Ibby Bluebell

Ibby Bluebell lives
In both light and shade
Beneath the dappling of the leaves
At the edge of the glade
Where the sun's intensity
Shines outright
At the constant burn
Of yellow and white
Alchemical flames
Of creative fire
Where writer and Muse
Meld to inspire
With sentences, gramar,
Peace and soul
From hearts and minds
Alert and whole.
Both muse and wordsmith
In one conflagration
Of earthbound and immortal
In divine integration
Through the woodlands
And the hedgerows,
Over marshes
And the meadows
To the tree of words.

(An extract from the Flower Quartet)

I Beware

There is a distancing
Now that what we both thought
And I still think
Is for you, no longer true
Although I feel I already know
For you and for others
It is only time who is allowed to tell
Time the Judge and Time the Saviour
Until in desperation for some proof of love
You heed the evidence of a misplaced truth
And by your own foolishness
While away the days and hours
Of Time the liar and Time the slayer.

The jewelled cover of night

The jewelled cover of night
Defeats oppression;
The mind in sleeps' arms
Lives the subconscious,
Where "Stars shine on revolutions"
And no prophecies freeze

Such prophecies freeze
When a frosted sun
Awakes reality's silence
Time to get up
and conform.

(October 1977)

HELLO!

HELLO!
Can they hear me?
No they can't
I'm too far away
Away inside myself
They see a person
Which is my body
They know a person
Which is my act
They don't know ME
Because they don't know I exist
Because they don't know THEY exist
And that's what matters

(Summer 1977)

Ibby On Her Travels

Prayer to Gaea

Reared in ignorance
I have walked many paths
To your ruin

Hewn in arrogance
I fear the piety
Of this prayer

Possess me.

(October 1989)

Love Life For Me

In love with you, I ran from you,
Cradling every detail of the missive you had bourne.
And now, high in flight
On the quill tips of my angel muse,
It is too many years too late to return,
Though in vision and in dream,
This I see, this I learn;

That your love of life has crumbled
Time and time to dust
Between the smug, dry palms
Of anothers distrust.
Colleagues and companions
Mindful of your courage,
Jealously obliged
With intent to disparage.
Pinnacles of falsity,
Narrowed, pointed, confined.
The spires were all cold
To the dreams you had in mind.
And sweet Jayne in black lace
Made from many a maids' tears,
Her morbidity arising
From the pit of her fears.
She informed the movie mogul
That you were a lost young man.
To abolish your goal
Was her fiendish plan.
But I spied your etheral guide,
I saw his name upon a stone
And above his name
Was carved your own.
Like the Mayflower you must sail
From the grey and passionless Isles,
From yellow mouthed promises,
From shallow-eyed wiles.
Find meaning in the misfortune
That has rendered you lame.
Carry the banner of calling
Into the battle of fame.
Go forward as an orphan,
Untutored, unchecked.
Lay bare your truths,
Embellish, dissect.
From the heights of glory
To the depths of strife,
Reinstate extremity,
Repossess your love of life.

I am now the messenger
As you were once a messenger to me.
My message is this;
'Love life for me'.

(July 1990)

Mermaid

MERMAID

Chapter The First

I

Myth of the ocean,

Nymph of the sea.

Half fish, half sprite,

Aquatic faerie.

Perfectly formed

From skin to scale,

Strangely conjoined

From flesh to tail.

Cutting through water,

Streamlined and sleek,

With powerful thrust

And perfect physique.

A swish

Through a swirl,

Diving deep

For a pearl.

From surface to seabed

In a descending spin,

Countering currents

By the flick of a fin.

II

Sea goddess

From head to hip,

Extraordinary fish

From navel to tip.

All human above

With voluptuous torso

Merged in iridescence

To the tail below.

All mother-of-pearl

And aquamarine.

A coil and a flip

Too fleet to be seen.

Rarely glimpsed

By human sight,

The mermaid swims

Too fast for light.

Preserving her myth,

Her legend intact.

Is she the fiction?

Is she the fact?

III

True apparition

Or fanciful lie?

A corner sighting

From a sailor's eye

Of a beautiful,

Fishtailed female form,

Diving through the surge

Of an oncoming storm.

A water angel

Who will save his life

By guiding the clipper

Through the broil and strife

Of an angry squall

And hurricane wind

Until the tempest abates

And the waves rescind.

Are those two blue eyes

And long golden hair

Merely a figment

Of a sailor's prayer?

Chapter The Second

I

I know a mermaid

Alive on dry land,

With two shapely legs

On which she can stand.

But her golden hair

And sea blue eyes

Betray her

Lower limbed disguise

As she walks her way

Upright and able,

Through her own

Human fable.

A parallel story

Of life and line

Already well known

Beneath the brine

Where the water kingdom's

Legend of old

Is a favourite yarn

Frequently told.

II

A tale that

I must now relate

To put an end

To all debate.

A narrative bound

To astonish all

Delivered to excite,

Intrigue and enthral

As cynicism melts

Into sheer delight

Where sceptic and romantic

Inadvertently unite

Under the orators

Word-woven spell.

The magic that logic

Fails to quell,

Rendering an audience

Unable to resist

The undeniable truth

That mermaids exist.

III

Once upon a mermaid

In a kingdom marine,

Far from terra firma

In the deep blue and green,

Where coral gardens

And seaweed sway

Set a scenic backdrop

For theatrical display

Of a shoal's precise

And unanimous concern

As stripe and colour

Twitch and turn

Beneath patrolling shadows

Of long-tailed doom

As rhomboid harbinger

Stingrays loom

And omen misfortune

Is but a fin's breadth delay

As danger's ever presence

Paves Calamity's way.

