Sample  Publication date: February 2001
Author: Kelly Kenrick
Company: Shaffer Novels/Poetry Company
COPYRIGHT 2001 KELLY KENRICK
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED WORLDWIDE
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
FIRST PRINTING; ELECTRONIC AND PRINT MEDIA
US Library of Congress Copyright: TXu 975-750
My Secret Landscape By Kelly Kenrick Skye
A painter paints his heart onto canvas.
A singer praises heaven, joyfully, achingly.
But looking out over the harbor,
How do I express the longing in my soul
And the ache in my heart
At the thought of leaving?
When words can't describe
The feeling I get,
Looking out over the water.
And the peace that wraps itself
Around my soul.
I can't make words sing
Through an ancient tongue.
I can't make men weep
With the stroke of a brush.
But I feel connected to this land
In a way I can't express
And something inside me dies
As I turn away.
Exiles
I walked in the footsteps of my ancestry
And traveled the paths of history.
But the hopes of my ancestors
Have become the bars of my prison cell.
And the beauty of the landscape
That surrounds me
Is eclipsed by the mists of a faraway isle.
Exiled in a forlorn world
When my heart longs to fly
Over the seas and the braes
Of my ancestral home.
It is calling me.
And I cannot yet answer its siren song.
So I wait, and I despair
And I dream of walking the Black Rock
In truth again, instead of in dreams.
I am an immigrant
Who has never left her native land
Until visiting the highlands
That birthed her clan
And whose blood still roams the ancient hills.
And speaks the ancient tongue.
When setting foot upon
The paths trod by history and clearances
A peace settles in my heart,
Which cries out 'Home! Home at last!'
Until I can walk once more
In my ancestors footsteps
And let my heart fly free
I will grieve.
And shoulder these chains
That bind me here
To a land my ancestors came to willingly
Not realizing the fetters
They would lock around
The generations after them.
But my heart and soul
Are caged on an island of wings
Far from where my body lies bound.
One cage I'd gladly have imprison me.
From the other
I will break free.
Celtic Pride
Oh Eire! Emerald Isle.
Your land cries out in pain
That once stood so tall.
Where now does Cuchulain sleep
And Maeve rule?
They are lost.
Gone from the minds of mortals
Who turn to others to appease.
They have lost what was once theirs
By rite of kingship
Now only serve.
And even the Sidhe are gone.
Banished, but from the minds of few
No longer are the ways clear
And the paths are entwined in brambles.
But you can still hear the banshees wail
Mourning! Ah! The great ones are gone!
What now, Ireland?
Are the banshees wailing for you?
Wise Men Tell No Tales
He gathered up his tattered dignity
And staggered off into the night.
Dragging behind him unquestioned answers
Like a security blanket he couldn't bear to lose.
I watched him wander out of sight
Shaking my head of the image of him.
Pondering his words.
What did they mean?
The choice is not ours
Fate comes tapping on the windowsill.
When you turn around to look,
He waves at you gaily,
A painted clown miming hysterics.
He nodded wisely over his speech
Looking for all the world a tailor
Hunched over a suit of armor.
Protecting his dreams from the sun's harsh rays.
I never presumed to meet him
In the haunted corners of his life.
He came and went
Ethereal fog of wisdom.
The wishes you hold
Are seedlings nurtured in the dark.
Exposed to the world
They will wither and die
Or burst into bright blossoms of light.
He laughed at a joke unheard of.
Holding his sides to keep in the tears.
Pantomiming to an unseeing audience
Of stone statues in the park.
I wasn't able to share
The depression that weighed down his soul
In a vain attempt
To drown him.
Nightmares play on your senses
Crawling around in your skin
To erupt violently
And suddenly
A hellish world of promised evil.
He bled into my soul one night.
Staring into the fire that fed his life.
Cocking his head to hear the wind's song
He slowly faded and was gone from view.
Contemplations
Silence echoes through a dream of peace and beauty.
The sun caresses snow tipped mountains.
Shadows enfold a sleepy valley.
A kitten playing with a ball of string.
Wheat fields swaying in a prairie breeze.
Children sleeping, curled in mothers arms.
Autumn leaves falling from the trees.
A majestic elk gazing across a meadow.
A gurgling creek tumbling over rock.
A glint of light as a bird takes flight.
A call of a loon across a still lake.
Miles and miles of untracked snow
Blanketing a silent countryside.
The lapping of waves
Against an island shore.
Lightning flashing across a cloudy sky.
Moonlight shining through a thin gauze cloud.
Sunset in the western sky.
City nightscape shining like jewels.
A lighthouse beacon flashing out to sea. View a Synopsis of This Work | Order This Work | 
