Nicholas Shine

The Swaying Poppy

2010-01-25T16:59:00.000-08:00

The wind it blows so harshly on my eyes,
(Thus whined the boy with wavelets on his hair)
I cannot see the sun before it dies,
Nor can I see my willow anywhere.

The wind it makes my eyes shed tears so strange,
That I know not the woes that make me weep.
My heart it rests so still it doth but sleep,
And never sways to feel the tides that change...

Thus whined the boy with wavelets on his hair
As he walked mid the willows by the sea,
And hoped to find his own tree in the haze...

Young Hippasus, who also wandered there,
Said: "come and see your willow! Can't you see
Your willow is a poppy: how it sways!"

Chamber Music for Golden Hair

2009-06-06T07:42:00.000-07:00

Bright stars shine on my new best friend,
My dreams came to a bitter end.
Hearts do shiver and sharply trend.
Mine shall never seem to wander freely.
I have wondered so yearnfully
Why this grief means so much to me,
Why all withers and I can't see
Blossoms bearing dew before they burn.
She smiles and wavers,
And feels I must learn
That all tides shall turn
And fade away.

No dark clouds over Goldenhair
Heard her singing a merry air.
I see her eyes blazing everywhere,
Blazing with the sunlight of her laughter...
I will long like the deepest sea,
Wonder ever so yearnfully,
Shed all tears that may grow in me...
Lull myself to sleep beneath the sun,
And always waver...
Will I ever learn
That all tides must turn
And fade away?

Oneiric Song

2009-04-29T12:34:00.001-07:00

Night is grey
As every silent chord I play.
Every night
I close my eyes and dim all lights.
Deep inside a hurricane,
Howling winds, the pouring rain
Streams in.

Night is long,
But not enough to sing my song.
Silence grows
As my imagination flows.
Let me touch your blazing hair,
All is bliss that's shining there
Tonight.

Dawn is blue,
A thousand blue rays streaming through.
In a daze
I saw the fair lines of your face.
Bustle fills the break of dawn,
Just my dreams still linger on
Alight.

Morning Dew

2009-04-29T12:33:00.001-07:00

Last night I slept with a thorny
Rose-tree bough above my head,
And the moonlight, through the deep night,
Brought me languid dreams toward my starlit bed.
It hurts so much, the silver touch of this morning dew
That I cried for you all night...
While you were in a cloudless dream
With your lover sleeping over you.

Leaves pour like gold, I'm trembling
And it's raining in my soul.
The breezes from the river
Drench my heart and make me shiver.
I dreamed of you in shades of blue,
And I'm drowning in my love.
At dawn you lie with peaceful eyes
And your lover sleeping over you.

I lulled my heart to sleep inside
The sweet nepenthe of my dreams:
Brief cure for a long woe,
Still everything's as broken as it seems.
Dreams fade away, vague shades of grey,
Through our purple canopy.
I'm back in me, surprised to be
Your lover lying over you.

Don't Follow Lea

2009-04-29T12:32:00.002-07:00

Lea shakes her rubid mane
Like a lion in a cage.
In her eyes, fierce desperation,
Bluish flames of glancing rage.

Lea's hands, like varnished razors,
Scare my eyes uncannily.
Should I let her curse my life?
Should I set this lion free?

Off she goes, white clouds behind her,
Sunlight beaming on her face.
I don't think I'll ever find her
Once she finds a better place.

Hear my words, don't follow Lea,
Let her roar into the light,
I believe the sun goes with her,
For the sun is shining bright.

Fallen Star

2009-04-29T12:32:00.001-07:00

Broken leaves on the ground where you once roamed,
On the top of a hill there's a windmill.
Cherished lights that were dimmed when the wind blew:
All the dreams that have died on my pillow.
Dead star, you're a dead star in a dead night.
Sleep, my fallen star.

You still make me cry as my eyes glimpse the sky,
For I'm wondering why you have left me.
I fell from a tree, that was laden with glee,
That I saw in a dream cold and dreary.
Dead star, you're a dead star in a dead night.
Sleep, my fallen star.

Far from Me

2009-04-29T12:31:00.001-07:00

When the air you breathe is laden
with soft sighs
And the moon shines on your brow,
Keep your dreams inside a world
behind your eyes,
For the home that keeps you now
away from dimness
Will make you believe your love
is like an illness.
Close your eyes...

When your face reveals what goes on
in your heart
And your hands just can't keep still,
Hold your secret wishes in a world apart,
And let no one know your will,
and leave you weeping
With a heap of rags where once
your dreams were sleeping.
Close your mind...

When the ground becomes a rug
of broken leaves
And the breeze is harsh and fierce,
Foreign winds bring dazing rumours
through the trees,
And I'm broken down and cold,
And you're so far from me,
And the songs I sing are old.
And you're so above me...
Close my eyes...

Marigolds and Carnations

2009-04-27T16:49:00.000-07:00

Brothers and sisters, come see me,
For long I've been roaming alone,
Incessantly seeking the words
To tell her the day when I'm gone.
Bring me marigolds and carnations,
And I'll remember the sun,
Bring me marigolds and carnations,
And I'll remember the sun.

