Ravensong Poetry And Writing Blog by Donovan Baldwin

 

Donovan Baldwin

MUSE AMONG THE STARS

Labels: donovan baldwin, images, muse, poem, poetry, poetry review, stars

# posted by Donovan Baldwin @ 10:36 AM 0 comments

The horses were afraid before they ever entered.
Perhaps thwy smelled the old blood, fear, and death.
They were ancient, slatternly things and, in some way knew,
That horses didn't live long in this, their new profession.

The men talked and joked as though they didn't care,
But, their squinty eyes flicked from this to that.
Sometimes, one would walk off to be alone,
With whatever god he felt might owe him a favor.

The Sun burned both "sun" and "shade" sides of the arena,
Though tickets for "shade" cost more,
It didn't really matter to bulls, and horses, and men...
The bulls died, horses cried, and the men won.

Four bulls died that afternoon, but, one, at least, managed
To rip a matador's leg open, and toss him over the wall.
Afterwards, the men and I sat in real shade, drinking cold cerveza,
The horses got water and oats, but, the bulls had nothing. ----- If you enjoyed this poem by Donovan Baldwin, you maight also enjoy his essay, Ignorance And Epiphany.

Labels: bullfight, donovan baldwin, Mexico, poem, poetry

# posted by Donovan Baldwin @ 7:54 AM 0 comments

By Donovan Baldwin

Both sacred and profane.

Draw for me secrets

Within your pounding heart.

Song of the ends of

Exhilaration and ecstasy

Of your mind and body.

Step boldly, shyly forward

Eternally exposed by

Trailing transparent words.

How to describe you

Two simple words say so much...

Passionate woman

Write me honest words

Toss veils and cloaks far aside...

Show me who you are

Exposing at last

Your naked soul

Spilling out her words

Poetry in blood red ink...

Ichor of my muse

------

More poetry by Donovan Baldwin

Like this poem? You might also like Safe Within Eden by Donovan Baldwin.

Labels: donovan baldwin, love poem, poem, poetry

# posted by Donovan Baldwin @ 7:30 PM 0 comments

Innocent was I, 

Or so I claim,

Til she,

The agent provocateur...

Sent me coded messages,

Hinting at things real, 

Which I before

Had only dared to dream,

In secret and in silence,

Certain I was alone,

In my disaffection.

Upon the breastworks of

The defenses she erected,

I responded to her blandishments,

"Speak not to me in code,

Agent Provocateur.

If you would incite me and arouse me

To follow you upon this path,

Of danger, excitement,

And adventure,

Say all plain and true,

In words I understand."

Thrusting herself bravely forward,

Her message she presented, 

More plainly,

Clad only in its naked truth,

And I,

Unwillingly,

Of course...

Weakened, and entered in her cause,

Following her along hidden paths,

Which took me to secret places,

Full of danger...

And the ecstasy of daring conflict.

She led me up to tops of mountains,

Where light bloomed in ways,

Which long I had not seen,

Also into deep, dark caverns,

Full of mystery,

For intimate meetings laden with secrecy,

And promises.

She brewed for me a potion,

Guaranteed to win the soul,

Of any to be led to her belief...

A potion which she had ME drink,

To prove its true effectiveness,

Which left me, stiffened with resolve

To join her in her quest,

Until its very end...

A final battle full of fire,

Explosion, and, at last

Luxurious rest due the victorious.

Many times strove she and I together,

Until, one day, she and I stepped forth,

Before the multitude, 

Where I pronounced my allegiance

To my

Agent provocateur,

At the appointed time, turning

To reveal her to all assembled,

Only to find,

Her gone.

I was left alone by her betrayal,

To face two fates:

The wrath of those maimed by my deceit,

But even worse,

A lifetime without

My...

Agent provocateur

Labels: agent provocateur, fantasy, love poem, poem, poem of betrayal, poetry

# posted by Donovan Baldwin @ 10:29 AM 0 comments

You awaken in the night,

A treasure at your side.

A sleeping beauty you must

Touch once more, kiss again,

Hear her sighs and moans...

Oh to taste her...

Let her sleep?

Surely nothing wrong with a touch.

Your hand traces the unseen face,

Following curve of cheek,

Whispering across soft warm lips,

Lips that not too long ago,

Brought you to ecstasy.

