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The Millennium Poems

by Ariana Cleveland; co-published with Braemar Flodden

150 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #00-0167; ISBN 1-55212-502-5; US$22.00, C$30.69, EUR20.00, £13.90

Innocence, love, betrayal, moral responsibility, politics and history are intertwined in this volume of poetry. We experience feelings of tenderness, anguish and an incomparable sense of loss as we travel through this emotional tapestry.

Sample excerpts

Author's Introduction

When angels descend to reclaim an irreplaceable gift
to mankind, we are reminded of God's fundamental
quest and the essence of the eternal spirit.

Eleven days before the tragic accident in Paris, beside a
beautiful evergreen laden with pink blossoms, lay a
medallion of gold. The image of the Blessed Virgin
(Beata Virgo Maria), carved exquisitely, lay on a garden
path where no visitors pass. The moment was
transcendent. I was reminded of a love immeasurable
and inexpressible.

Genesis

Adorned youth blessed and bleeding
will you endure this genesis of love
this existence born of the volatile glow
of lunar tides
illimitable?

currents of wind rip in eyes stained
by the kiss of angels
ribbon of fire
mantle of light
fugitive wings of sight

(evermore)

semper et ubique.

embers in the flush of autumn
blaze.

wounded...

by the thunder

of rain

Sub Specie Aeternitatis

Dream-fire of whispering elms
Enchanted roar of rain rapt
in the arms of thunder
come lie in the meadow green
for there in the contagion...
edifice of distant incense and strangers
knell the bells of inquietude
sorrow relinquished.
embers laved.
scattered upon the dynasty of time.

Chanson d'argent rent in the sun
trembling with fever
beyond the songs of the fleet
stark white sails pound in the celestial corridor
of ardour
riveting sanctuary
haunting shade of storm-drenched blue

and courant from Jubilee Gardens to Islington
the greyhound bodes the armistice of time
dream-fire of whispering elms
the bells toll the bliss of roses.
(Rain of the alate)
Venus,
covenant in the temple at Rome...

the bells toll in the hermitage of morning twilight,
Epping Forest
tribute to the solstice of summer
sheeting Albion's knolls
from Avalon...
to Londinium Augusta

Among Angels

Austere timbered knoll
of grief
wilt thou sow the seeds
of understanding?

or shall we wander further
in darkness?

timbered knoll, austere, of grief
the flowers have perished and upon the tundra:
barren mesas - broken bones strewn

and no more.

the whippoorwill, cardinal, robin
the bluebird and sparrow
glistening in snow
sing
oblivious...
and we weep

with the sun, moon, wind, rain, the arid dunes of Petra
why sing?
perished. youth. mute.

the songbirds of innocence
there.
pale horse chaste
pale rider captive
prisoners of the catacombs

and longingly we gaze
spirit, mind and form
jeweled ornaments melded
(of the sun)
wistfully to the sky
possessed by those symbols
of angels
and scream

(without hearing)

eclat!
the sleigh bells ring out
the harnessed stallions run
the sled carves the tundra
then halts, and the princess
Artemis whispers:

sorrowful dream withering
in blood
the songbirds sing among angels

we walk among the dead.

Winter

he who suffers the pain
pain beneath the tresses
pain within the tears and kisses
(love that sweeps the pain)
he who languishes in the lament of youth
regrets not
the tears
for he has not eyes that cast
the light of bleak clouds
lame in the color of winter

shadows fall
only to linger
and then whisper

despair beyond measure
we mourn for youth
desirium. long ago.
perished.
the requiem
lingers

I think that he might expire
harrowing
this evening of orange-painted dusk...

O muddy waters

of black

so deep

In the Ruins of Tenderness

Springtime, Yuletime, Autumn, Summer
in all these seasons
stream the ruins of tenderness
sanctified in the effulgence... illusory
Prince of the Amber Isles
marcescent lilies in argent
and rose falter
as utterances of illustrious corteges
bode the morrow

venerated.
beloved.

propine de fide
(et hinc illae lacrimae)

Prince of the Amber Isles
in the ruins of tenderness
nocturne, morning, winter
whispers of love
and noble plunder

coral and jade
lips and eyes
the tundra of heart

lay tethered.