In my life I met an angel:
Her long hair shone brighter than gold.
She gave me the warmth of her eyes,
I gave her my heart and my soul.
Bring me marigolds and carnations,
For what's left is growing old,
Bring me marigolds and carnations,
For what's left is growing old.

All words seem gone from my mind,
Yet I trust they'll be mine again,
For I know I'll just have to see them
And they will come back to my hand.
Bring me marigolds and carnations
And I'll be a child again,
Bring me marigolds and carnations,
And I'll be a child again.

I still don't know what I shall tell her,
But I trust that soon I will know.
All you have to do is just bring me
The flowers that once saw me grow.
Bring me marigolds and carnations,
And I'm sure sweet words will flow,
Bring me marigolds and carnations,
And I'm sure sweet words will flow.

Oh, brothers and sisters, come see me,
For long I've been lying alone,
Incessantly seeking the words
To tell her the day when I'm gone.
Bring me marigolds and carnations,
I can't remember the sun,
Bring me marigolds and carnations,
I can't remember the sun.

A Dream

2008-11-24T18:09:00.000-08:00

Tonight, the sky is blue as a sapphire.
The moon of crimson jasper slowly soars
Behind the cedar trees. The open doors
Of my warm house lead to a dulcet fire.

And, lazy as the stars, my peaceful eyes
Gaze at the pleasant garden where you sit,
Adorned by radiant flowers and moonlit
Beneath your wondrous look and the bright skies.

I softly take your hands and walk with you
Into my perfumed chamber, where the scent
Of opium rises, drowsy, sweet and matt...

I love you for your soft and mellow hue,
For you are dreamy and iridescent,
Beauteous and silent as a poet's cat...

Variations

2008-11-24T14:57:00.000-08:00

At times, my heart is frail as crystal glass.
A rush of wind may break it into flakes,
That, sprinkled on the ripe, leaf-covered grass,
Will soon be cruelly drawn by reckless rakes.

At times, my heart tolls like the morning bronze,
That fills the dewy air, those mystic bells!
Or, taken by the beauty of the swans,
It falls into bright dreams, deeper than wells...

But if I saw you, love, among the crowd,
Your silent feline steps down the cold lane,
I'd see, between wild crows, a gentle dove,

And then, my heart would rave, and cry out loud
Wild songs of desperation, chimes insane:
Such are the variations of my love.

Wisdom

2008-11-22T17:50:00.000-08:00

Young Hippasus was wise beyond his years,
And wise beyond the years of any man.
One evening, his bright lover, Liliane,
Said: "Love, as the last sunbeam disappears,

And, muffled in a shroud of twilight mist,
The moon glides soft and graceless overhead,
I hesitate. How may we not desist
To seize the light of life, and make our bed

Of flowers, to lie silently and blessed,
When light itself's so bashful and unsure?
This dewy dimness, truly, I deplore".

Quoth Hippasus: "The Sun finds peace and rest.
An abstruse sea of liquid is his cure.
I pray: quaff your red wine, and mourn no more!"

The Vessel

2008-11-22T16:25:00.000-08:00

The vessel of my love is young and pallid
And knows not the profoundness of the seas.
It gently floats, blown by a mournful breeze,
Beside the sleeping shore. A doleful ballad,

Brought by a lone and faint nostalgic tide,
Fondles the yearnful sails, silken and sweet,
Who long to meet the grand, voluptuous fleet.
The mouldy ancient forest sleeps beside.

One day, a radiant goddess, dressed in foam,
Will rise above the ripples and deplore
Such wretched solitude. Freed by her hands,

The sails will meet the whirlpools and the lone
Vastness of seas, abysms wild and sore,
And cry for sweet nocturnal moonlit sands...

Nepenthe

2008-11-21T20:16:00.000-08:00

I kept my dreams inside a broken phial
And lit the mouldy incense on the ground.
My dreams took wings and fled, and, through the aisle,
The incense spread out dim smoke all around.

I sat beneath the old and verdant oak,
I seized a bunch of lilies in my hand,
And fell deeply asleep. When I awoke,
Their withered leaves were scattered on the sand.

I quaffed the waters from the limpid lake,
Whose white nenuphars float among the reeds,
And felt an ardour down inside of me.

I lower my head as in a lonesome wake.
And, when I've sown all my cancerous seeds,
A shadow will erase my memory.

Tellus Mater

2008-11-21T20:04:00.001-08:00

Unendingly in love with our distress,
The Earth, tremendous beast of slime and stones,
Unveils Her sordid heart, cries for our bones.
Her hungry heart is fire and wrathfulness.

How madly doth Her tongue, a gory flame,
Spew clouds of cinders from Her miry mouth!
She breathes a deathly wind, as, from the south,
The Siroc breathes hot death across the plain...

In verdancy and in waters may She thrive,
May orchards bud, may flaunty bluebirds soar!
And, neath our feet, may deathly angels hide,

For Death, Death is Her lover, whereas life
Is but Her sacrifice of mud and gore
To keep Her blasted Lover satisfied.