Poetry & Illustration
“Head in the Clouds”
Adaptability of Aine
Uncharted territory
Shifting abundance
Into your hands
Moving between worlds
Without consequence
Omens of Ishtar
Synchronicity in the timing
Of my birth and death
Cyclical dance in union
Collaboration of the Source
Making of Worlds
Focus of Artemis
Harnessing the hunt
Establishing the mark
In the faraway place where
You lay your head to sleep
Alignment in my highest pleasure
Sweet songs of Demeter
Hymns I chant as my sons fall
Into the enchantment of slumber
A harvest meant to be shared
Gratitude given
A pure exchange of wonder
Deepness of Aphrodite
Such sensuous expressions
That set forth the freedom
Of the awakening of my life
Release to the Universe
Satisfaction in patterns left to perish
Memories of Mnemosyne
Running away from the pretender
Such glorious unfolding
Willingness of curiosity
For the exchange of wisdom
In the message I receive
Transforming with Shakti
Upside down in the transformation
That leaves me riddled as a butterfly
That falls from the cocoon, naked
Wings made strong by my thorax
Expansion in the figure-eight of
self
Beckoning of Morrighan
Namesake of my creation
Death and magic, smothering fear
Impossibility of destruction of
that
Which comes before
And the permission to surrender
To the eternity given.
2/22/21
-M. Irene Turner
“Glow”
Carved out in the words of Plato
Two embers burnt from the same tree
Consummated by the passion
Of sun once filling the earth
Forever leaving behind a molten core
Which melts with the same heat
That courses though my hand
As it gently touches your own
Recognition of the body that once
Coexisted within the same spirit
Twin flames that ignite in separation
As comets abandon a trail of light
Made brighter by the glow witnessed
By another who recognizes such familiar color
An extension of the self, union beyond constraint
That exists momentarily as two,
Establishing the beauteous perception
Of the whole sky
A canvas of the heavens from which
One star once fell.
-M. Irene Turner
2/18/21
“Dreams”
Sweet interruptions
Visions that borrow the mind
To speak to the spirit
What the head cannot
Sealed with flames
That melt the wax
Pressing into the figment
Of imaginative narrative
Saltwater that drowns
Flesh naked and thirsty
Satiating the atoms
That rattle for a plan
A sharp arrow that pierces
Cutting through the logic
That you have nailed to your
bones
Every single moment of life
Vines of memory that saunter
through
Splintered windows and walls
And grow in places of your heart
Rooted deeper than the well of
time
Tattoos of black mineral that
outline
The precious skin that was once
my own
A nocturnal gaze that looks
inward
Staring up at the wide ocean
Noticing the precious sunlight
Slowly drifting into
The borrowed light of the moon.
2.17.21
-M. Irene Turner
“A Million Jumps”
Blackened and burnt
Bitter, stale coffee on your tongue
Homewrecker, heartbreaker
The words you have spoken
Splinters in my heart,
Machetes in my mind
Nighttime descends
Illuminated only by
glowing streetlights
On the empty pavement
I miss the sun
I miss the ocean
I miss the way your smile curled
I miss your subterranean eyes
Guess what?
That’s what.
Fragile bones
Housing this soul of mine
Perhaps a bookmark in
Your stories
Bottles drank to catch the moon
Never satiated by the distance
Yet judgement does not harbor
Where this beacon stands alit
I miss your warmth
I miss your sun
I miss your ocean eyes
I miss you.
You once told me, I’ll always love you.
Tonight an owl dives down somewhere
In the park
An angel sighs in the cemetery
I wonder to myself,
Does he still think of me?
Tears imitating a faraway storm
Regret blanketing
The skin that is still yours
I should have let you inside
Rubies raining
I still wonder, where I went wrong?
No wonder we run from love…
I will always love you.
-M. Irene Turner
12/1/20
Pale winter blue
Icy imitation in the
Endless sky
Or far beneath
A canopy of redwood
Under emerald
Burgundy underfoot
Perhaps in sun-tanned sand
Shimmer next to the
Dark waters
Horizon the only boundary
Sunless sky, dim light
A wood-lined cabin
Or a star-filled expanse
Fluorescent light
Layers of white
Glass panes
Outside looking in
An empty sidewalk
Maybe in contemplation
Or your favorite chair
I wonder where you will be
When you see me?
-M. Irene Turner
12/1/20
“Unrequited”
Tease me with the tension
Of yesterday’s perfume
The scent of sun caught in
Your silver hair
Beneath the beautiful blue
Whisps of gray, touches of green
Eyes painted with the palette of autumn skies
Torment me with your smile
That gleams like moonlight
Reflecting from recited poetry
What irony at play
Like a happy child
When the words of love fall from the mouth
In the presence of such faultless admiration
Taunted by the empathy of creative dance
Encircling and chanting
Just as the wind does the trees
Before a million leaves fall
And yet, do you recognize that
My congruence is bound
To the beauty of your being
At all intersections of myself?
Treasures given to the muse
That are bestowed by your aura
An infinite book, dripping with the ink
Which runs throw my veins just
As my crimson blood flows
And makes me wet for the
Tempting flavors of your words
To me, love is not wrapped
In silk or satin,
It is skin bare as
The soul that wrestles beneath it
A torturous gift that I may
Taste the bliss of your kiss
Without touching your lips
How I envy the
fortunate words you have spoken
that relish in your mouth
and are bestowed by your breath.
