The Kaleidoscope Chronicles...Poetry In Three Voices

http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/the-kaleidoscope-chronicles-poetry-in-three-voices/7387084

what once was lost

Journeys are strange sometimes.

Do you remember
when we used to ride around
on Friday nights,
out on country roads
trying to get lost?

It must have been an exercise.

Practice--
so that as adults
we would know how
to find ourselves.

Not that tomorrow
we'll know exactly
where we ought to be--
But we'll find our way again.
 All You Are

I wrote you a poem.
Then I scratched out some lines
and read it again
and deleted some more
until I was left
with no words.
How do I define all you are to me?
You are a man tall and strong.
You like to play with machines in the dirt
and build fires
and drive fast.
You know me as well
as a man can know a woman.
You overlook my eccentricities.
You marvel at all I dare to dream,
even, when you can't see
my blue skies.
You reach to comfort me
knowing that there are no words
for my grief.
You plant seeds in the Earth
while I sow songs
in the stars.
 
by Emily Burns

I Will Sing In This Tree

I will sing in this tree until the evening shadows
blow like a sea wave through the dry leaves
I will sing a sun fish up from the river
and make the water lilies from far away
nod in their ponds and listen
I will sing this mountain into a blue slumber
and watch the drooping willow weep and sleep
Far away in a gray stall I will awaken
the spirit of a restless horse
and he will break the gate and run steady
I will sing in this tree without provocation
and without the heavy hands of duty
There will be a boat melody for lost swimmers
and a brown bird song to the road crew
Panthers in the forest will sit upon huge rocks
and turn their heads in the cold night air
And the song will be there!
Traveling in a hornet hive and in a mottled cloud
In a bottle of white champagne and a yellow rose
I will sing in this tree until the stars alert the moon
and the moon will turn a big head to listen
While one lone woman in another town,
will smile in her sleep to the familiar sound
Someone I will not know will hear my singing
and play the blues on a horn of long rapture
and a laughing man traveling with his window down,
will whisper, Yes, oh yes indeed!
I will sing in this tree.
 
by Phibby Venable

Letter to a Friend for Their 20th Birthday


Remarkable that you and I
out of this whole, grey, tired city
should meet in this chic café
as I drink a long black coffee
sophisticated as night
and you order a bittersweet mocha.

You lie your thumbs over mine,
your flesh purpled and bruised, 
Your thumb tips position,  a unique
and hinting memoir from when we
played ‘Snakes’  on my metallic blue Nokia,
you guiding my touch.

We look out over this town,
sometimes wide as a universe to us, 
all dashing neon’s, milky night light
and a thousand, thousand lives.
We haven’t seen each other in weeks
and savour, like our coffees,

the melody of this sweet interlude.  
just days before you enter adulthood,
I write you this letter
that I shall never send.
knowing soon we will mock
our faux pas failure strewn lives.

Once saliva hung down from your mouth,
like the slick a  snail must leave
when it infests a coffin,
and crawls across a corpses face.
Another long drink time ago
you were cold and locked to the sun rays.

Impulsive as a lizard you jumped
from the Christmas steps
and landed on a bed of glass chunks,
bleeding profusely.  And now,
with that same suddenness
it transpires even you leave your teens.

And so I welcome you to
- the age of total responsibility.
 
by Sel Whiteley

 

Reviews

[Larry Dyson]

hmmm..saving up for this book...3 beautiful writes of a book full I believe...ty Ladys

[W.k.kortas]

You can keep your Three Tenors; this is a trio that can really sing.

[Greg the Bard]

Three artist in a row. I do not use the word "Artist" very often, in this case it holds true. Phibs has never been one for compermise and in "I Will Sing In This Tree" I feel she has reached a new level. A very high level. The work reminds me, as do the other two works here in do, of epic prose. The styles are rich with many lavish words put together just in the right pattern. These writings can be read separate of each other or as one in a story that is being set up for the telling. Individually, Emily Burns has a run on sentance pattern that is delightful to follow. The pace is fast but fills itself in when needed. Phib's work is more transparent and flows from one sentance to the next without set pramaters. I love the way she ties the work together. Phibs check out "Frost" he was the best at this style. Sel Whiteley; I have not read much of your work but I will now. Your ending,"And so I welcome you to - the age of total responsibility." says it all. This line tells me the reader that you are a deep thinker that has something to say. I truely like what all three of you have put to pen. Great work.

[Ed Hart]

My goodness! This is a lot to take in all at once. Emily, I think I'm looking at your very best! Phibby, what a song of life, round and full of light. And Sel, it be a man worth knowing, the one who could stand next to you, and not melt under the heat of the sun in your heart.

[Emily B]

I want to thank you both. And w.k. kortas. This was a lot of fun! Can't wait til my ordered copy gets here. Next time I go to the library or somewhere to share poetry, I'm going to read something by Sel Whiteley and Phibby Venable.