Darkness, My Beloved: Poem

Darkness, My Beloved


Watching the night approach with silent tread
Waiting to clasp his hand.
Waiting for that compassion
That pretends not to notice faults
Of stammering, stumbling, lisping or halts.

Darkness softens, hides, transmutes
Bases qualities into gold
Moonbeams dance on rooftops; it may be
Soon I those rays of light could hold.
But words enter unbidden into my mind

.
Like in a tranced love, this liason with you
This dark and unseemly pact I have,
When I can leave all my errors behind.


Did you know that you, the dark,
This warm enveloping darkness, my beloved
Is what I wait for everyday?
Soft lamps, verse, the murmurs and
Rituals that only the sombre can understand;
Now draw the curtain, and hasten:
Come, my beloved, hold my hand.

Copyright (Image and text): Rani Turton

Every Woman Everywhere: Poem

Every Woman Everywhere
If only every woman at the well
Could have her pitcher filled; her needs fulfilled
The right to follow her own dream

If only could every woman who cried
Hot tears of guilt, submission or pain
Could be met with compassion

Fears of work in wild cities,
Fears, fears, tears.
Where do you go when you're alone?

Some do destiny follow
Some do lies swallow;
An idea that abandoning roles can
Change destiny since time began.

But do you want to die alone?
Do you want to survive or plead?
What paths do you want to tread?
Why do you urge other women to follow
All the lies you had to swallow?
Village women, city women
Fears, fears, tears.

Some ideas of education and roots
Like a bamboo and it's shoots;
You hear the same discourse.
It is your own idea where your freedom lies.

Freedom from hunger, freedom from strife
Does the city then have any pity?
For one, hunger because the crops have failed
And for the other, wageless, hunger
For the rents have to be paid

Pretty princess or simple maid
Every woman, everywhere.

Copyright: Rani Turton