-M. Irene Turner
11/15/20
“MAGIC”
A year and a day
Existence has a decided way
Of passing through
Our flesh and bones
Like light
Through a dirty window
Dappled and mutable
What a world when
Love is told to be quiet
When age is determined
By mortal conception
And driven only
By imminent death
While experience
Revokes yesterday’s
Innocence
Cathedrals of anecdote
Built on the passions
Of humanity
To work into the timber
A resurrection of hope
And timeless search
Of civic duty
When does the ocean rest?
Only when the sky
Sets on her horizon?
Must she eternally
Draw her tides
Against the moon
So not to flood the entire shore?
Yet, such beauty
In the painless rose
That emerges from the dirt
Despite the inclination of a
Painful stem
And decides to set root,
Emit her crimson color
To plant friendship in
Desolate soil
In this is the greatest
Gift:
That life can be determined
By so much more than
The mind,
Beauty can be found
In the most barren land,
Light can
Appear through any
Opacity,
And in all things is
A little bit of
Magic.
-M. Irene Turner
10/16/20
“Midnight Reverie”
Close your eyes
And tell me what you see
Amid tiny lights
Dancing, violet galaxies
Among the black and blue
The pressure of time and space
Do you recognize me here
In this place?
Was it yesterday I saw your smile,
Or perhaps centuries ago?
Down by the ruins
In the cemetery and moss
“Mo grá” you whispered
Near the loch
Yes, I recall it all
As I walked a million miles
All a map of crooked paths
To meet you here now
While all this time passed
There you were,
In autumn trees
Fallen golden flowers
Beneath my feet
Smooth, warm sun touching my shoulder
A kiss on the neck, and wrist
Such a scent I remember
The smell of wet pine
And muddy earth
Sea salt, ocean mist
Sweet river dirt
Now I see it all before me
A recollection in memory
Perhaps no more than a reverie…
But when you close your eyes
Do you see eternity?
-M. Irene Turner
10/23/20
“Kindred”
Standing on the precipice
Waiting to exhale
Gazing to the great beyond
My immortal soul filled with
Lessons as rugged
As the sea stone itself
Wounds cut into my memory
Deep as the Mariana Trench
Seeing the whole of the sky
A view of a million stars
Awaiting the arrival
Of my kindred
M. Irene Turner
10/22/20
“Seeing Things”
Nomad mind
x-ray eyes
color as vivid
as first sight
seeing things
inversely this time
reaching in
from the outside
creative forces
dabble and drown
from the ink spilled
into the universal sound
-M. Irene Turner
10/24/20
“A Wave Farewell”
Closure in the form of lines
Words, weighted
Now fly freely
Cages, rattle open
For the first time
Souls take a breath
Inhale, exhale
Two smiles
Moons in the dark
Crescents of recognition
Refracting miles away
Little beacons on each end
Now connected only
By the illuminating
Pulse
Reminders on a shore
Of yesterday’s waves.
12/9/20
“Head in the Clouds”
Today I was inspired by the clouds
The way they seduced the sky
The way they danced across cerulean
Sunlit and silver
Little prisms of color in their shadows
Misty hair cascading to the ground
Today I was inspired by her eyes
The way rivers empty to the sea
The way they glint pale sapphire shimmer
Sage and moss
Tidepools capturing moonlight
Honey painted hair mimicking ocean currents
Today I was inspired by the trees
The way wind made song of their branches
The way the melody mused the clouds
Birch-white and Oak-Gray
Creation rattling in the winter fractals
New beginnings restless in the bark
12/26/20
M. Turner
Simple grace surrounds you
The way dew does a petal
Leaning into the curves of your nature
Globules of the universe
Bending, as does the light
Through castle glass
A dimensional gaze imitating
Shadow on shallow ocean floor
That I should step into your water
And wade in the sands of your time
Allowing the tides of change
To wash through my moonlit body
And my bones to be remade
Into the shape of their purpose
Flesh, cascading over my soul
Just as a warm blanket wraps
A newborn child
Infinite possibility on
Your very horizon,
I watch as the sun sets
Between the valley of your lips.
1/18/21 Meghan Turner
“The Castle”
Come with morning at your heels
Come with moonlight in your hair
Come with all your days
Come with all your nights
Come with your pleasure
Come with your pain
Come with your child
Come with your father, your mother
Come with your brother, your sister
Come with your anger
Come with your mercy
Come with your rain
Come with your sun
Bring all of you
I stand clumsy at the gates
Of my kingdom
I do not beg to be your ruler
I do not wish to be your monarch
I am my own queen, kneeling
At the altar of your wonder
Bring all of you
I will not forsake
I will not cringe with jealousy
I will not speak with judgement
I will not cry of time lost
I will not abandon mortality
I will not take away your air
I will not confine with boundary
I will not laugh at your nakedness
I will not condemn your laughter
I will not wound your beliefs
Bring all of you.
Come, let me love you.
2.13.21
-M. Irene Turner
“Angels Aware”
Speak to me in rhymes
Vacancy between the lines
That let you lend me your hand
No sooner to take it away
Children of the meadow
Quiet and free
Language of the lip
That spills in songs
Into the barren wilderness
Filling it with dandelion
Mud, and truth
Silence that shouts
Louder than the earful
Entertainment for the muses
Which rest on scripture's shoulder
Disguised at half life
As a child dismissed
Such stoic nature
Transcending upon
My paint-ridden hands
That long to color your flesh
With a passion unmatched
2/16/21
M. Irene Turner
