Where The Path Finds Us

In the nature sanctuary
everything has been recycled,
the stones and grass roof
take me deep inside myself
close to earth
closer to beginnings
 
I watch the candle flame
knowing it is held in grace
its leaf dish fired with love
 
I close my eyes –
I am sea grass
I am cosmic blue
I am protected
in this circle of light
 
Outside I will not
find you sitting on the bench
your book laid to rest
your morning breath tangible,
so I stay within my heart
our paths forever crossing
like nature’s miracle.

Eileen Carney Hulme

in collection, The Space Between Rain, 2010, Indigo Dreams Publishing, ISBN 978-1-907401-12-1

back to top

 

Sun-Drenched

The sun exploded
in her mouth
and for a while
coloured her world orange
 
it was as if
she was inside out,
echoing the midnight tick
of a slow heart beat
 
her flame-haired lover
teased the skin below her belly,
stirred lotus petals
along energy pathways
 
while outside
rain climbed two floors
to sketch hieroglyphs
across chamfered window pains
 
if, in the next hour,
the sky darkened
like some funeral coat,
she would wear the silence
 
but for now
she will speak in opposites,
brush away shadows
that defined another.

Eileen Carney Hulme

in collection, The Space Between Rain, 2010, Indigo Dreams Publishing, ISBN 978-1-907401-12-1;
2nd place Indigo Dreams Press Poetry Competition 2009

back to top

 

Sifting Karma

I wanted to ask you
about Hesperus and early
mornings like this in the North
where the brightest star
is a talisman and a crimson lake
floats on a faraway sky
 
I wanted to know how
you slept and if your dreams
were white clouds trailing over
distant mountains and if your hands
held blossoms or snow
 
I wanted to tell you
that on countless walks
I have gathered these gifts –
leaves, pebbles, a melted
moon and three leftover kisses
from a picnic on the dunes.

Eileen Carney Hulme

in collection, The Space Between Rain, 2010, Indigo Dreams Publishing, ISBN 978-1-907401-12-1;
published in Poetry Scotland Magazine

back to top

 

Wild Spirits

Night drifts
and I feel the breeze
of summers past
the bittersweet of
orange blossom
circlets of soul-wounds
old energies in motion

Back then
we were always
seconds from disaster
explorers, searching for some truth
thunderstruck with longings
zapped with amber kisses
dizzy on a never-ending fairground wheel

I wish
I’d kept the gifts;
handcrafted bracelet and ring from India
the American photographs
when you were seventeen,
your letters, chalk and cheese of moods
but mostly the passion, serial hopes

and that one day sat on the dunes
shuffling the sunset, not mouthing the words.

Eileen Carney Hulme

in collection, The Space Between Rain, 2010, Indigo Dreams Publishing, ISBN 978-1-907401-12-1;
highly-commended in City of Derby Poetry Competition 2006 and published on their web-site

back to top