Going by future guidelines, this is on my profile at the moment, so any comments you can post there.

It's a newish piece I've been working on for two months. It's a bit long and sure to get longer by next year. An audio sample will be available soon. [Nothing like the last one!]

JRT

good to hear the audio stuff john


you always got me interested

Orchestration of Waves

We arranged to meet on the midday beach
A secluded spot, for us, out of reach
From prying eyes and those bothersome flies.

You sent your Cleopatra pheromones at my blade of a nose
And shimmied your way to me, carrying a rose.
The waves lapped in silence as I watched you dance
To the rhythm of nature, to the tempo of chance.
You seemed to hold the weight of a humming bird
And the flutter of an owl in your eyes.
You reached out and touched my lips.
You told me, in a whisper
That the Devil is an optimist if he thinks
He can make people worse than they are.
I stood and stared at your finely placed freckles,
Those small imperfections interrupting the smooth run of skin.
The pinpoint precision at the top of your thigh;
The scattering madness of jazz on your nose in the sun.
One lying, along the jaw line, fingered when stressed,
One secret, concealed, hidden between breasts.
I placed a kiss with the warm breath of a rose on your arm
And felt a tremor, a warm fervour dance across my lips.

We first met two nights ago in a bar made of concrete and steel.
With a whiskey or two inside us, it was easy to feel
Our way around each other’s thoughts, each other’s dreams,
To see them match, correspond and communicate desire.
We talked all night as a band played and perspired,
Their frenzied shakes, skipping beats, gravity defying notes
Moving us closer and closer until we could barely float
Above the yearning, the craving, the lust of our loins.
We stared at each other through a mist of expectation.
The trumpets piped down, the piano played Morse code
And the lights, the hue, changed to a warm yet dangerous red.

That night, as we walked back to your hotel,
We saw some black cat pour itself from a fence to a path,
We passed a beggar, his forehead touching a copper plate,
Humble to any tinkle of coins. It was getting late
As we entered your room. The full moon winked at the closest star.
We embraced before the bed and we hadn’t got far
Before you said that you wished tomorrow would never come.
My stomach filled with excitement but my heart overflowed with dread.

But back to the beach and with sand in my toes and the wind in my hair
I took you by the hand and didn’t give a care
To the tide that was rising with the gushing of my blood
Through my body as we kissed before the flood.
I felt the rat’s feet of panic scuttle up my spine
And the cold hands of fear finger their way through my intestines.
We turned to look, saw an orchestration of waves.
A symphonic power of how the planet behaves
When we ignore our duties to Mother Earth, the Queen
Of all that is good, of all that is green.

We drowned on that beach in an ocean of lament.
Of our brief time together and what it ultimately meant.
It was the summer of fond expectations
Yet finished in the false hope of a pair of fools.
A pair of fools who believed that death stands opposite from desire
And life, life is the jester who laughs at our demise,
Who, between cackles says “You two are
A clumsy version of a good idea,
Like pterodactyls.” And we listen as the whole world
Becomes a blur, a flaming copperland drowned
In some sick joke of ignored responsibility.

But, to be lost in a sea as mighty as this
Is worth the danger we’d be foolish to miss.
So as we float to the surface of these immense waves
And are tumbled again amongst the wreckage engraved
Upon this landscape, this new scene of remains.
We’ll wait to be identified, to see if someone will claim
To know us, even though we were the only strangers in town.
Then forever, we’ll be known as the lovers who drowned
Eternally bound, eternally bound, eternally bound, eternally bound.

With our time on the earth gone in less than the blink of an eye,
We’ll appear in some kind of afterlife.
We’ll knock on some oak door.
Be greeted be a man as old as the loop of the wind.
He’ll give us a knife, a sharp blade
To cleanse all impurity, to lay bear our entrails
Cut ourselves free from tongues that lie
From truths that twirl
From hearts that smash into each other
From the holes of our memory
That are random and guilty.
We’ll be offered the chance to rage
Against the heated winds, to free each other from the cage
Of hypocrisy and become a distinctive form of our mythic self
That can understand fate and appreciate our place in the world.

What an incredible poem John, you are truly gifted. I love the way you have used music in the piece and I can actually hear the instruments as I read - I haven't listened to the audio version of this yet (but definately will) but I think if you haven't already a jazz instrumental, using the instruments you mention in particular, the trumpet and piano (and maybe a soft beating of a Jembe drum to immitate the waves) would be incredible.
I didn't think you could impress me anymore than you had done with Landing in PC but I am very impressed.
I lovre the imagery you use, especially the animal imagery which adds to the animalistic passion of the lovers. The cat pouring herself from the fence as the woman perhaps pours herself from the night into existence for the man, and the man synonymous with the rat - procreation his purpose in life?

I don't wish to make this beautiful poem a point of political contestation, but I will say this very incredible poem is the very reason the poetry review thread should stay open, how can people who truly love poetry or consider themselves poets be turned away when seeing the wonder of these poems?

Anyway John I just want to say thank you for sharing your fantastic poems with us and good luck with your writing.

Ahh I see I have got ahead of you, there is yet no audio version - you must do one this would be even more incredible with the music behind it.