The Cottage Garden Calls

IMG_1148

Something in the heart of the
gardener is drawn to create worlds
in patches of light and shade’s cool pools.
Something calls to make
billowing folds, pockets
and patchworks of flowers, floral
coverings and scented seas
for the lucky summer breeze.
Something calls for the bees and
their burrowing, smothering search
for bliss. Something calls. Something
calls. Something calls.

© Ben Truesdale and distilledvoice, 2015.

Cascade Of Wisteria

IMG_1217

There is no air sweeter
Than in May’s cascade
Of colour, billowing
With purple ether
And the lightest elements
That plants might contrive.

Their sexual expression
In fragrant perfection
And tiers of pale lilac
Flowers given
Is the real ‘who’
Of who they really are.

© Ben Truesdale and distilledvoice, 2015.

I Would Be An Artist – A Wish

In a room filled with light
I would find my art
In the murmurings
Of my feelings
Introspect and widening.

I would take the time, and with it
Fashion a beautiful gift, spin the light
To fabricate a tapestry of seeing, in which I
Might gaze and find things as yet
Unformed in my understanding.

There would be so much light
And so much time. And my looking
Would both absorb and bring forth
The art of my living. I would live to the
Fullest I could live, happy in the dream
Of ever finding.

© Ben Truesdale and distilledvoice, 2015.

Professional Barmen

They are masters of mixology,
Traders in cool.
They work
In the place to be: behind it.
They are it
With their controversial cocktails,
Fine wine wit
And work under loud rhythms.

The knife edge of fashion
Is theirs:
Firm hand shake
And contemporary hair,
Their tools
In the –  look good,
Play hard – life

Of those
Who shake and stiiir.

© Ben Truesdale and distilledvoice, 2015

A Warm Feeling

I am a sponge
Drinking through my porous
Skin, drinking energy.

The air, the sea, the fluid of reality
Washes through me
Like a fresh born wave.

I float. I am held. Warmth allows
Each cells place in the world,
Space for every identity.

I am a sponge, welcoming
With open arms
Life’s movement through me.

© Ben Truesdale and distilledvoice, 2015

Nymans Garden – A Picture

IMG_1084

Someone, a time ago, painted a
picture in the living stream of garden
beings. Their beautiful idea, via seed
and years of seasons, and the tender
touch of gardeners’, comes to me as
this:

A flush of crimson azalea.
And there a grotto in which generous
rhododendron blush and bloom in
roughs and frills.
And there peonies unclasped.
And there cherry pinks and white
petals lazily falling.
And there a dappled garden of
magnolia, like so many flamingos,
proud swans and poised egrets alight
each bough and branch.
And beneath in clusters: fritillary,
anemone and daffodils.
As if all were floating on a magical
mist of sunrise beginnings and first
dew drop breaths of times absolute
unfolding newness.

If I were an artist I might use this
fertile gift and call good thoughts
from fresh enriched wholesomeness
and wish them forward, so in a time
ahead, someone might find what I
have found and be likewise captive
and spellbound by nature’s gladness
to willingly adhere to the picture’s trellis.

© Ben Truesdale and distilledvoice, 2015

Sunshine On My Face

I feel sunshine on my face
And on my back.

And inwardly I feel the heat of
Positive thought.

With one happy sentiment
I am warm and beautiful

And glad and grateful
For my life.

I feel better in the knowing of
Sunshine’s wealth,

Its gift in energy,
In endless stream of

Waveform or particle.
Its substance endlessly brought.

The infinite process of giving
Begun each new day

With dawn’s first light
– A slither of newness

Delivered as forerunner
Of all that will be

Doubtless and faithful –
Trust’s fine principle

Wholesome to my heart.

© Ben Truesdale and distilledvoice, 2015.

Magnolia Spring

IMG_1091

In to the tentative spring
encroach magnolia flowers.
Some new, the nibs of fine pens
poised to inscribe heaven sent
possibilities.
Some full, festooning the leafless
branches as if a flock of glossy birds
had taken brief and perfect rest-bite.
Some old, their floppy bodies without
will to hold beyond a falling stars
burst and thrust and flair
in to momentary being.

© Ben Truesdale and distilledvoice, 2015.

The Wealth In Self

Sometimes I just want to write
something beautiful: to conjure the
mood, to call the feeling, to be the
beautiful pen as it translates the
energy of self and brings something
new to my world, and the wealth
found in being it.

© Ben Truesdale and distilledvoice, 2015.

Now Is The Time For Poetry

The times have changed for poets.
Long gone are the notebooks piling
high with frustrated prose and lyrics,
dust bound and irrelevant, for thought
is fleeting as the modern world and
synapses now demand the instant in
the instant.

The poem was born for this. The
living form of a moment found, both
infinitesimally small and profoundly
long lasting. The supple being that a
poem is, thriving once more, rising to
the position it was supposed to be.

© Ben Truesdale and distilledvoice, 2015.