Marchfeld

Still in the fresco of light stained amber
on the Marchfeld
whispers of exile are offered
with the abandon of a child
in vain

boasting of conquest
you taunt
the lure of a smile
now oppressive
tender meek

impenetrable fate of desire
we stand exposed
and the slaughter of compromise
laughs
impervious
realm that reluctantly concedes
the epoch of remote, elusive splendor
is born to eclipse
the naked bastion
dormant - indeterminate - fallow
bereft in palaces of interminable strife
that lay in the paths of sprawling armies

reflection faint
reflection subtle
with the abandon of a child

I whisper
on the Marchfeld we meet
and the shuttered interiors
have been stripped
the wasteland
is barren

Gardenias by the Sea

Crystal shimmer of life
laughing
at the sky like the child that runs
through sun-swept streets
weeping with joy
fragrant gardenias rustling
by the sea

white veil of spring
sings

Strand of Gold

Jewelled strand of gold
your voice is melliferous
stark bare
vanishing
you resemble the currents
of love
that always return
more beautiful
than before

Labyrinth of the Waltz

Stale smoke lingered upon those days that
fell monotonously
succession in sheaths
that rained like reflections in pools

and there we spoke in shadows

Arms numbed in the death of slumber
Arms ashen in perfumed air

the resonance a clamor
of etherized études...

still and helplessly mired in a golden aura

incorporating the pageantry, pomp and circumstance
of omnipotent gods as they bid farewell

        meticulously promulgated
        in the tears of elapsing years
        dead

While distant are rooms draped in emerald
and cindering codes diffuse
dreams in reticence - memories of thundering
tones imbue
        wanderings
                in the timbre
                        of winter.

Hushed, the tone falls in anonymity
efferent is the wake

amative stirs of sequestered poems
move violently

        the sea of indigo...
        propensity of density
        squared

if only to threaten,

and then malinger...

Beyond the flickering panes
burnished and weathered by omnipotent gods
spectres and warriors respond
flinching sabers of pounding rain
dichotomous murmurings in solemnity
where homage to prescience pervades

Roaring chasm of inquietude.

Cirrus.

Tempest of obsidian.
Air.
(In the quaking realm we discerned retreat.)

                        agate lairs... mirrored
                        Byzantine rings of sapphire...
                        the cascade of golden hair

In shattered light, lions of Delos traverse

nebulously arcane

and odes crescendo
staves of Helios

mutterings in refrain

                        Trembling kiss.
                        My delicate trembling kiss.
                        platinum sands are flying in the wind
                        and these lips of a hindered time
                        and these lips of a lachrymal stain
                        console and submit
                        if only to embrace fleetingly
                        diffractions
                        inviolably elusive
                        aloft in the peal of a diffident stare

In ancient hues of indigo
polemics and whispers of abstruse rites
assemble -

And the waltz of the labyrinth
orchestrates

                        the
                                blinding
                                                shrill
                                                        of
                                                                winter

In gilded halls we dance provident rhapsodies
phantoms lambent, in chiffon and lace,
and in prismed shades of distant laughter
penumbras are cast of emerald and crystal

Sotto voce...

Sotto voce of somber tides...

Sotto voce of laughing eyes...

Light cleaves
so precisely

asunder.

And in refrain,

        the labyrinth transcends and repeats.
        Wild, wild, wild blue fire
        that rages in the star-etched night

turn.

console braceleted arms rendered implacable
to destiny

Cindered snow. whispered the bourne. no words

and drowning in the din, harbingers
of lavender brambles that spill muted
upon corridors...
the echo of an armoured sheen

Moonglow, fireflies.

Tigerlily dusk...

Oceans' somnambulism sheen.

Pastoral dales of my windswept trance spill,
and glimmering fires weep
pavonine.

                upon an ashen neck
                        ancient maenads mourn
                upon an ashen neck
                        ancient maenads mourn

Thunder is raging in lingering breath
where panthers seethed in smoldering tones
and girls tumultuous in restless dreams sleep
in antique lace through the window pours

Conquistador
of obdurate sands

Conquistador of dreamers' lore

Conquistador in laden air

in antique lace through the window pours

providence.

upon an ashen neck.
ancient maenads mourn.

Majorca

Plain of illusion
why deceive, strike nocturnal
loom, discourage
guarding a grandiloquent
fortress?

(but the sands erase everything)
arms that embrace, lips that linger
in a shuttered room,
we lie on a bed in Majorca, my hair
falling down covering your shoulder
and light streams in upon your chest,
and I cannot go

and in the shadows music rises and descends
I smoke; you sleep
and in the courtyard women in black pass
children run,
he kisses her; the shutters close...

(but the sands erase everything)

...and we are the sands in a city of wind.
we flurry in mad ascent
we descend.

plain of illusion
sleeping in the parched afternoon
plain of illusion
gingerly upon lips
I linger

(we are the sands)
red dunes burning treacherous glory

(we are the sands)
and the sands erase everything

the night heron flies
street sounds fade
night falls
upon ensuing flurry
and in a distant room
by the table covered with satin
crystal glasses my cigarettes and papers
Cybele, chariot drawn by lions
thunders