Ravensong Poetry And Writing Blog by Donovan Baldwin

By Donovan Baldwin

moonlight poetry
made up as we go along
in between kisses

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the breeze has been stilled
soft moon floats in dark night sky
your love fills my heart

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in time before dawn
dreams flee from reality
departing sadly

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between night and day
cuddled in the before dawn
lovers share their dream

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not a sinful thing
our moments of wild pleasure
we share distantly

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dear blushing flower
lips telling how sweet it tastes
savory nectar

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whiskey hot kisses
much more intoxicating
just as addictive

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it's a daily ache
this missing of the woman
i can only dream

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unending moment
arousing dance of passion
bodies together

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lovers may achieve
highest levels of intimacy
built upon their love

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Poetry by Donovan Baldwin
Photo by Donovan Baldwin, Statue of Prairie Wind, holding the moon. Fort Worth, Texas.

Labels: before dawn, blushing flower, donovan baldwin, Fort Worth, haiku, moon, night and day, poems, poetry, Prairie Wind, texas, wild pleasure

i'll find love today
in the place i always do
within your embrace

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show me your words babe
naked thoughts upon the stage
stripped down and open

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our pages touching
loving livre de chevet
each word a caress

(livre de chevet = bedside book)

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let's write together
a love story to be banned
too hot to handle

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Draw lovers naked
For if clothed,
They must still show
All that they are
To the other,
Expect to see
Everything
When they gaze upon
Their loved one.
No secrets or veils
No shame or
Embarrassment
Between true lovers.
Show them naked,
For naked they
Should always be.

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I gaze across the Texas prairie,
Stretching westward to infinity,
Or at least New Mexico,
Under the rolling gray clouds.
I've traveled beneath those clouds,
Or at least, their brethren,
In so many parts of the world,
The soft, billowing gray clouds,
Which should be sad,
Or at least, you'd think they were,
For I could travel forever
Gladly within their
Stormy promise of adventure.

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dying candle light
the rising of morning sun
smiles of remembrance

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Black deserted streets,
Shining wetly in moonlight,
Bright white snow on rooftops
And treetops,
Golden glow of windows
Upon the silent pathway,
The sounds of laughter,
Zither music and song
Spilling out like a
Motion picture postcard,
As a lonely soldier,
Thousands of miles from home,
Saved the memory for later.

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my words are flowers
i'll cover you with petals
tenderly fragrant

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michelangelo
i stand in admiration
in reverent awe

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Leaves which died
In Autumn,
So bravely and
So beautifully
Brilliant in
Their livery of
Golds and reds,
Now lie,
Dead soldiers,
Drab brown and gray,
Like photographs
From older wars,
In the cold pools,
Of nature's tears,
To be recalled only
In verse and photo,
Reminders of
Forgotten adventures.

-----

Copyright January 2020 by Donovan Baldwin

Labels: donovan baldwin, livre de chevet, love poetry, lovers, naked, poem, poems, poetry, texas, words

By: Donovan Baldwin

Don't judge people by their appearance:

True story.....

Years ago, while in the U.S. Army, I was stationed in a small Texas town. My friends and I used to hang out at a local tavern, where we met a local guy I will call "Larry".

Larry was a happy old fellow with a beer belly and a penchant for gambling...on anything. His clothes and speech were those of a working man, apparently a cowboy, and, since he never bet more than a buck on anything, we assumed he was getting by on Social Security, or something like that.

A guy named Charley would try to win money from Larry, and we made a game of winning the money from Charley and letting Larry win it back from us.

One day, a brand new Cadillac pulled up in front of the bar, and a big woman, dressed to the nines, wearing a mink coat (in the middle of Summer), and several expensive looking pieces of jewelry, got out and came into the bar.

Stopping in the doorway, she yelled, "Larry XXXX, get your a** out in the car. You know you got to home and get dressed for the reception.

With hanging head, and muttering under his breath, Larry shambled out to the car and obediently got in.

Seeing the questions on our faces, the bartender enlightened us:

Several years earlier, Larry and his wife were dirt-poor with a small patch of land where they scraped by running a few head of cattle. Then one day, oil was found directly under Larry's land.

