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Best Poems From
RANI TURTON
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29.
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Life In Pastel
I think and often imagine
Even in scorched dreams
Myself and life as it seems;
As it seems, seems, seems.
I have a tenuous grip on reality
A self-made functional mode.
I think I have some aspects of alterity;
I can think in colours unrefined.
Pastel, refined, softspoken,
Colours that were not mine;
I can speak in languages
That are often tough and fine.
I can think in pastel
Speak in pastel and subdued
My life, often in colours bright
To this has now been reduced.
I have a life in pastel but inside
I have emotion bright and strong
I can think in pastel but emotion
Remains vivid and lifelong.
Life, filaments of life, in muted hues,
Is thus what it amounts to:
Live softly, there is yet a vivid dream
That I am driven to pursue.
Copyright: Rani Turton
Rani Turton
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30.
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Lines to Sammy, Somewhere
Your guitar lies unused, forlorn
You will never be coming back home.
I remember the one you made
Wood and strings and song
Sometimes even the song goes wrong;
It wasn't easy it wasn't even fair
Is there a guiding power out there?
I remember when you tried so hard
Some fights are unequal
That was the hardest part
You took every pain straight into your heart.
I guess you would have been surprised
The place you took in our hearts
I remember your loneliness, your secret pain
The chords you taught me to play
That will echo on in another way
C major, F major, G7
Now you'll teach them all in heaven.
The worst part of dying Sammy is this
That though you will always remain young
The worst part of dying Sammy is also
The songs that will never be sung.
Rani Turton
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31.
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Look, the Sun is Rising
Look, the sun is rising
Yesterday's troubles have dissolved
In the morning mist; the past will go away
At last: don't fret and weep
This golden light will transform worry
Into calm acceptance without any hurry
It might even rain
Cleanse the earth and then
Wash off all mortel pain
When you pause and think
There are some people right on the brink
And that this might be their last night's sleep
And that this might be their last sunrise.
Rani Turton
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32.
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Poems of Longing, Languishing
There used to be laughter once; there used to be summer once;
The earth seemed warmer and kinder at that time
The fireflies at dusk came out for us.
The willow forgot to weep. Wounds went to sleep.
Then twilight came. Life changed.
But maybe it was me; maybe it was I who didnt keep
Promises and negotiated nothing in my destiny;
That in spite of all the things I did that I didnt want to do
That in spite of all that I didnt do that I was longing to do
To walk slowly through those paths, reach the fountain
I knew so well by sight or sound,
Water, sparkling, splashing, cascading onto stones
I knew as well as the lines in my hand or my bones
Watered by drops from this fountain,
Watered by the raindrops from the skies
From the tears in my eyes
Those pavements that bore the traces of your steps
And my bitter reflections and dreams
Life is refraction, a long walk alone;
To pause, my body aching, my heart breaking
Knowing that some things cannot be undone
Those windows are still there, the courtyard has changed
The doorway where I paused to wipe my tears
Far off the river flows, gently
Murmuring its passion and pain
These poems of love move my heart and cause it to plunge
Like the waters of that fountain that sprout
From the sculpted lions mouth.
There used to be long ago
In this part of the city
My love, my beloved, an almost foe
My foe because of the pain caused
Unwittingly or deliberately:
Not because of the pity;
Pity comes from compassion, no, not that
The pain that pierced my heart
The pain that stopped my heart with his hand
That makes it just another episode in this city
Stoneflagged pain then.
Tear-washed pavements also.
Green benches for the weary;
Fountain-spouted words so.
Pigeons scatter and scurry
Clouds scud real low:
As above, so below.
Blow winds of change blow.
Rani Turton
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