Kin of Kilmeny
Poetry by KittenQuills

"Beatrice"
Unbidden reaches
of a hunger born
from unknown fruit
a riptide current pulls and twists
makes smooth
the marble form
each artifice and angle
curved
dissolves.

And sulphur's darker taste
the silver frees for softer
gold
the messenger breaks down
the ruby's glare
and softer pearl shines
through,
no glint of serpentine
allegiance owed.


"Tone"
I have been gone so long
the quail have gained
an different tone
the call is lower
questing, reaching
for an answer I do not know
and cannot guess.


"Sakura"
Night winds push coldly
In the morning petal snow
Lies thick with footprints.



"Love Songs- a series"


The ache that catches at my heart
And binds my soul to you:
Like pebbles tumbled by the sea,
A summer's starlight view,
Or wind that rushes through a storm
And every bird's first song.
Your heart sings out, with notes so sweet,
Where else could I belong?

~

my home is within you
in gentle words
soft spoken in the night
in kisses lips cannot
share but souls do

my sweetest
the downy nest
warm and safe inside
only there my head will
rest in dreams

wings reach and feathers
slip between where fingers
catch and hold
but wings can fly
to bring me home

~

“Song of mine heart,” thou sayest with truest tone,
And up mine own heart lept within my chest,
Sweet Love, no dearer name I hope to own
Than that which thou dost call me, e’er I’m pressed
Within thy arms, and thy lips to my hair.
Oh Angel One, most dulcet ‘tis thy song
That threads my days, thy voice doth fill the air
With joy, each note within mine heart belongs
And hidden there brings forth the sweetest fruit
Of love upon mine face, to match that smile
Which e’er upon thy lips - no dream acute
Is this - our truth, my Sweetest, holds no guile.
And always may our songs entangled stay
As to our melody we dancing sway.

~

I never thought such happiness to have
As these few days have seen, nor joy so great
Within my heart; your love, so rich a salve
Has healed each wound once dealt by others' hate.
And now my love springs free, its true home known,
For kindled in my chest such fire sweet
Does softly burn, my thoughts to you are blown
With every breath, your heart therefore to seek
That somehow I might show how full and strong
I glow for you, a sunrise opal-hued
But touches it - the colors fade e're long -
Yet, like the sun, each morn my love's renewed.
These words I sing can never fully say
How I love you: my love grows more each day.

~

I must say, you have quite the command of language, and I quite enjoy the way you seem to know just where to set a break and how throw opposites together in such a way as to create a complete picture of something, to express the ambiguity of human emotion. Beyond that, the rhythm and tone of a number of these poems, and the layering of meanings and emotions is impressive, to say the very least.

However, I do believe that the first of them falls flat in comparison to many of the others. It seems entirely too convoluted, as though in expressing the idea in images you have somehow managed to lose sight of what you were expressing in the first place. That is to say that the images seem to have taken over.

As it is, my favorites would have to be "Tone" and the majority of the love song series (with the exception of the second one, which seems somehow uncreatively cliche and dull beside the others).