“Love’s Flames Are A Blazing Fire, The Flame of Jah.”

“Love’s Flames Are A Blazing Fire,
The Flame of Jah.”


by Seah Greenhorn
(poem with copyright)

"Look! You are beautiful,
my beloved.

Look! You are beautiful.

Your eyes are those of doves.”

Do not these lips speak of love?

Yet, the King's lair
is filled of soft tresses
of golden, black, brown, red
aging or youthful strands
of cultures fair.

*

Is it of love in which he speaks
when he knows not of me?

Still he seeks
to have; to hold
as if my love is bought
then sold.

May I be so bold
as to say
my shepherd boy,
for whom I pray

with him my heart
expands and pounds
with each his step
on pastured grounds.

I am his
for now and always.

Please do not make me utter words,
Your Kingship,
though your gold can build a castle strong.

If I lie to you of feelings deep,
my soul will drip
in sorrow drown.

Tis not love I feel for you,
nor you for me.

You know not how my spirit sleeps
upon the breast of my dear one true.

You know not why his kiss I dream
laying silent near silvery streams.

My shepherd boy, I've come to know
through trails and paths as I did grow
a sun-kissed tan upon my skin.

My brothers warning:
"Do be a wall,"
protected us from lustful falls
beneath the vineyards lovely limbs.

Tis not of love you wish for me;
for if so it is
or ever was

Please set me free.

Signed:

"Your
Eyes of Doves,"

For my Shepherd Boy
lives to hold my heart
as His treasured key.

This is an example of attraction; infatuation and love.

Song of Solomon 1:15; 8:6

The Song of Solomon beautifully describes the love that a man and woman can have for each other. The song is about the love between a country girl from the village of Shunem, or Shulem, and a young shepherd. This is their story: The girl was working in her brothers’ vineyards close to where King Solomon and his soldiers were camped. He noticed the girl and ordered his servants to bring her into the camp. Then he told her how beautiful she was and offered her many gifts. But the girl was in love with a shepherd and insisted that she wanted to be with him. (Song of Solomon 1:4-14) The shepherd looked for her and went into the camp. When he found her, they expressed their love for each other with beautiful words.—Song of Solomon 1:15–17.

5 When Solomon returned to Jerusalem, he took the young woman with him, and the shepherd followed her. (Song of Solomon 4:1-5, 8, 9) Nothing that Solomon said or did could change the girl’s love for the shepherd. (Song of Solomon 6:4-7; 7:1-10) So Solomon let the girl go back home. Finally, the Shulammite called to her dear one to come running to her “like a gazelle.”—Song of Solomon 8:14.
  love • society • spiritual • teen © Lucretia Mccloud 2016

Love will Hammer Hate to A Crying Shame

by Seah Greenhorn

(Poem with copyright)

End, pray, races gait to hate!
Bury this tool that pounds to dead silence.
Fear catapults anger to violent change.
Mild/meek sheep flip Jekyll, then Hyde--Deranged.
Yes, oppression produces deep malice.
Cause wasteful war, though many pine for love.

Why shame hearts beating for love?
Is not this a distorted mirror--Hate?
Does not unearthed envy lead to malice?
Why humanity's rush to graves's silence?
Should blind bats scare us to thinking deranged?
What will inspire bull-like actions to change?

A cultivated vine in bloom brings change.
Soft scents enhaled incite us to spread love.
Bouquets of peace mellow sighs of deranged.
Overturn the packed soil of wicked hate.
Unstop ears of apathetic silence.
Birds chirp; fly freely; not clipped in malice.

Propaganda enflames, as coal, malice.
Diverts the cooling rains of thirsty change.
Confines the coos of doves to complete silence.
Ices soothing warmth of brotherly love.
Derides and divides till earth rocks in hate.
Till terror reigns through puppeteers deranged.

Will peace capture the hearts of the deranged?
Can jealousy surrender its malice?
Does forgiveness derail pride's passage to hate?
Should ignorance prevent bigotry's change?
Will the earth rediscover real love?
Or will violence purchase trust's silence?

Love will pummel hate to a grateful silence.
The earth freed from hostage to minds deranged.
Exploitation unarmed by justice; love.
No ethnic barriers carts of malice.
Agape love to transport needed change.
War subjugated to graveyard of hate.

Sweet silence to war songs sang in malice.
Swaddle the deranged for overdue change.
Love our enemies; emasculate hate.

© Lucretia Mccloud, 18 minutes ago

Contest: I liked the word sestina before I knew what it was. The few I read intrigued me with their oddly obsessive character. By the time I got around to trying one I was hooked and doomed, as I am not normally inclined to rigid forms, but when I do attempt them, I like to use the original version of the form, in this case credited to Arnaut Daniel in the 12th Century.

Please write a sestina, any subject, following Arnaut Daniel's form.

The rules seem extremely rigid and complex at first glance, but I hope you will find, as I did, that there is tremendous freedom inside those rules.  Good luck.

Here is a wiki page explaining the form: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sestina

Here is a sestina I wrote using that form: http://allpoetry.com/poem/12012719-To-Build-A-Bonfire----Sestina--by-Andrew-Sano
Stanza 1 Stanza 2 Stanza 3 Stanza 4 Stanza 5 Stanza 6 1 A 6 F 3 C 5 E 4 D 2 B 2 B 1 A 6 F 3 C 5 E 4 D 3 C 5 E 4 D 2 B 1 A 6 F 4 D 2 B 1 A 6 F 3 C 5 E 5 E 4 D 2 B 1 A 6 F 3 C 6 F 3 C 5 E 4 D 2 B 1 A The sixth stanza is followed by a tercet that is known variably by the French term envoi, the Occitan term tornada,[5] or, with reference to its size in relation to the preceding stanzas, a "half-stanza".[7] It consists of three lines that include all six of the line-endings words of the preceding stanzas. This should take the pattern of 2–5, 4–3, 6–1 (numbers relative to the first stanza); the first end-word of each pair can occur anywhere in the line, while the second must end the line.[33] However, the end-word order of the envoi is no longer strictly enforced.[34]

Love • Hate