You can guess the rest. Larry wasn't on Social Security, he was on an allowance....from his wife.

His wife had used the money to hook into the local social scene and was friends with many powerful people in the area, as well as the governor of the state.

However, Larry was still just a "good ole' boy" who was only happy at the bar, drinking his beer, and playing pool and shuffleboard. Just like everybody else...except for the several million dollars he had in the bank.

Labels: donovan baldwin, gambling, judge people, millionaire, shooting pool, texas, U.S. Army

By: Donovan Baldwin

It was a sunny morning this morning, and, after breakfast, I had an errand to run.

I was in a full-belly, quietly contemplative mood as I stopped at a traffic light at a railroad crossing, in a not too pretty part of Fort Worth, Texas..

I noticed the sunny day, green trees, and became aware of a slight golden ambiance to the scene in front of me. As I was wondering what could be making railroad tracks, and the crumbling church across the way look almost as if painted by Renoir, I glanced to my left...through my clean side window.

Everything suddenly appeared quite normal in color, and, ambiance?

What's that?

Anyway, all this lovely atmosphere had been created by a dirty, dusty windshield.

Isn't that how life is sometimes?

Poets and other writers speak about viewing things through rose colored glasses.

How we see things, either with our eyes or through the multiple lenses of experience and lore, can have a huge impact on how we live IN the life we have, and how we appear to others.

I got home intending to clean the windshield. I've got to go back out tomorrow and not really looking forward to that errand.

Maybe I'll leave the windshield like it is for one more day.

Labels: ambiance, donovan baldwin, Fort Worth, life lesson, poets, texas, writers

By Donovan Baldwin

Mankind will bend over until its collective spine breaks to do something it's not "supposed" to be doing.

In 1968, the U.S. Army transferred me to Texas. It was hard to believe such a historically hard-drinking, cowboy state could have laws against selling hard liquor. More surprising, was the fact that, near many Texas towns, could be found "Whiskey City".

This was a collective term for a shopping center, outside the town's legal jurisdiction, where booze could be bought.

I learned of this, when I got stationed at Goodfellow Air Force Base, in San Angelo, Texas, in 1967.

Of course, soldiers, and airmen stationed at the base could buy anything on base. However, non-military citizens could not buy hard liquor in town.

One day, a friend of mine took me into the desert surrounding the town. We turned down a nondescript road, and, after a mile or two, we came around a bend, literally in the middle of nowhere, and there was a modern, multi-unit, strip mall selling only booze.

People didn't want hard liquor in their town,.

So, they banned it. Some of them, and others, still wanted booze, just not in town, so they built a special place to sell it, and buy it.

What's the saying?

"Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive...", ourselves?

Labels: booze, buying booze in Texas, donovan baldwin, Goodfellow Air Force Base, San Angelo, texas, Whiskey City

By: Donovan Baldwin

We worry a lot about big things, but, for most of us, life is really comprised of small stuff.

Big rain storm while driving home last night I'm in Texas, and can see a long way. I was over near Dallas, when I headed west towards Fort Worth. I could see the huge bank of clouds, and I could see the rain in the distance.

It was a big storm, but, it didn't bother me...until I drove into it.

Then, that small area of the storm became my world.

Suddenly, I wasn't concerned about what was happening in the rest of Tarrant county, or in Parker county to the west of me, where the storm was coming from. Tons of water falling in blinding sheets, and other drivers. That was MY world, and my worry.

Meanwhile, in another part of the world, somebody's dying, somebody's being born, somebody's preparing for a hurricane, somebody's sunning themselves on a beach.

MY world is not always THE world.

In fact, I believe THAT world, THE world, is too big for us to deal with or exercise control over always.

Last night in the rain, I had to drive safely to keep myself, and others safe.

"Thank you." to other drivers who did the same, by the way.

Sometimes, that's the best we can do...look out for each other. If you can't fix everything else, do the best you can where you're at.

May not be much but, it helps.

Labels: donovan baldwin, life lesson, rain, rainstorm, storm, Tarrant county, texas, world

By Donovan Baldwin

Mother Nature put on a bit of a show in the Fort Worth area between 4 and 6 AM.

Big thunderstorm, or, as I have heard them called in this part of Texas, "thunder boomer".

