Live Encounters Poetry & Writing August 2024
Brother Blackbird, poems by Katherine L Gordon.
Brother Blackbird
The blackbird fights a rising wind,
I see him soar between the gusts
with enviable grace
riding each wave with clever descent
into harbouring trees.
I link my spirit to his,
buffeted between the tempt of sky
and pull of earth.
Clouds part for me in caped surprise
duty and mundane let go.
I would erase all war and strife
see the land as everyone’s,
tame the wind to benevolence
scatter the seeds of grace and joy
the love of soul-flight
let the earth and heavens be one
in a rapture of green clean freedom.
Castles In Wales
Stones so old, clutching secrets,
built to make bold statements of impregnable defense
while time in her mirth at human illusion
erodes keep and tower
erases boot-hollows in ancient steps.
Yet we sense the power, the iron belief
in weapons and zeal, the spirits caught
in old shaped stones like a startled gargoyle,
his smashed face and bleeding neck forever part
of that castle-wall fabric.
A mind-switch stirs in motion the busy reeking kitchens,
ladies farewelling weaponed gallants, love suspended.
The lust for power and control fragrancing the leaf-strewn air,
the passions of another time echoing in our confused blood,
so primal so real, we no longer know how to channel it.
We touch a rampart and recover our equilibrium,
all so docile now but the primal heart stirs.
I know these walls and still search for you.
Marooned in a cell-phone time
where true immersion in another does not happen.
© Katherine L Gordon
Katherine L. Gordon is a poet, publisher, author, editor, anthologist, judge, reviewer and literary critic. She has many books, chapbooks, co-operative books and anthologies internationally. She is the recipient of many awards including Best Foreign Author from the 9th international edition of “I Colori Dell Anima” Italy. She earned an award from The World Poetry Association for her contribution to peace poetry. Her work is translated into many languages and will appear this year in a U.S./Korean anthology and two international collections in Italy and China. Katherine believes that poetry is a unifying force across the planet.