Not much of a set up to this next batch. A small cycle of "Nocturnes" meant to mirror to progression of Dante's Divine Comedy (Hell, Purgatory, Heaven) in the context of falling in love after a period of tremendous loneliness and despair and a few poems finding aspects of the divine (particularly of the antiquity mode) in several extraordinary women that I know.
I. Queen of Dreams
In my dreams I see your face, wreathed with the stars:
Clad like the queen of all the heavens, sun and moon
Woven in your hair, my heart in your ethereal hands.
Queen of Dreams, Caretaker of Love!
There is no beauty that comes not from you,
Nor any that is not made manifold by your care.
Your eyes ignite fierce flames in the hearts of men,
All consuming, an inferno of passion,
An unquenchable desire to win the treasure of your smile.
Stronger than steel, softer than a rose,
The Cytherean lady bows humbly before you,
Matchless to your magnificent stature.
Hold my heart fast heavenly Queen, for your touch
Sets it throbbing like the drums of war,
And war I would brave, and a thousand perils besides,
For nothing can frighten me, nothing can deter me,
When you are the promised reward.
I would fight all the armies of creation for your heart,
And go smiling into the fray; the center shall hold,
For your divinity has given me strength unequaled.
Queen of Dreams, Caretaker of Love!
I will see you in my dreams, every night,
Hoping just for that one, fleeting embrace,
Daring not even for a kiss, for the ecstasy of your lips
Would be more pleasure than I could endure.
II. Nocturne #1
Slumbering in the lonely twilight void,
Amidst the hosts of the Children of Cain,
That blighted field where my heart has lain,
Where despair with my dreams has toyed;
Alone I entered into that foreboding kingdom,
To tread through Morpheus' dark, abysmal realm:
To tread the depths with Death--Night at the helm,
To contend with dread, whose call is most fiercesome--
Lurid starlight, the lanterns of that infernal land,
Became my guide on the path astride two worlds:
Heaven on one hand, but into Hell I was hurled,
Slumbering in the long dark, on that Stygian strand.
Into Night's supple embrace my weary spirit flies,
That cold, mirthless bosom where all hope dies.
III. Nocturne #2
Again I laid down my world-weary head,
To slumber in that deep, darksome abyss--
Only to find the kingdom I knew broken and amiss,
For on Morpheus' throne was an angel in his stead.
She glanced at me wryly, playful and coy,
Promising me a world of ecstasy for my pains,
If my worth was sufficient, her love would I gain:
A crucible for the angel, a trial for my joy--
Naked before the devouring night, open to the void,
Burned by the moonlight, wrestling with the stars,
Doing feats in defiance of god, winning only scars;
Yet overthrow the divine I would attempt unannoyed,
For that dulcet, enamoring angel sits and waits,
And for her heart I would endure any caprice of fate.
IV. Nocturne #3
For the final time I laid down to slumber,
Willing to leave the blissful dream no more,
With Morpheus' toppled and the angel my paramour--
To her my heart beholden, her spell I was under:
My angel more glorious than the radiance of heaven,
A being supreme in beauty and matchless in love--
My desire's Queen, over all her soul reigns above:
Seat of my passion, oaths sworn seven upon seven--
She has conquered dread Death and notorious Night,
For in her tender embrace dwells immortality's secret,
And on her lips' nectar lies that sweet elixir--
Two hearts clasped as one, ecstasy between me and her,
A moment crystallized in this nocturne, thus writ:
The dream has in all surpassed my desire,
She is my golden reality, our love an unquenchable fire.
V. The Goddess Waits
Beyond the reaches of mortal eyes,
Beyond the scope of man’s hearts,
A sublime goddess waits and languishes,
Sometimes wracked to and fro,
Blown about by the fierce tempest
Of whimsy, betrayal and caprice:
Standing proud against the storm,
A warrior’s heart to outduel Pallas,
Her shield against all ills.
The goddess waits in enamored vigil,
Ceaseless against time’s eternal flow,
Snowbound, flower-wreathed,
Sun-baked, autumn draped:
She stands, paragon of divinity,
Waiting.
Her heart undaunted compels her,
Calls out across the eternal ocean,
Awaiting just the slightest whisper,
The meekest answer of the one
For whom she desires,
The lucky soul for whom this goddess
Stands and waits, against the ravages
Of a world too often cruel,
Too often tenebrous,
Until the trumpets of judgment sound,
A warrior proud, and Queen regal:
Matchless blazon of beauty,
Supreme in her love, admired by all.
The goddess awaits the answer,
The answer to her heart’s call.
Take heart, for in the depths of the world,
The deepest reaches of the soul,
The answer she so eagerly seeks is come:
Soft, timid, slow in it’s approach.
The goddess waits, but her vigil
Will soon be done.
The goddess waits,
Her bliss is soon to come.
