Goodnight

It’s night time now

and I can see shadows

swirling through

the concrete walls

everywhere.

I can feel my toes

against the sheets

and the blanket

on my chest

and the cool night air

creeping through

the open window

by my head.

I can hear a truck

changing gears

down the road

maybe the driver

is listening

to the late show

on Capital Radio

and thinking

about his girlfriend

and his little boy

back home.

I can hear you

sleeping

next to me

and realise

there is

nowhere else

I’d rather be.

That’s how

lucky

I am.

(by Jean-Michel K.)

You rock my socks and paint my skies with rainbows

I don’t know what words to write

that would make you mine

or how many ways I can say

I love you.

I don’t know any secret spells

or magic incantations

that would make you turn around

and fall in love with me.

I don’t know to what foreign gods

I should pray

or where to put the lucky charms

and talismans.

I don’t know where to hang the mistletoe

to trap you with a kiss

but all I know is how

you rock my socks and paint my skies with rainbows.

(by Jean-Michel K.)

I have fallen in love with a ghost

I have fallen in love with a ghost
Not just any ghost
You see
But the most beautiful ghost

She has my heart and I have hers
And when the night comes
I see her
Through my words

I am in love with a ghost
Who knows
What I think
Of her porcelain skin

And her gentle eyes
That watch me all the time

I have fallen in love with a ghost
Whose transparent heart
Sees no end to her love
And devotion

I am haunted by a ghost
Not just any ghost
You see
But the sweetest ghost

I light candles for her
And she whispers to me

(by Jean-Michel K.)

The Skin Map

So Stephen Lawhead has released his 24th book The Skin Map; A BRIGHT EMPIRES novel. Not only is Stephen Lawhead a great writer, but he's also a damn fine human being and for this reason alone it’s okay to steal money from street kids to buy this book.

I first met Stephen Lawhead and his lovely wife, and slightly less lovely sons, when I was working as a volunteer for Schloss Mittersill, a castle high on the hills in the snow-capped mountains of Austria. Unfortunately, I was not the king but the kitchen help and used to spend the most part of my waking days washing dishes. One night during the Christmas party, faced with a trillion dishes to wash, Stephen Lawhead came into the kitchen and helped me wash the dishes so that I could join the party.

Can you believe that? Either you have to be really, really crazy or really, really kind and Stephen Lawhead definitely isn’t crazy.

The writer Stephen Lawhead & I

Shine

Do you wonder where I am when you watch
the stars perform their midnight mass?
Do your eyes reflect Sirius, the Dog Star,
shining by Orion?

Do you wonder what I’m doing
in the silence of the space between us?
Do you wish on falling stars while supernovas
drift by wandering suns in halos of golden light?

Are you lonely when you look at the moon?
Is your heart empty inside?
Can you see the nebula clouds glittering with stardust
while Alpha Centauri stands guard at heaven’s gate?

Do you wonder what I’m thinking
right here right now?
Jupiter serenades its spinning moons,
but all I can do is write a message for you:
The stars don’t love you.
I do.

(by Jean-Michel K.)

Abracadabra

Here I give you this-
a starry night,
seven moons and a castle,
mountains wrapped in snow.

Here I give you a story-
a swinging lantern,
an urgent secret,
a hero in great danger.

Here I give you a blazing sun,
empty beaches
and a turquoise sea.
A shipwreck. Sunken treasure.
A survivor.

Here I give you rivers
flowing through your front door,
rainbows in your living room,
the plumber a prince,
a kiss, a fairytale wedding.

Here I give you this-
a poem.
May the words put a spell on you.

(by Jean-Michel K.)

Evaporation

Okay, so my last blog died after a mysterious earthquake hit the online world and now that the dust has settled I’ve decided to get back at it. It’s going to be like it was before only a little different. I thought about starting over on tumblr (what with new friends and all) but all those flashing lights and links left me so confused I could barely login, so this will have to do for now.

So my blog has moved and in real life I’ve moved too; from Sea Point to Sunnydale, a suburb even more boring than Fish Hoek if such a thing is possible (but the beaches are better). My neighbour, on the other side of the electric fence, likes cars. I mean he really, really likes cars and his driveway has a number of them in various stages of decomposition. At night he listens to music with a lot of base in it. It’s hard not to notice when I’m lying on my coach with a copy of Allen Ginsberg’s Selected Poems and I’m wondering why the walls are shaking.

I forgot to ask the landlady about the neighbours. She said everyone’s pretty friendly (on the inside perimeter of the electric fence) and that having a cat is not such a good idea, especially if it’s prone to climbing fences. Everything’s changed. Again.

My love affair with poetry continues and so I wanted to start this season with one of my favourite poets, Lisa Zaran. Look what she says in only 6 sentences…

Evaporation

I've left pens in a red rush behind me, full of words I meant to write.
Scars on the soft edge of nouns, verbs I meant to give life to and forgot.
Stories, once started, lost reason, as adjectives fell left and right.
There were times I believed, I'm a thin woman now, my children stand
on a dusty road, their witness-mouths twisted shut. Every night, I wish on a star.
Oftentimes, the desert sky is dead in all its eloquence. I still whisper.