Oh, the wonderful memory of

Her hands and lips on your body,

Kissing your breasts and nipples,

Fingers entering between your legs,

Into your hot wet hole as

Her naked breasts crushed against yours.

Control?

That is gone, you have to have her now.

Your body follows your hand as it

Slides to her breast... her breathing changes,

She is awake and aware... you stop breathing,

Her arm goes around you, her breasts press yours,

As your fingers search out the entrance to her sex,

She does the same for you.

She bestows kisses, face and lips, then

Trailing downward, her tongue and lips

Teasing, tantalizing your breasts and nipples.

Her fingers beginning to raise your clitoris,

As you do the same for her...

Simultaneously, as if a common thought,

Each raises silver fingers to lips,

To taste the indicator of ecstasy.

Beginning with lips again, flavored this time,

You and she kiss your way down each other's body,

Hands caressing everywhere, as, inverted,

Each face to the other's sex, you and she

Begin to lick and kiss and suck

The most private spot, drinking from

Each flowing well of love and desire,

Nakedness to nakedness,

Hands grasping ass to hold on

As hips begin to buck,

Mounting sighs become

Moans and gasps,

Legs apart as each reaches the culmination,

And making love with mouth and face,

Bring one another to the highest point of ecstasy,

Tasting the flowing love juices,

Changing positions to hold each other,

To kiss with wet faces and lips,

And to taste the proof of pleasure,

On each other's face...

Nakedly embraced slowly

Falling back asleep,

In peace and love,

Together.

Labels: poem, poetry, Sappho. lesbian love

# posted by Donovan Baldwin @ 7:42 PM 0 comments

"Naked Outside Of Eden, by Donovan Baldwin, is a short, evocative piece that focuses on a timeless, almost mythical female figure.

Labels: donovan baldwin, poem, poetry, review

# posted by Donovan Baldwin @ 6:12 PM 0 comments

BY DONOVAN BALDWIN

Sunrise over Benbrook Lake, Texas

It's become a part of my life.

Not the trees and the lake.

I just passed them today,

And I have seen others like them.

Today was different,

Walking by the lake.

As I looked at the morning mist,

Hanging over the lake,

Hiding the trees on the other side,

I wished that she was there.

Not too long ago that

Would not have happened.

Now, everything I see or do,

I want to share with her.

The big squirrel,

The leaf covered trail,

The sunlight on the water,

The fog that replaced it.

All is not complete until

She can see it,

Hear it,

Taste it,

Feel it,

Sense it,

With me.

That went through my mind,

Because,

Today was different,

Walking by the lake.

------

CoQ10 FOR HEART HEALTH

Labels: benbrook lake, donovan baldwin, love poem, poem, poetry, texas, walking

# posted by Donovan Baldwin @ 6:40 PM 0 comments

BY DONOVAN BALDWIN

A symphony of secret sin.

I trace them as they strike and flow

Lips and tongue behind them go.

Breathless, I chase the silver sting,

A thirst for wildness, on the wing.

Your skin, a canvas, etched with rain,

My lips, medicine for your pain.

Eager, I pursue each drop

Hoping storms will never stop.

Your body only clothed by rain

So tempting to my fevered brain.

You my feast neath weeping sky,

Dance seductively as I

Touch and taste and drink my fill

Fingers drifting where they will.

So let the rain caress your skin,

Awash with past and future sin,

A promise in those beating drops,

Arousing love that never stops.

-----

REVITOL SKINCARE PRODUCTS

Labels: donovan baldwin, love poem, poem, poem about rain, poetry

# posted by Donovan Baldwin @ 7:20 AM 0 comments

So safely protected within her paradise,

A place of quiet beauty and repose,

So peaceful and serene, her heart at ease,

Without storm or flame to shake her placid dreams.

Once upon a gentle breeze, she thought she heard,

A siren call, a poet's words, perhaps deceit,

Yet, suddenly aware of temptations sweet,

The wild words seemed to her such pleasant sins.

But, oh, the risk to heed the poet's call,

How thrilling to set her mind and body free,

To drink deeply from the poet's well,

Perhaps be barred from Eden for eternity.

Trembling she crept closer to the sound

She saw the poet, felt rather than heard,

The heat of his words that burned her bonds away,

Releasing her from Eden's thrall.

Poet took her hand and together,

They left one Eden for another,

Their whispered words bright embers,

Fireflies lighting their new Eden.

