Endless Romance (Just A Relationship)

He kissed me again with His lips
His lovely hand held me again
It’s just one day that I pushed him aside
but it felt like eternity –
One hour without him and emptiness
resounds endlessly within me
But here he comes again, his being
dripping with love – I tell him that
I want him, and he comes and fills me
up with the substance of fullness itself
One hour away from you, Lord, and
I resonate with nothingness!!
But it is beautiful, this our love,
and strange how you love me so:
and your word kisses my heart with revelation
and your presence surrounds me like the most
lovely – the warmest – the truest embrace!
It’s not a struggle this –
it’s just a relationship!

Losing Princely

Look at him Lord,
he is rising like smoke -
slow... choking... transient...
elusive smoke...
He fades...

I feel like I am loosing Princely -
that I am taking steps farther
away from him...
That my body walks this
sphere in opposing directions
with my soul - my spirit -
His struggles are different
Lord: of the intellect and
spirit...

I am moving away from myself -
I seem to forget my passion,
my goals, my needs - my wants!
I seem not to know what I am
here for anymore -
and although I know, I have
enclosed myself within the needless
borders of expectations -
which I am bound to meet

And the seconds carry me away
- from me!
Tears knock my eyes door...

But even in this journey away from
me - I find you! - so I find
myself again, for you
contain me...

Everyday Loveletters

Like Schaeffer
teach me your handwriting
that I may read your loveletters
to me -
In the tears of this girl for
lack of school fees
In the noisy flight of the big
beaked hornbill
In the momentary flashes of
pure solitude
In the fresh outbursts of
reasonless laughter
and in the silence...

Sweet, Soft, Anonymous

Blessings come anonymously,

call to us in sweet softness,

touch us with their flowery

feathery hands –

and though they always

leave us better

than they found us –

seldom do we see them!

All life is a divine romance –

Love calling us to Himself

in infinite serenade –

Pity only some see this –

The Search...

Life -

It's not what we have -

it's what we're looking for!

-- is -- ??

The truest statement anyone can make is: "this is this" or "that is that"

"Truth is Truth" - any attempt to describe it, no matter how close to truth it comes is not as true as "Truth is Truth," any more description fragments it and understates that which you attempt to describe.

What is life? "Life is Life" - that's as true as it gets.

"Time is Time" "God is God"

"Eternity is Eternity" - that's the truest statement we can make!

"I Am Who I Am" - that is absolute truth!

Therefore...

Nothing is Nothing!

If nothing is nothing, then what is nothing?

As I Sojourn Life's Avenue

When the rains of life fall hard on me
I'll be a seed and grow!
When the deepest of Darkness sets in
I'll be a star and shine!
When the scorching sun withers me up
I'll be a baobab and stand!
When I hit the solid walls of life
I'll be paint and beautify!
When everyone's feet seem to crush me
I'll be a rose ...mmhh!!!
And when death comes to reap me
I'll be dead and free!

Ta Waru Na Mũtũra

Gwe dete
ta warũ na mũtũra -
Gĩririka nete
Gishog’aga
((Excerpt from Gĩkũyũ poem))
>>
I love you
like potatoes and mutura -
Even in my sleep
I am reminiscent of you
((English Translation of 1st verse))
>>
Nakupenda
kama viazi na mtura -
hata nilalapo
mwenzako nakukumbuka
((Kiswahili translation of 1st verse))
-------------------------------------

Ta Waru Na Mũtũra:
The Poem =

I love you
like potatoes and mutura
Even in my sleep
I am reminiscent of you

I dream of you
with endless fervor -
for every thought of you
is sweetness to my heart

Gashũgwa!!
you are the life of my love -
my heart beats for you
like the thumping

of hands on my chest
to save me from a choking
warũ - my soul leaps
in delighted gaiety

when I imagine
your sandals softly treading
upon the earth -
as chocolatey as your skin!

I am in endless awe
at the blackness of your lips -
like burnt firewood
between the hearth stones

of mother's cooker -
And your scent is powerful
It seeps through me like
the invigorating smell

of well-cooked mũtũra -
Your stride is melodious
It brings to mind the tunes
of kanyoni mũtĩ-ĩnĩ

singing its heart out -

In one of the
thousand dreams of you
I had the night before today -
We were in infinite embrace

You were a smoky
I was a chapati -
And you held me in your arms
like Chapoo holds Smoky

And even when life
opened its mouth to eat us
you did not embrace evanescence
or fade away from me -

you still held tightly to me -

Tears like liquid diamond
raced past my cheek this morning -
when I woke up to find that
it was just a dream

