On Losing: Poem

On Losing

Walking on the edge, walking, walking on the edge
It could have been now or never; now or forever.

On losing, or letting loose consequences
Often life's bitter sequences;

And then dawn would come.
Hope beckoned as alone

Hiding in an alcove dark and aloof
Rain splattering on the roof

Words fond their way to my soul:
Strummed, drummed and made me whole.

Copyright: Rani Turton

Cry Now, Relentless Fire: Poem

 Cry Now, Relentless Fire

Ease the pain, now, coursing,
Furious, raging fire
Someone whom, just by silent touch
Can say so much

There were rivers of embers
Coursing in my veins; cry now,
Divine, relentless  fire
Sleep will come with the dawn
Immemorable fire, but no, not desire
For this life or another
No pangs for immortality

Ease the pain, while the planets spin
The world, upside down, slanting
Speaks to me through
Slivers, shivers, rivers
Of corporal fire; my brain
Has no more space in which to think

I am this moment, sage and mage
I am the fire, the image
And then comes the pain, again
Coursing in my veins; cry now,

Divine, relentless fire

Copyright: Rani Turton

So Acute Was My Loneliness: Poem

So Acute Was My Loneliness

Cobbled stones, not dust.

So acute was my loneliness that dream I must.

Escapism was a flight from dreary realism.

.

If roam I must, if chains I must break

Alone, in this pebble-strewn destiny

My happiness I must fake.

.

So acute was my loneliness that home was far

Too far; too far and distant my loved ones and my thoughts

That in that black cosmic wilderness even the North Star

Seemed close enough to touch. That even my words

Seemed transparent and tinted with Orientalism

.

So distant and cold, so empty my worlds.

So acute was my loneliness even the poems would not come

The words fled, the streets wet, a spectre I had become

My memories tinged with the bitter things I had done

.

All alone. When dawns touched my lids after fitful sleep

I had resolved never, never to weep

However deep the pain. However acute the pain

The sun would shine tomorrow and I would become myself again.

.

Copyright: Rani Turton