-----

Labels: beauty, donovan baldwin, eden, love, peace, poem, poet, poetry

# posted by Donovan Baldwin @ 10:29 AM 0 comments

I looked up at stars, I looked cross the sea,

Yearning for the distant and strange.

I just couldn't feel "at home" at home,

But dreamed of the wide open range.

At last I left and crossed the sea,

Tho' I never got to the stars.

I rode the range on eighteen wheels,

Haunted diners and dives and bars.

I'm just not cut from a normal bolt,

Nor sewn in the common style.

I'm happiest when I'm far from home,

And just come back for a while.

It's not the people, the places, or things,

That cause me to move along.

I cannot explain how the stars and the sea,

Sing to me with a Siren's song.

I've got to go tho' I just got here,

I will miss you as soon as I go.

I'm happiest when I'm outward bound,

In a way others never will know.

Most need the hearth and home and heart,

In a place all bounded and set.

I just need a map and a road that leads,

To a place I haven't been yet.

Copyright 7/14/2012 by Donovan Baldwin

Labels: donovan baldwin, poem, poetry, wanderlust

# posted by Donovan Baldwin @ 11:50 AM 0 comments

Don Quixote On His Deeathbed

"The notary was present, and he said that he'd never read in any book of chivalry that a knight errant had died in his bed so calmly, and in such a Christian way as don Quixote, who, amidst pity and tears of those surrounding him, gave up the ghost; that is, he died."

Labels: death, Don Quixote, donovan baldwin, Miguel de Cervantes, poem, poem about death, poetry

# posted by Donovan Baldwin @ 1:36 PM 0 comments

I've been reborn, sweet woman.

Returned to a state

I never thought to see again.

I can safely look at you with hope and desire,

Now I've been set free,

But, it's too late for me.

Body and face have aged, though my soul

Has returned to days of wishes and of dreams,

From twenty years ago.

All those I could have, should have, loved,

Are far away and aged now like the man,

I try not to see in the mirror.

Today, the man inside sees lovely women passing,

Who smile and warm his heart, as they think,

"He looks like my dad."

Labels: divorce poem, donovan baldwin, flirtation, poem, poetry

# posted by Donovan Baldwin @ 6:32 PM 0 comments

I will not write the words,

My heart says to speak, for,

Those words hold power,

To open secret doors, and 

Crumble mountains into dust.

I will not write the words,

I would have you hear, for,

That would cause both pain,

And, doubled would pain be,

When felt by both apart.

I will not write the words,

That touch so deep within, for,

They speak of hopes that,

Are not mine to give, and,

I am not brave enough to say.

I will not speak the words,

I long so much to speak, for,

They promise of tomorrow,

A real tomorrow over which, 

You and I have no control.

I will not speak the words,

As I blindly gaze at mountains, for,

So much stands between me and thee,

And I dare not take that step,

Towards the destruction of my dream.

WHAT MAKES SHAKLEE PRODUCTS DIFFERENT

Labels: donovan baldwin, poem, poetry, power, words

# posted by Donovan Baldwin @ 2:11 PM 0 comments

Where does love reside?

That warm and tender grandeur,

Which takes my soul to the

Highest of the heights,

Filling me with wonder, and,

Making me, a mortal man immortal,

For who can die when bound to

Boundless ecstasies of wonderment?

Where does love reside?

When hidden from the view,

Of ordinary mortals, yet,

Visible within all spectrums,

To the wondering eyes of 

I, the lover and, you, the loved,

Seeking, and reaching for,

One another, touching in all ways, 

You, the one most loved and,

Sought after with all my soul.

Where does love reside,

If not within my heart?

Labels: donovan baldwin, heart poem, love poem, poem, poetry

# posted by Donovan Baldwin @ 5:47 PM 0 comments

The eyes of a child,

Can see many things...

Such as castles, and spaceships...

And dragons with wings.

But, he'll leave these behind,

With the toys of the child,

Filing those dreams,

Where such things are filed.

He'll be part of the tribe,

With the earth as his home,

Knowing life...sometimes love,

With no reason to roam.

Yet, when day's gone to bed,

And his body is aching,

He'll scan the dark sky,

With his heart somehow breaking.

In that night with the stars

Scattered somewhere "out there",

He'll yearn for the cold,

Where there's not any air.

With a smile on his face,

He'll join others in play,

Hearing dimly a voice,

Which calls him away.

Is it fortune he seeks?

Is he a fool seeking fame?