Gashũgwa!!
Wewe Mũrĩika wakwa -

My silvery wings dance about you
in silent serenade
I am a mũrĩika mũnĩnĩ -
the one they call hummingbird

and you are the flower
on whose petals I love to dance
whose nectar I love to drink -
tamu kuliko asali! *

Your love to me is like the sweet
refreshing summer rains
that fall on me -
a poor golden blade of grass

Shall I compare you to the snows of
Kĩrĩnyaga? for you have frozen
my heart with the beautiful
presence of your being -

Like the lovely bits of
nature on Tanzania's Kilimanjaro
your love, my love, is the
address of beauty -

So when they ask me where beauty lies
I can lead the way there -
and we shall swim like swans
through your fragile veins

to your heart! -

Gwe dete
ta warũ na mũtũra -
Gĩririka nete
Gishog’aga

Afrika -
wewe Gashũgwa gakwa!!
---------------------------------------------

>>to Julian, Jesus, and Mama Afrika!!

>>this poem begins with an excerpt from a Gĩkũyũ children's poem that I was told by my lovely Julian >>I have translated it into Kiswahili and English, then found my creative juices flowing in the cosmology of the excerpt's composer - enjoy!!!

It speaks the heart of a young Gikuyu lover to his beloved... it is written with much love from me (who, in this poetic fiction, is the Gikuyu boy) to Mama Afrika (my Gashugwa) - and to Jesus, for this gift of stringing words together, and pouring my heart onto paper through pen!!!

Beneath The Floor Of Heaven

Beneath the floor of heaven
lies a land where trees can talk
Where stones debate with the soil
And leaves chat with the wind
…and marvelous things happen

A land of stars that speak
of the past, and its glory
And the gurgling brooks narrate
colorful stories of tomorrow
…and lovely things are everything

The waves dance as the ocean
sings with a voice deep and mellow
They move to salsa with the sand
and bejewel the beach with shells
…and beauty is reality

In that land, beaches give speeches
And icicles create articles
that inspire the stones to sermons
And make the brooks write books

A man and his boy join hands
on a chainsaw and fell a tree
As the tree crashes…
the leaves crumple in complaint, and the wind howls in pain
His large flip-flops wallop the soil
His tiny feet hit the stone
– they both are deaf to the debate

A band of girlfriends reward themselves
with gossip on a glittery night
As the darkness flashes…
the moon removes the blanket of clouds, to admire the starry crowd
But the ladies do not hear the stars
narrating stories of glorious times of yore;
They pass the gurgling brook
clueless of the message that it shouts
A guy and his girl walk holding hands
And kiss on the romantic beach one night
As the waves splash…
ocean’s music gets loud, and the pretty shells applaud
Yet the guy and girl fail to hear the
deep voice of the waters
They are blind to the salsa of the sand
and sea.

People are too concerned with the here and now
that they fail to see the eternal…

Scientists busily search dinosaur prints
yet fail to see that all nature is God’s footprints…

Materialists are too drunk on the physical
And walk staggeringly through this meaningless existence…

And we all, absorbed in the “critical problems” of our world today,
loiter futilely into another day.
Deafened by our troubles to the speech of the beach
Blinded to the article of the icicle
Paying no attention to the sermon of the stone
And failing to read the book by the brook

Beneath the floor of heaven
lies you and me

Creation has God’s thumbprints all over it!
See them?

Mapenzi Ya Neema

Wala sistahili
Kuwa hapa mbele zako mpenzi
Wala sistahili
Kuwa mbele ya huu utakatifu

Ni mangapi nimefanya
Ambayo kweli yakuumiza roho
Ni mara ngapi nimekuwa
Nacheza cheza tu na moyo wako

Kwani ni nini nikifanyacho
Kinachokufanya tu unipende
Kwani mimi ningekuwa wewe
Ningenyanyuka nisepe – niende!!

Wala si – stahili – mimi si – stahili
Mapenzi yako yananizidi
Wala si – stahili
Pendo lako lanijaza
Lakini...

Wala sistahili
Kuwa hapa mbele zako Yesu
Wala sistahili
Kusimama mbele ya huu utakatifu

>>to Jesus - the life of my LOVE!!

It All Speaks of You!!

I am in love with the sun's rays
as they race past me to embrace
the sad ground

In love with the weaver bird as it struggles -
in long lone selection of the perfect blade of
grass to create a hanging beauty for her
baby to live in

I am in love with the joy of music
and the heart touching moments
of gaiety and happiness -
moments that cannot be captured
by words or the mind -
only the heart!

I am in love with the flowers that dance in the rain
as everyone else hides under umbrellas and
in houses

In love with the log that swims joyfully in the flood

I am in love with the big blue sky -
the playground of kites as they're pushed slowly
by the wind -
and of eagles

In love with the night sky - deep and dark -
playground of the stars

I am in love!

