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Tuesday, 20 November 2007
Jade for ever
22.11.2000
Jade
Give me jade
White and yellow and palest green
Grey - rich green and spinach
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Jade
Give me jade
White and yellow and palest green
Grey - rich green and spinach
Give me jade
Jade for luck
Jade for mystery and promise
Jade for luck
Jade for mystery and promise
Carve a spell
with sharp bamboo abrasion
Lotus leaf and flower
A horse - a goose - a lamb
A bottle made for snuff
A yellow lion
with sharp bamboo abrasion
Lotus leaf and flower
A horse - a goose - a lamb
A bottle made for snuff
A yellow lion
Give me life
Long life and happiness
Long life and happiness
Give me warmth
A carving made of spirit
A history extended through the age
Give me riches made of time
Give me jade
A carving made of spirit
A history extended through the age
Give me riches made of time
Give me jade
copyright 2000 Charlotte Peters Rock
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Lapis lazuli
12.8.96
Lapis from Badakshan
carried by mule
guarded through Peshawar
spread as far as Cleopatra
Blue to contrast with her scarab stones
guarding the ancient throne of Egypt
Along the Silk Road
Alexander's elephants hauled its precious weight
Blue as the skies it touched
in steady daylight moving West
Ground to powder
gleaming blue it glows along the ceiling
of the Sistine Chapel and
across the world where paintings
by Michelangelo and da Vinci
are prized for beauty and inventiveness
The richest seam
Sapphures to prospectors of ancient Rome
Six thousand years of labour
spreading wealth about emerging Empires
drawing envy from declining states
In winter lying silent
above the ice-line
Deep below the snow
in high Afghanistan
its single resting seam
waits for plundering
Chip by chip
and stone by stone its precious colour
taken in the spring and summer
through the Badlands and
the rifle fire of bandits
trickles on
No other stone
glowing ultra-marine
like sea above the coral reefs
or depths of blue descending down their seaward walls
no other stone can take the place
of lapis lazuli
Lapis from Badakshan
carried by mule
guarded through Peshawar
spread as far as Cleopatra
Blue to contrast with her scarab stones
guarding the ancient throne of Egypt
Along the Silk Road
Alexander's elephants hauled its precious weight
Blue as the skies it touched
in steady daylight moving West
Ground to powder
gleaming blue it glows along the ceiling
of the Sistine Chapel and
across the world where paintings
by Michelangelo and da Vinci
are prized for beauty and inventiveness
The richest seam
Sapphures to prospectors of ancient Rome
Six thousand years of labour
spreading wealth about emerging Empires
drawing envy from declining states
In winter lying silent
above the ice-line
Deep below the snow
in high Afghanistan
its single resting seam
waits for plundering
Chip by chip
and stone by stone its precious colour
taken in the spring and summer
through the Badlands and
the rifle fire of bandits
trickles on
No other stone
glowing ultra-marine
like sea above the coral reefs
or depths of blue descending down their seaward walls
no other stone can take the place
of lapis lazuli
copyright 1996 Charlotte Peters Rock
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Time away
20.5.96
Time was I held you in my arms
soothing
Drove away the hooded crow that perched
at the end of your tiny bed
crowing
Silenced the rampant cock that strutted
along the lane on your way to school
darting his beak across your skin
pecking
Swung you out and high and wide
your hands in mine your head thrown back
a Magic Roundabout all our own
as the earth dipped in and the sky fell out
spinning
Tickled your knees and ears with grass
summer-seeded along the lane
where you lay asleep in the afternoon
near the shadowed spider spinnings
that glistened all night in jewelled dew
teasing
-
Lying in sheets all tumbled round
I fret and fumble murmuring low
shaking sounds to a deafened door
standing between my life and death
staring in from the window behind my bed
teasing
Swinging all the world away
the hands and hearts and the heads thrown back
giggling into a roundabout laughter
as death dips in and life dips out
spinning
Silences call from the ramparts now
to winding gears as the years run out
and death's mouth kisses at my skin
pecking
Driving in the hooded crow to perch
at the end of the tumbled bed
crowing
Time now to hold me in your arms
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Time was I held you in my arms
soothing
Drove away the hooded crow that perched
at the end of your tiny bed
crowing
Silenced the rampant cock that strutted
along the lane on your way to school
darting his beak across your skin
pecking
Swung you out and high and wide
your hands in mine your head thrown back
a Magic Roundabout all our own
as the earth dipped in and the sky fell out
spinning
Tickled your knees and ears with grass
summer-seeded along the lane
where you lay asleep in the afternoon
near the shadowed spider spinnings
that glistened all night in jewelled dew
teasing
-
Lying in sheets all tumbled round
I fret and fumble murmuring low
shaking sounds to a deafened door
standing between my life and death
staring in from the window behind my bed
teasing
Swinging all the world away
the hands and hearts and the heads thrown back
giggling into a roundabout laughter
as death dips in and life dips out
spinning
Silences call from the ramparts now
to winding gears as the years run out
and death's mouth kisses at my skin
pecking
Driving in the hooded crow to perch
at the end of the tumbled bed
crowing
Time now to hold me in your arms
soothing time away
copyright 1996 Charlotte Peters Rock
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The point
14.3.92
The point of learning
is to stretch imagination
to the wider shores of dreams.
