More Than I knew

and I flew apart

blew my top and things

toppled out

many more than

I knew I was

had

could

© Perle Champion 

Rain

rain drenched sopping ground

long sated - swiftly runs your 

largess to the sea.

© Perle Champion

Self Portrait

I find it difficult to

look at me,

and see anything other than

what I want to see.

This is me as I

see me, or

if you will

as I want to be.

© Perle Champion

Night Write Against the Dawn

She cannot live her day out loud
and nightly trods her dark and hollow tomb
holding silent vigil
for a swiftly dying soul
and pen in hand
in desperate measure
she writes for her life
if not sanity at least respite
as each scene that never was is a moment
true upon the page as the words flow
soldiers marching cadence
across each pale blue line
in desperate foray an
assay against encroaching dawn.

© Perle Champion 07/07

En Garde

The meekest among us, scared but not
witless, takes pen in hand
and swords beware!

There is might in the word well written
no armament
can deter.

© Perle Champion 1995

Here’s to Saving the World

As girls,
how many times
did we save the world
over a glass of wine on a barstool
or a couch in front of a cozy fire
or in bed with a lover?

Solutions
to the world’s problems seemed so simple
so fluidly obvious - so readily at hand, and
if we ruled the world, what a wonderful world it would be.

As women,
standing sober
in the bright light of day
those carefree, easy
interludes are so very far away.

Solutions
to the world’s problems are not so simple
not so patently obvious - nor are they readily at hand, but
if we wait to rule the world, that wonderful world will never be.

© Perle Champion

Where To Now

emptiness
unlike any i have ever felt
when i doubt
the god to whom once i knelt

it’s as if
tomorrow is forever in coming
if indeed
it comes at all

the once
ideal and noble thinking
slowly
fades and then does fall

reality
is such a void
escape
is all i know
i want
to run and hide
but
where is there to go

the answer
comes, but oh, so slow
as pain
subsides, i finally know

on
is the only way that I can go.

© Perle Champion

The Hunt

Tread softly in the forest
else
the wild things will run away.
They know
what man does with wild things -
puts them safely into cages
molds them
to his will.
So,
tread softly in your
coming
or I can’t be still,
no wild thing
will,

again.

© Perle Champion

Far Away

far away and

long ago
there is a child
i used to know
with wide sad eyes
asking why
not out loud but
deep inside
why do we live
why do we
die

those clouds those

insubstantial
faery vapors which
upheld us
have given way
to the ground
i wonder if we shall
walk together
as easily as we
flew

© Perle Champion

The Bard

The Bard's song is

a piece of soul sung out loud
to the absent crowd
through time, the bards cant
the deeds, tell the stories
preach the morals, ask the questions, make the protest.

They strum the heart strings

touching part
of the common fabric of our being

reminding us of the one song

the uni-

verse.

© Perle Champion