“O, Absalom!” Open Link Night at dverse…..

https://goo.gl/YNzows

Gayle (Bodhirose)is leaving dversepoets to attend to her gorgeous granddaughters.  She will be missed by everyone.  Gayle has been a new friend, but one of the kindest poets (and wittiest) I have met.  Gayle, please be in contact when you can, you will be sorely missed by me and others. (and you know who!)

Jane

 

This second edition of “A Seasoning of Lust” was just published on Amazon.com in mid December, 2016. I want to thank, again, Nick Nicholson in Australia, for the work he did on this new edition.  The cover, the formatting, and his beautiful photographs in this edition make the book beautiful.  Amazon as publisher did wonderful work for this book.

Lady Nyo

—

O Absalom,

Ensnared by long hair in the

Boughs of an oak,

Pierced through the heart three times–

The shimmer of life fading.

 

I,

Pulled into mysteries

So abandoned by love

Now given over to lust

Charged with stolen rapture

Dizzy as a drunken dervish-

One hand upward to Heaven

One hand spilling to Earth

Skirts stiffened with sins hard as stone

Corrupted over a life time and now–

Flayed on an unending mandala.

 

Mystery of Life,

Unstoppable desire,

O beautiful Absalom,

We float upon a divine river

Entangled in the reeds of human wanting.

 

This is our nature,

This our calling while

Flesh answers flesh.

What quarter be given when the heart is

Overwhelmed by passion’s excess?

 

Lie still–

Let the waters cleanse our loins,

Mud of the banks soothe our wounds,

Our blood mingle with the floating grasses,

Our hearts sink beneath the surface.

Let the rivers of Babylon

Carry us away.

—

 

Jane Kohut-Bartels

Copyrighted, 2016