John Marshall

  

John Marshall is the Founder & Chairman of Epiphany Arts; Cape Fear Poetry Society of North Carolina. His poetry and short stories have been published in numerous publications in the U.S as well as Canada, Wales, Romania, England and Scotland. He is a three times recipient of the Charles A. Shull Award- NC Poetry Society and was the Poets’ Choice Award- Beautiful Nuance Magazine in 2004.

The following works are copyright © 2008. All rights reserved. No distribution or reprinting in any form whatsoever without written permission from the author.

  

These poems are dedicated to Rita Simon.

  

Rain

Within the sun and cloud shaped halls
of ancient, sculptured windswept walls
you were waiting
for me to find you.

Among the nubile nymphs and fawns
wrapped in the raiment of vernal dawns
you were waiting
for me to see you;

and so I came like a child of night
into your eternal, ethereal light;
as you in silence and starry lace
illumined my path to humility.

Upon the mossy, marbled floor
where like rain you draped your hair
you were waiting
for me to touch you.

Beyond the dark and mystic door
where stark and cryptic dreams appear
you were waiting
for me to find you;

and so I came like a child of night
into your eternal, ethereal light;
as you in silence and simplest grace
illumined my path to serenity.

  

Dance Steps

Perhaps this is the place from which all being comes.
Accept my devotion
with a lenient heart,
without a trace of compulsion.
As we are children of the gods
trees and flowers
drive us to dream.
The volcanic fires of a past age are remembered
in dance steps.
Let joy be unconfined
in a world that cannot be safe.
As spirits are invisible, rarely seen by mortals,
tales of love
appear in the moonlight.
There is experience beyond the time of divine union.

  

Carthage

 While the courts have no ruling for this,
human fears
make no promises.
Go to Carthage again, darling;
and speak well of the dead
for love's sake.

This is what it is to be a writer:
in each and every case
it is likely that these are moments of revelation.

  

The Alphabet of God

Invent a heart
with a wolf’s song.
Construct a soul
with an eagle’s wing.
Weave a mind

with a dolphin’s fin.
Design a dream
with moonlight.
Seek the castle of spirits

and linger in the chambers of love.
Caress the divine details,
traveling towards the morning star.
Do not forget the alphabet of God

descending from the clouds
as rainbows.

  

Venus Rising

Over the clouds of the sea she comes,
jewel of the morning skies.
Between the light and the dark she gleams,
queen of the circling stars.

Above the hearts of fear she flies,
nurse of the waning night.
A beacon to the barren and the bleak she beams
her rays into earthly shadows. 

Above the dolphins’ wake she wings,
maid of the verging dawn.
Among the crests of stellar waves
she mimes the ocean’s tongue.

Before the gate of sleeping years
she stands, a shining sentry.
Robed in white she offers prayers
for the frontiers of infinity.

A torch of truth, the lamp of love,
she reigns above mortality
and like an ancient sacred sign
reflects the face of harmony.

If life is word, then she is thought,
Grace that mirrors wisdom.
Within her soul she harbors all
the heirs of nature’s kingdom