing and telling.Especially liked " time is only a current within a larger river" Indeed time is but a perspective within a collective.
The wording of "in these life times" works well at expressing the living of times of the life,some may feel it should be "in this life time" but the poet is accentuating the nuances of the fluidity,the flow and the infinite majesty of momentous moments,therefore his phraseology is more apt.
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I knew that the subtlties of this piece would not escape you. The picture provided the doorway, but the poem has its own life. I often do not like to have pictures for they lead the reader instead of the poem. This was an exception. It felt as if they supported each other.
Have another you might like
http://allpoetry.com/poem/3454496
Love, Tom B.
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Very beautiful.
Your words are filled with such peacefulness. There is much beauty in this poem. I also find a lot of gentleness this is exqusite. When the heart and hands are open love flows in that is perfect it not only pertains to other peoples love but the love Of God. Time is forever and you captured it very well as the river flows forever onward time does the same. This is beautiful and very enjoyable to read.
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When we are part of the River and aware of the touches we share, we can feel God's peace and flow to the plan. Destiny is not and argument, only a path. Thanks for the lovely comment. Love, Tom B.
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Very Tao. Your words have a sigh of ancient wisdom. Just lovely.
(The picture makes me feel sad for some reason - a personal issue).
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This contains the sadness as well as the joy. Thanks for the understanding and seeing the Way. Peace. Be blessed.
Love, Tom B.
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When one is alone, we can always find someone to share our presence. The memories of others, will share our calm. Thank-you for sharing such intruiging perception!
Well done
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All touch is sacred and those we touch and are touched by soon enough join us in the currents of the River of Life.
Love, Tom B.
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wow...
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My thanks for your joy shared.
Love, Tom B.
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Definitely words to live by
You put your thoughts down so wonderfully; so beautifully
Thank you for sharing some insight with me today; I do appreciate it and wish you the very best of luck in this contest!!! -
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I thought you might enjoy the spirituality behind the love. When we are graced with the peace of our Oneness and the world of our love, life tends to blend into the River with a sense of peace.
Love, Tom B.
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I Like these lines:
Cherry snow draped the bench.
I swept away a drift. You settled
beside me, leaned upon
my shoulder to
whisper in my ear.
Great poem. -
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Your touch of joy multiplies my own. Thank your for the grace of your touch.
Love, Tom B.
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Thank you.
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Time is only a current
within a larger river.
beautiful lines in truth. Unfortunately so many of us live within the constraints of that "time", never affording ourselves a chance to think beyond it. And thereby we remain only what we are in that moment. You illustrated so well that there is so much more to us and all that is around us, and that the "present time and how we are" would not exist had it not been for all and everything that preceeded, and our openess for all that still will be [including that PRESENT moment....it shapes the US within, the all that we were and the all that we are yet to become [tomorrow different than today].
so many times I think just those thoughts...what it was and when that made today's ME. {too much and too many to really figure it out]May that have been past lives or past experiences. Our totality is indeed too large to be "of the moment".
Thanks my friend for this Sunday morning sharing of you...of your thoughts and your being able to put your ALL onto these pages,
much love always <----then and now and later,
xoxoxoxo
reenie
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See what all that dancing on the Reflecting Pond does to you?
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This is indeed a poem to "bookmark". A memorable write this that falls as softly as the cherry blossoms you write about. I so love flowers as metaphors in poetry - so this poem speaks right to my core.
Love is always open arms...even when our loved ones aren't with us; that love runs deep, like the rivers (a river beneath a river), like the roots of tree memories. This is truly beautiful - from the picture (which I have on my computer too and have never used to inspire a poem - but I think that is about to change) to the very last words of "beside me". Love is always with us. Beautiful, beautiful poetry, Tom.
~ Nicolette
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Thank you. This was written for another contest but it went past fifteen lines. It went to the length it needed to be. I wrote another for the contest. This one had to find its own home. It has its own place in the heart. The pleasure shared brings joy to my heart.
Love, Tom B.
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I thought this was so in tuned to my thoughts today. I used the same picture with a piece I wrote today. It is a pic that has so much interpretation. I loved how you described everything. I brought your thoughts to your words, your words to my mind...Beautiful
Soulful Woman
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We are all to much a like. We share so many common threads. We can share from these to celebrate our differences. For it is the differences that illuminate us, let us become larger for sharing. Love, Tom B.
