Ravensong Poetry And Writing Blog by Donovan Baldwin

By Donovan Baldwin

A drive along the coast
Majestic trees and crashing waves.
Big blue ocean alive at the shore,
Extends into another eternity.
Sea meets sky and disappear
Together over an unseen horizon,
Become the same for shores with
Other watchers contemplating
Similar sights and considerations.

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i am receptor
collector of stray signals...
focused into beams

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peaceful warrior
soldier once poet often...
contradictory

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if you felt my words
sense them as they flow through me...
you would cry with joy

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black night out west
mountain hidden beside me...
distant lonesome howls

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it always changes
despite same sun trees wind sky...
each day truly new

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Walking amid the slowly waving trees
Listening to the wordless messages
Leaves and branches voice of the wind,
The nearby repetitions of the waves,
The earth saying so much without
Words or voice, branding me with
The sun's heat, burning in the
Memories I'll cherish forever,
Youth in nature never forgotten.

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I walk boldly onto
This dangerous field of poetry,
Armored only in a weak chain mail
Made of plaited phrases,
Leaving behind my lexicon shield,
Taking in place of page, my muse,
To serve up my weapon words,
And, bind my wounds after,
Consoling me with kisses.

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Something about the written word
The smell of books, touch of the pages
Reality in reverse and forward,
Reader and writer sharing contact
Of mind and heart and almost hand,
As one sets down upon a printed page
Thoughts and ideas to be picked up,
Turned over, and stored away with greed,
To later run our fingers through and
Gloat in private at our treasure.

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Poetry copyright 2020 by Donovan Baldwin
Photograph, Pacific Ocean, Monterey Peninsula by Donovan Baldwin

Labels: black night, donovan baldwin, haiku, Monterey, Pacific Ocean, poems, poetry, trees, warrior

By Donovan Baldwin

postage stamp size stage
three musicians lay down licks
flashback 66

quarter mile away
monterey bay deep and cool
like their cool jazz man

cold beer hot music
cigarette smoke laying low
portrait by lautrec

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opening her heart
to the heat of his desire
she succumbs to lust

-----

two simple desires
spread your love all over me
blossom for yourself

-----

So many ways
To declare
Your heart,
No right or wrong.
It is not sin
To take pleasure in
The many forms of love,
Most sublime,
Most carnal,
For in giving all
Revealing innermost
Secrets,
Needs and wants,
You show and share,
Your true beauty
Of the woman you are,
With me, and,
Make me lover.

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Driven by new realities
Forced to reconsider
Choices and options,
Frightened at the
Supposed loss
Of who we are...
Were...
Excited at
The opportunity,
To raise from
The ashes of adversity,
Reborn to a new world
Only dreamed about,
Fantasy until now.

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She sleeps peacefully,
Unaware of my desire,
As, fighting my urges,
My wanting her,
I gently cover
Her naked form,
Which I desire
So badly to touch,
To kiss, caress,
To make sweet love to,
With the sheet,
Hiding her from me,
And piquing my heat,
And congratulate myself
On an expression of love
She will never hear of.

-----

Can't find 'em any more
Like in the 60's,
Restaurants on the beach,
No air conditioning,
Dark and cool inside,
Lots of room and shadows,
Sunlight filtered golden
Like the cold beer
In the sweating mugs,
Juke box music muted
By the wind in the windows
And the sound of the sea.

-----

buy the cheap one dear
only need it for a while
'til i rip it off

-----

mermaid shakes her tail
water glistening on flesh...
i think she's caught me

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Poetry copyright 2020 by Donovan Baldwin
Art: At The Moulin Rouge by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Labels: carnal, desires, donovan baldwin, haiku, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, jazz, love, Monterey, poems, poetry

By: Donovan Baldwin

There are some who might think I'm a "stick in the mud", or set in my ways.

It's easy to think that about someone, especially an "old" someone, when they poo-poo something we find new or interesting.

What is also easy is to forget that an older person may have already tried that and decided they didn't like it, long before YOU discovered it, based on a lot of life experiences you might not have had yet.

Earlier this year, I visited Monterey, California, where I had been stationed twice at the Defense Language Institute, West Coast (1966 and 1983).

As I was looking in a souvenir shop on Old Fisherman's Wharf for a gift for the grandkids, I saw a bunch of small signs. They were the kind you can stick on the window of your car.

Supposedly funny sayings that might cause a laugh or a fight, depending on the mood of the other driver.

As I read some of them, I was doing the "old guy" thing, thinking, "I would never put that on my car..."

Then, I had a flashback...same store, 30+ years earlier. A younger me was laughing at similar, possibly the same signs and trying to convince my wife that I should buy one and stick it on the car. Thought it was funny back then.

We change.

I even once tried flavored coffee.

People who know me now won't believe that, but, I did.

Wild and crazy youth.

Now I know that Folger's instant is perfect for me and doesn't need woodchips or French vanilla, whatever that is, to make it better.

Hard to please? Not at all...as long as it's done my way.

Labels: being old, California, Defense Language Institute, donovan baldwin, getting old, Monterey, old, stick in the mud, West Coast