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Where Two Streams Meet

Graham High

RAM PUBLICATIONS

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Acknowledgements Thanks are due to the editors and publishers of the following magazines and anthologies in which some of these poems previously appeared: Blithe Spirit; Dew-on-Line; Geppo; Haiku Headlines; Hummingbird; Modern Haiku (USA); Nightingale; Presence; still magazine; Yuki Teikei Haiku Society Journal. First published 2002 by Ram Publications 13, Witham Road, Isleworth, Middlesex, TW7 4AJ England Copyright © Graham High 2002 All rights reserved Design and layout by Graham High ISBN 0 9511386 7 7

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FOR BARBARA

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dark eyes

so much darker in the candlelight

the upcurve of a smile defying gravity

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fringe trim a part of you I’ve never seen before caught in your hair a summer moth and moonlight

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surprised again at the smoothness of your skin in sunlight midnight clothes line in the wind her brassiere trawls the stars

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I make up a poem hoping she will notice, as I her make up at the gym taking the pounds off you takes the years off me

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four hairgrips

instead of two new partings the same partings fiftieth birthday so happy in the garden she kisses trees

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softly gathering her long dark hair she combs the fire’s reflection

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you and the seasons I never knew winter so sharp the sun so kind you came in time how comforting – street lamps at dusk

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not one moth at the window, but two sharing the same problem days I haven’t seen you the almond tree almost bare of leaves

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a cold dawn loving feelings on hold the blue pilot light alone again I buy flowers for myself with you in mind

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two bare trees two birds one song this lingering autumn the close of day when I think of you brings another day

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when you’re not with me I see the space you fill – thin winter trees looking back on a chain of regrets your laughter breaks

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sleeping alone or together – both a luxury trees in leaf again I massage your neck – only baby powder between your flesh and mine

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eyes closed your fingers in my beard the only sound time for the bed light I draw the curtains on the moon

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curved edge, softly bright sun lighting the moon, moon lighting your breast cool clear night the moon’s aureole, your nipple hardening

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moon at the window along the bedroom wall – soft penetration smoothing the sheet a long dark strand of your hair on my side

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making the bed now the dust from our bodies filling the sun beams

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laid out picnic rug where two streams meet the weaving of ripples cascading down beside the waterfall your blowing hair

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picnic in the woods always some small creature to be rescued sun on sugar grains at the corners of her mouth

- wicked doughnut

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moules and white wine one shell remains unopened what did she ask me?

a last edge of sun - light through wine on the glass rim - your red lips

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light in your face as you tilt up to read my valentine’s card night drawing in she puts on the reading light around me

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they are setting fire to the distant cornfields our last summer

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topless beach your breasts and the sunset vie for my attention you walk from the sea a flame of sunset on your skin in each drip of spray

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a salt line on your swimsuit the water too cold the pebbles wet and bright where your skin touches fresh from the sea

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motion of the wave – applying her lip salve in the rocking boat

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flickering waves

- the sun making the sea visible, the sea making the sun visible

- confluence of you and me

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sometimes the sky gives it’s colour to the sea sometimes the sea reflects it

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the stillness in between one wave and another is just you being there through all life’s changes