I grew up in Florida, on Pensacola Bay along the Florida Gulf Coast, so, thunderstorms are not new to me.

However, in this part of Texas, dreaded "water from the sky" is not as common as it was down on the coast.

Over the decades, I have worked many jobs that took me outside a lot. Mama Nature and I are old friends, if not always good friends, in my boyhood, on beaches, in woods, and as a working man. Even my "fun" activities often occurred outside.

(Side note: If you are not from the coast and love on the beach sounds romantic to you, ditch that idea. Sand gets into everything....everything.)

Anyway, I have gotten away from Lady Nature, what with advancing age and other responsibilities.

Pity.

It's always (Except when it's Summer in Texas...) a pleasure to reconnect with the Great Outdoors.

Most days, these days, it's through my sitting room window. However, today, I am taking the trailer to nearby Benbrook Lake, and am going to renew my friendship with Ol' Ms. Nature for a week.

Comments may not be as often as normal, but, expect the pleasure meter to be near the top of the scale. Nothing like a little quality time with Mother Nature to make you feel you're home, and whole, again.

NOTE: The above comment was written several weeks prior to being posted here, and I have been back from that pleasurable outing for several weeks.

Labels: donovan baldwin, Florida, Florida Gulf Coast, Mother Nature, nature, Pensacola Bay, texas, thunderstorms

By Donovan Baldwin

A few years ago, around 2006, in Gatesville, a small Texas town, I was looking for an Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) at a local Wells Fargo Bank. Not seeing one I went inside the bank and asked the bank manager if they had one. He, greeted me kindly, and, unlocking the teller's cage, led me behind the tellers, past the opened vault, unlocked a door overlooking the drive-up banking area and showed me where their one ATM was located.

This little display of trust reminded me the first time, about 1972, I was asked to give a piece of identification for a check/cheque at a local grocery store.

Until then, I had written a check, handed it to the clerk, took my groceries and left...as did every other patron.

However, hot checks had become such an issue, people writing worthless paper, and businesses were losing so much money, they had to begin requesting identification.

In bigger cities this had been a practice even before I encountered it in my small southern city of Pensacola, Florida.

Over the years, we've lost trust.

At least a lot of it.

You know, years ago, before identity theft became such a big issue you could find people's social security numbers on lots of things. Many organizations, such as the U.S. military services figured out that, instead of issuing individual service numbers to each soldier, sailor, or Marine, they could just use social security numbers for identification numbers instead.

Well, because of identity theft, the military has gone back to issuing individual identification that does not use social security numbers as have many other businesses and government agencies.

I believe most of us still WANT to trust one another, but, every day, we are reminded of bad people doing bad things, and, because of those bad things we have to surrender more of our personal data, and freedoms.

Still, trust is one of the most powerful components of freedom.

I'll keep on trusting until I just cannot anymore.

Labels: donovan baldwin, Florida, Gatesville, identity theft, Pensacola, texas, trust

By: Donovan Baldwin

When I was a child, I assumed that someday, LEARNING would be done.

I hated learning stuff, at least the stuff I didn't WANT to learn.

You know how this story ends.

I never stopped learning. I suppose, even at the moment of death, I'll be "learning" what that experience is like. Pity I won't be able to share it in my musings.

These thoughts on learning come to you today, because, yesterday, while on errands, and reading poetry for free in a bookstore (Half Price Books store in Arlington, TX), I was thinking.

It's what I do. I read some pages in a book...learned a little about love. Shared witty repartee with a dear friend, and learned a little about our relationship, and my feelings (all good).

Outside the bookstore, I saw a fountain with galloping horses, and learned, perhaps re-learned, how deep is my enjoyment for art, animals, blue skies, and that same bookstore, which recently has assumed a greater meaning in my life.

As all this happened, I learned, or, perhaps, re-learned, an old lesson.

I have never stopped learning. With even the tiniest things I see, or think about, or experience, I am learning.

At one point, yesterday, I was driving through Arlington, Texas, ticking off the ideas, impressions, and things I was learning, and wanted to share with you lucky people.

Fun.

Life.

Don't stop learning...and sharing.

Labels: Arlington, donovan baldwin, half price books, learning, sharing, texas