Or is it part of a man,

Which can never be named?

It's not found in books,

In banks or in bars,

The name of that thing,

Calling him to the stars.

Is it part of his soul,

Which cries from within,

Marked on the man,

Like original sin?

Must he go to the stars,

Just because they're "out there";

Into space, where it's cold,

And there's not any air?

Maybe, just maybe...

He remembers a dream,

Of that child he thought lost,

But not lost it seems.

A man's but a child,

Who yearns to see things,

Such as castles and spaceships...

And dragons with wings.

Labels: donovan baldwin, dragons, dreams, poem, poetry, spaceships

# posted by Donovan Baldwin @ 12:42 PM 0 comments

BY DONOVAN BALDWIN

The Crown of Love, 1875 by John Everett Millais (English, 1829–1896)

Have I once known you in

Some other place or time?

Were we lovers then,

Winging forward to the now,

Where we find ourselves

United as before?

These eyes, these lips, 

Seeming delightfully new,

Are yet, somehow,

So famliar, and,

Joyful to behold,

To touch once more...

Or so it seems, that

You and I once were one, 

Lost to one another...

Seeking through eternity,

For that one who

Filled and made us whole.

I gaze upon you,

Reach for you, 

In your newness to

This time and place,

And, with wonderment,

Confused by familiarity 

And ease, must ask,

In this now and here...

Have I known you in

Some other place or time?

SPONSORED BY REVITOL SKINCARE PRODUCTS

Labels: donovan baldwin, love poem, lovers, poem, poetry, romantic poetry

# posted by Donovan Baldwin @ 1:33 PM 0 comments

BY DONOVAN BALDWIN

Labels: books, donovan baldwin, love, poem, poetry

# posted by Donovan Baldwin @ 11:38 AM 0 comments

Heidelberg Castle

Up on the hill stands the old broken fortress of Heidelberg.

In her dust-powdered wig from yesterday, 

Still standing watch over her city,

Though bare, broken bricks show through, and

Sagging breastworks prove her youth's long past.

Far down, flows the cold, blue-gray water

Of the Neckar,

With the old, arched bridge,

Perhaps seen in postcards,

Showing it in sunlight,

But,

In my mind it is last seen

On a rainy April day.

As I turned to view the bridge, 

Behind me,

The vine-entangled castle brooded,

About all the sad history she's endured.

She's been burned, you know, and

Damn near destroyed so many times.

Even so, she still watches over the city.

They say there's a curse on

The old Heidelberg castle,

But, he who laid the curse is long since dead...

Still, the old lady stands there,

Rain, sun, snow...

Watching over her city.

Labels: castle, donovan baldwin, Heidelberg, poem, poetry

# posted by Donovan Baldwin @ 5:46 PM 0 comments

my mind's hands fashion
a beautiful dress for you
only i can see

you my model stand
erect and proudly naked...
i measure and cut

setting loving words
against your most precious skin
smoothing them in place

Art: Madame X by John Singer Sargent

Labels: donovan baldwin, dress, poem, poetry

# posted by Donovan Baldwin @ 12:57 PM 0 comments

We only work with words,
We poets do,
To sing,
To draw,
To paint,
To point,
To link,
To loosen that which must be free.

We only work with words,
We poets do,
As best we can,
As they come
As they go,
Or stay,
Emblazoned on our souls.

We only work with words,
We poets do,
So variable,
So insensible,
So certain,
So unsure,
So real,
So lying and yet, because...

We only work with words,
We poets do,
We love,
We laugh,
We cry,
We sing,
We praise,
We demand,
We defend,

And sometimes...
We fail.

For...

We only work with words,
We poets do,
And words are clay, which,
Though molded properly,
And sure and glistening at first,
May slump or turn drab,
In the heat of day and sight of men.

We only work with words,
We poets do,
And ask the reader to read,
What was in minds and hearts,
When set upon the page,
With eyes like ours,
Who saw the sun and sky,
And tried to sing its praises,
But missed the mark.

So too, with love, honor, and courage...

Read our tales with piety and pity,
For round-shouldered scribes,
Trying to make beauty out of letters,

For...

We only work with words,
We poets do,
And must leave the living,
And understanding of our work
Up to you...the reader.

Donovan Baldwin
30 Jan 2018

Labels: donovan baldwin, poem, poetry, words

# posted by Donovan Baldwin @ 9:26 AM 0 comments