I am in love with light and time and space

I am in love with life and death and eternity

So in love with these daily reminders -
this great design -
this beautiful beautiful earth...

O God, I am SO in love with you!!

A Mysterious Gift | For Michelle Ayuma!

My dear friend
I am trying to weave
Chords of beautiful truth
Herein – for you to
Experientially know that
Life is a mysterious gift of
Love and beauty packaged
Excellently within the soul of man.

And open souls receive this gift I speak of
Your heart and mind should be readied to
Understand this extraordinary
Mystery of life:
All God’s beauty lies within you – reach in and enjoy!

>>to Michelle Ayuma - I love you... more than imaginable can even mean!!!

Kisses Better Than Wine | Divine Romance!

You have trapped me in your presence
and locked a smile on my face
My heart beams with joy
jolly rays radiating from within
Your desire is me…
…and I desire you
We are deeply in love – stuck in joy –
swimming together in swamps of satisfaction
– running in prairies of peace –
and dancing…
…in a wilderness of wonder
You are a mystery I do not want to solve
– I cannot, even if I try!
I know that I am lost in blessedness
I cannot run away from the infinite
grasp of your love…
My spirit feels you like the wind, I cannot
touch you but I feel your touch,
Bless me again with your kisses…
…they are better than life.

>>To Jesus

Seventeen! | Entering Unknown Beauties! | ((reentry for Seventeen Series))

#4 of the Seventeen Series

>>I wrote this on my birthday! (Princely Day '08)

And so now I AM seventeen!

The winds of change have blown me
and I have floated
endlessly

I have flown on the wings of time
to this place
called today

- beautiful!

And I am faced by a faceless tommorrow
it peeps through the window of a today
that's climaxing into darkness as twilight
knocks in

My heart desires light -
and so it imitates the setting sun
as it sinks -
down...down...
down the bottomless road of the earth

I desire light but darkness seeps in - mightily!

So I become a star
and as the dark gets darker -
I shine brighter

I paint the skies with light -
no matter how small I seem!

Like a marionette - 'cept with free will - I have
been sustained with strings invisible:
holding me - leading me - thru dusks and dawns:
He guides me!

Eternally - at least until now -
the light of day has faded
into the unknown emptiness of
the night -

Even now -
the lucid brightness of sixteen
is immersed in a quick evanescence -
it invisibly rushes past me - slowly:
it rushes slowly - and seventeen -
like a beautiful darkness -
comes in -

Seventeen:
I enter you boldly!

A Note to God

#3 of the Seventeen Series!

> by Zoe
--she wrote this on my birthday--

>>

Thank you,

For nice sunny rains

For the hyraxes everywhere

For big soft towels

For these big savannah landscapes

For sunscreen (SPF 40+)

For flip-flops with fuzzy threads

For the day I saw a rainbow round the sun

Like a beautiful jeweled crown

For that day when the setting sun colored me peach

I know you did it for me :-)

For the occassional perfect score

For Linda when I can't tame my hair

For knowing why, when I cry

For keeping me together even when I feel I am in pieces

For Princely: to cry on
[make more of these Lord - haha]

For Sing Afrika: joy

For the Wednesday Night Worship

A place where I can be me, with you

For friends like Michelle,

Moze, Hilda, Dave and Lyn:

They make Daystar worthwhile

For roomies that fetch me water

For the Borehole, Lord (can't take it for granted)

For rocks everywhere:

they remind me of you - My Rock!!!!!

For quiet Saturdays

When everyone's not there but you

For handling ever so gently,

they that matter most to me!

Thank you for the Dining Hall food (though I detest it) -

For chips being in the menu

and for Afia (Lord, you knew I'll need it)

For Chapo Smokie (don't like it) -

thanking you for those who do

For good books that tickle,

Little Inn's guacamole,

and this world full of funny people.

Thank you for the La Flams,

for my Sunday pals -

how I have grown to love them!

Doulos: papaa - thanx a lot,

MA!!!!

The High Table boyz:

It can't get any sillier...lol!!

For pillows, and faded jeans,

For friendships that outlast time,

For hearts that continue to love mine

For arms that stay wrapped around me.

Thank you for the quiet moments,

when I forget all the projects due,

close my eyes, and - inevitably - find you!

Thank you for being unchanging

and when I am changing - for understanding!

AND!!!!...most of all

Thank you for days

that the server is down -

Lost all my work -

TWICE!!!

(...imagine!!!)

And all I can do...

...is write all this for YOU!!!

The Drop:

Without - 'tis one that wrestles
Within - one content!

(this is written in reply to Emily Dickinson's "I saw a drop wrestling in the sea - ")

Read the next "Behind the Poetry" for more from this poem!!