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As cherry blossoms drift and scatter,
my thoughts don't seem so much to matter,
For they are weightless in my mind
their minute waltz to wind is mime,
In bits and pieces, as I now seem,
their beauty, since, a once-blushed dream
Of long ago, when joy and laughter
made two loves one...forever after.
Through mist and echo, lonely heart
waits circle's end, Forever's start.
KL 9/29/07
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Beautiful poem, Tom.
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I have come to see that when i write really deeply it is an inspiration to thee. Your words always sing to my heart, I am glad to be one of the places where they start.
Love, Tom B. -
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You move me to windows and vistas, Tom, often to a place where I feel this is, too, a waking dream. ~k
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beautiful... quite striking imagery...
this is the second or third poem of yours in which I have read a metaphor involving cherry blossoms... it is a term that I personally try to avoid, but you use it quite well... it works well especially in this piece... the likening of rebirth to cherry blossoms in bloom... I get so many requests from people wishing to travel when they will be able to see the cherry blossoms... a coating that covers the earth - a light dusting that inspires awe and wonderment and so many questions...
this is a lovely and peaceful compositions... although thought provoking and kind of a questioning tone about it, it seems to offer suggestions as well, or at least a sense of serenity...
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Thanks. Your unique comment helps me to see the larger picture. I never would use cherry blossoms either ~ until one spring in DC, one love, one moment when I was changed forever. We, human being are inextricably tied to the earth and cherry blossoms are one of the paths to the heart of this relationship.
I am glad you could enjoy my simple words and the pictures they created in your heart.
Love, Tom B.
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Time is only a current
within a larger river.
So well said. You know as I read the works of you my mind just wants to lull there. Just to stay in the moments that you create. You write the places my heart would long to stay. As always...you have captured my attention...
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From time to time, I am able to share the journey of my spirit. That it touches you, tells me that it is a journey that is not unusual or without a common theme. You sharing how you are touch graces my life and enlarges the size of my inner heart. Love, Tom B.
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We are a little bit on the same wavelength today...I wrote today a line, "the blood remembers"...
the last three stanzas you have written,wow...need i say more?...
an odd thing...a flood of old ballads just washed over me..."I gave my love a cherry"...was one, "Here I sit on buttermilk hill", was another and then, "I know where I'm going, i know who'll go with me, i know who i love, but the d'il knows who i'll marry"
just thought i'd share that, lol...
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Hell of a good wave length to be on I think in part we are reborn to work out all of our touches till they are clean and pure. I know that love and lovers live in my life from many lives and I can feel the pulls. I know that in this life there will be more work for me in the future because of my foolishness. The price we pay for youth I love the ballads. I am thinking of a couple sung by the Byrds and Fairport Convention. I can also think of one by Richard Thompson, but I think he wrote it. Love, Tom B.
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Tomis just when the breath has returned you arrive with something far more beautiful than before. You create miracles in your poetry of past lives the depths of planes/realms shared and the joy of sharing love.
You make love in poetry giving all of us readers the bliss of the ecstacy. I can only thank you for sharing with us the depth of your heart and the profoundness held within your metaphors.
Definitely defined Quality here
All the best in the contest
Many Blessings~
~Joy
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I wrote this for another contest. It wouldn't finish in fifteen lines and it is so complete I was compeled to find another contest for it to be seen in. I wrote Chrysalis for the contest. It worked beautifully too. I think I was supposed to be in that contest because pictures usually do little for me and these two really struck to the bone. This one I knew right away touched a flow within me.
Yes, we know the flow and how we work out all the touches till they are pure in each of our lives. I have to thank you. You have helped me become less impeded (horrible way to say it) in expressing what I already know and much has been waiting for the opening. *bows head*
Love, Tom B. -
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*bows with skirt in each hand*
Your Welcome-
Thank you for the exchange of expressions it has been a homecoming that has been welcomed
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Beautifully Penned Bravo!!!
The title fits the verses perfectly, because in each life if we have no bookmarks. Then we have not loved nor lived at all. This piece reaches out and slaps the one lying in the face. Some will not admit they have bookmarks. "but if we are human we all do" This read pulled many memories from corners of my mind....novy
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It is nice to hear you see the bookmarks. Yes, when we touch and are touched it is forever. We work it out in this life and the next.
Love, Tom B.
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