Chapter The Third

I

Unaware of Calamity's

Impending whims,

Our underwater heroine

Gaily swims

Up and down,

Along and across,

Happily ignorant

Of future loss.

The world is her oyster,

That oyster is supreme,

Its pearl of circumference

And radiance extreme.

Her prospects tremendous,

Her reputation grown

As the fastest mermaid

Ever known.

Able to swim

At a pace so bold.

Passing bronze and silver

To certain Gold.

II

But on her way

To The Great Mermaid Race

Calamity struck

And stole her place.

Before the contest

Had even begun,

Misfortune competed

And consequently won

By injecting poison

From a sea urchins spine

Into her tail

So sleek and fine.

Her perfect speed

Stopped dead in its tracks.

Her mirror to the future

Criss-crossed by cracks,

Poised to shatter

What should have been

And reflect that loss

In each smithereen.

III

Each shard embedded

In a broken dream

Unravelling to the silence

Of her internal scream

As pain explodes

Beyond threshold's scope

And the poison spreads

Dissolving all hope

To leave in its wake

An unforeseen dread

As her arms and tail

Turn to lead,

Anchoring our champion

To depths unknown

Where her heart aches

In its breaking zone

But somehow resists

That final tear

Of hopelessness

And utter despair.

Chapter The Fourth

I

A courageous heart beats

At a pace so bold

Passing bronze and silver

To certain gold.

Our mermaid possesses

Such a heart

Forestalling despondency

With a clear head start,

Outpacing the sea urchin's

Toxic traces,

Putting disappointments

Back in their places,

She flicks her tail

And starts to swim

Out from under

Calamity's whim.

A golden resolve

Misfortune forgot

From molten flow

To pur ingot.

II

Our heroine radiates

A love and joy

The injected contagion

Can never destroy.

She laughs, she frolics,

She jumps, she dives.

Her smile lights up

A thousand lives

As shoals turn

In her direction

And dolphins provide

Their playful protection

To an unattained spirit

The venom cannot quell

As she rides the seahorse

Or the turtle's shell

And all acknowledge

Her magical presence,

All mother-of-pearl

And iridescence.

III

While her golden heart

Is worn within,

The once begun

Must again begin,

To capture the gold

She will wear without,

To continue the quest

And quash any doubt

That she is a mermaid

Of some renown,

Destined to wear

The laurel crown

A gold medallion

Around her neck,

A prize the sea urchin

Can no longer wreck

As smote but undaunted

She reclaims her place

And swims towards

The Great Mermaids Race.

Isabel Mary Wallace 01/01/2009

For Stephanie Millward

Writer and Muse

I am the vessel
That carries her voice
She embarked on my journey
And left me no choice
She came aboard quite suddenly
How could I refuse
I am the writer
And she the Muse

I am the child
Who is loyal to no other
She took me for a daughter
Though she is no mother
She adopted me quite ruthlessly
And began to enthuse
I am the writer
And she the Muse

I am the prisoner
Waiting for bail
She is the judge
Who threw me in jail
My sentence may be life
Bid who can I accuse
As I am the writer
And she the Muse

I am the dove
That flies from her sleeves
She the magician
Whose timing deceives
Plucking quills from my tail
How she does abuse
I am the writer
And She the Muse.

(January 1989)

Ibby Bluebell

Ibby Bluebell lives
In both light and shade
Beneath the dappling of the leaves
At the edge of the glade
Where the sun's intensity
Shines outright
At the constant burn
Of yellow and white
Alchemical flames
Of creative fire
Where writer and Muse
Meld to inspire
With sentences, gramar,
Peace and soul
From hearts and minds
Alert and whole.
Both muse and wordsmith
In one conflagration
Of earthbound and immortal
In divine integration
Through the woodlands
And the hedgerows,
Over marshes
And the meadows
To the tree of words.

(An extract from the Flower Quartet)

A Gypsy

A gypsy wandered
Through a distant destiny,
Far from her mystic flesh.
For this world is still a lake.
It mirrors a clear beauty
Of no substance.
So her mind travelled
Through crystal mist
To the visions glass core.
That still lake!
It took her soul,
And drowned it.

(October 1977)

Coffee in a cafe

Elbows on walnut wood
Sliding off the polish.
Eyes following the fingernail grain
To the sugar bowl
Where I leave my brain
To go banana's in demerara.

A clear black sphere
Ringed in gentle white china
Looks at itself
In my distortion.

And the ashtray
Smokes a tube of gunpowder
To the end.

(January 1980)

The Great Bazooka

he was a clown once,
he used to thrust chairs
into the jaws of stuffed lions
and extract a flower,
walk the tightrope
fall.....
hang by his teeth
and raise his eyebrows at the crowd

but now he plays
solitary tricks with memories
in the gloom of his old caravan,
his costumes gather dust in the cupboard,
his faces fade in the drawer,
children press against his window
and stare at his empty mirror
their breath clouds the glass

meanwhile the circus prepares for the show

suddenly
the children scream and back away
the door explodes........
a strange figure emerges from the billowing smoke
resplendent in an enourmous striped swimsuit
complete with flying helmet, goggles and snorkel,
a large pink flipper tests imaginary water,
the great nose quivers and tilts to the sky
his arms raised high
he dives..........
and swims through the crowd,
and the children dance and cry:
"Bazooka's back!
Bazooka's back!
Bazooka's back!"