Coercing each brain cell
to feats beyond imagining.
Removing every limit
but the tick of endless time.
Oiling the cogs in its clock
to make it march
effortlessly
on
forever
copyright 1992 Charlotte Peters Rock
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The point of learning
is to stretch imagination
to the wider shores of dreams.
Coercing each brain cell
to feats beyond imagining.
Removing every limit
but the tick of endless time.
Oiling the cogs in its clock
to make it march
effortlessly
on
forever
copyright 1992 Charlotte Peters Rock
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Child Poems site
Windmill
1.12.92
As windmills go,
it was too far back to hit,
too distant for deriding at full tilt,
like Don Quixote and Cervantes.
Its blood, its life, should spill onto the ground.
This windmill's spinning arms will still go round
and rise, beyond my wishes and advances,
not tilted full, nor tilted to the hilt.
But at least this windmill, just a little bit,
was pushed off balance as I turned to go.
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As windmills go,
it was too far back to hit,
too distant for deriding at full tilt,
like Don Quixote and Cervantes.
Its blood, its life, should spill onto the ground.
This windmill's spinning arms will still go round
and rise, beyond my wishes and advances,
not tilted full, nor tilted to the hilt.
But at least this windmill, just a little bit,
was pushed off balance as I turned to go.
Main site
Poetry site
Song site
Child Poems site
A degree of thought
2.5.95
"A kilo of mixed degrees please.
One high degree two low degrees
Rather louche the low degrees
don't you think?
Oh yes and one of optimism
one pessimism one cleverness..
and possibly one of stupidity?
No Hang on I've changed my mind
Ditch the last one
One of certainty and one excitement
One of passion Two of se_ No.
At my age..perhaps not
I'll consider Would it be too tiring?
Oh alright then We only live once
Make it three Yes three!
Yes I'm quite certain
Now what's left? A degree of patience
One of staying power One tenderness
One friendship No make that two
One pleasure One intensity One equality
One respect One concern One communication
One support (no not a truss we're speaking degrees here)
One security One sensitivity
One of warmth and one of closeness
Humour? Yes a few One of wit (vitriol-free)
One hilarity One kind-humour
One good-humour
What do you mean I have to take
bad-humour as well?
Cheaper by the pair? Don't care
Hang the expense Good humour only!
One degree of trust two sided 3D
(space and total)
One of time and that larger one
of varied thought
Oh yes and a degree of feeling
the multi-pack-numerous
Oh and can I have one in
mental bungee? I wore the last one out
Thank you
copyright 1995 Charlotte Peters Rock
Main site
Poetry site
Song site
Child Poems site
"A kilo of mixed degrees please.
One high degree two low degrees
Rather louche the low degrees
don't you think?
Oh yes and one of optimism
one pessimism one cleverness..
and possibly one of stupidity?
No Hang on I've changed my mind
Ditch the last one
One of certainty and one excitement
One of passion Two of se_ No.
At my age..perhaps not
I'll consider Would it be too tiring?
Oh alright then We only live once
Make it three Yes three!
Yes I'm quite certain
Now what's left? A degree of patience
One of staying power One tenderness
One friendship No make that two
One pleasure One intensity One equality
One respect One concern One communication
One support (no not a truss we're speaking degrees here)
One security One sensitivity
One of warmth and one of closeness
Humour? Yes a few One of wit (vitriol-free)
One hilarity One kind-humour
One good-humour
What do you mean I have to take
bad-humour as well?
Cheaper by the pair? Don't care
Hang the expense Good humour only!
One degree of trust two sided 3D
(space and total)
One of time and that larger one
of varied thought
Oh yes and a degree of feeling
the multi-pack-numerous
Oh and can I have one in
mental bungee? I wore the last one out
Thank you
copyright 1995 Charlotte Peters Rock
Main site
Poetry site
Song site
Child Poems site
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