Melody for the Tender Moon

The Moon is a tender rabbit
She pursues me in my dreams.
Punctuating our sacred silences
Her soft footfalls in between.

Her shyness is a newborn star
And makes her to look down
When her ray of Sun
Weaves melodies
Out of interstellar sounds.

"Too soon." She whispers, "Too soon."
But now it won't be long.
The King of Sky
With fierey eyes
Has found Queen for his Crown.

Your Unrelenting Song

Your Unrelenting Song
by Julien Kareem Stricher

You are the last ray
Of the moon’s
Unrelenting song.

A vanquishing melody,
That overtakes my fortress
Before dawn.

Your sighs
The sailboats
Enlivening breeze,

That traverses
My arid ocean
Marrying the salt
Of our sweat
To the sea.

It was this moist earth
That brought you to me.

It was the song
Of hummingbirds
And a seed.

That I still carry
Within me
Our nocturnal garden,
Where roses bleed.

Cursed by Your Tenderness

I climb the treacherous peaks
Of your jagged mountaintops.
The dark incline of your hidden valleys

Reverberate through my being.
Your traveller, willingly Lost

Your sojourner through the Dusk.

Your quiet lake of longing, I swim.
The vast, fragrant forests of your hair, I part.
The oceanic cliffs of your ankles, I trace.
The soft murmur of your lidded eyes
Beckon to me.

I cannot escape you.
You pursue me softly
Are there waiting when I turn

With that gaze of sorrowful waves
That flows with the persistent ache
Of the beads of sweat
That adorn your skin.
Heavy
With our eternal recollections
Which keep me awake at night.

For I cannot sleep.
I’ve been cursed
By your Tenderness.

Your arms
The cradle of my perished hopes.
Your eyelids, the resting-place
Graveyard of my kisses.

Your waist, the horizon.
My lips the glimmering Dawn.

Your stomach is a verdant field
Of whom I am the sole gardener.
Sailor
Of your Ocean of relinquishment,
As you surrender
Your proud forehead

To the downpour of my kisses.
Fructifying waters
That revive, with a familiar sting
The dry earth of your heart.

Condemned

I stand condemned
By your Gift, my tainted Rose
Who succumbed under the weight
Of your own petals.

I paint the sky with fading mosaics
Of our shattered dreams.

Your tender Infinity, I taste
In furtive glances.

My eyes are blank mirrors.
Reflections of your Desire,
Quiet pools of longing
Where you leave your Heart.

You search for me,
Because I am the one who found You
When you had lost Yourself.

You look at me,
Because my gaze reminds you
Of who You were
Before the Wheel pressed you underground.

Because you left the dirt
To become clean again
In the cover of my palm.

I'm not a Poet.
I catch doves in mid-flight,
Dye their feathers with my longing
Then release them back
Where I know they'll find you.

I'm not a Bard.
I capture ancient Melodies
In my slumber,
Tie them fast with ribbons
Deliver them to you before the Dawn.

If only you knew
The glimmering Moon that visits me by night.
The Mission she has for me
I serve only Her.

She whispers to me her secrets
Of a World Unseen
Dutifully, I relinquish myself
To be her willing martyr,
Her dutiful Messenger
Her ray of Sun.

Where Time Stands Still

There is a place
Beyond Space
And the movement of things

Where time stands still.
Where there is two of us,
But only One.

It is a quiet garden
We visit in the nights.

A giant sunflower grows there.
Its courageous stem
Reaches heavenwards
Endlessly.

Its roots
Are fixed in eternity.
Sprouted, as they were
From the seed of our immortal longing.

Watered periodically
With moon beams,
The soft melodies
We hum silently to each other.

Its proud head
Adorned by golden petals
Of the utmost radiance,
Thrives on our dreams
Hushed desires
Our persisting embrace.

There is a place
We go to,
You and I.

It is a quiet garden
We visit in the nights.

There is an altar there
Where I carved your name.

My fading rose
To whom I dedicate these verses.

I surround it with angel tears.
I annoint it with pure sound.
I lay before it offerings
Of our broken promises
Wishes unresolved, willingly sacrificed.

When the songbird’s wings are crushed,
That is when he makes
The most beautiful music.

When the grapes of hope are trod upon,
That is when they produce
The sweetest wine.

There is a place
Where we remain,
You and I.

It is our garden
Beyond Space and Time.

Our nocturnal refuge.
Our lasting abode.

Phoenix Rising

I leave the cemetery
For the garden.

I bury my dream shells
And dive into the sea.

Your moon beams
Tender petals
My only bastion.

Simmering fragments
Of a broken promise

Stoke the flames
Within me.

This fallen bird
Of ressurected wing

Seeks fragrances unseen.
Finds his light in the darkness
His solace in the sting.

Quash him with one hand

With one feather upturned,
A soaring Rebirth
A Phoenix Rising.

City That Never Sleeps

In the sand, by a lake
Off the coast of Sonoma
Is where I buried my heart.
There it lies in fragments
Washed over by waves of time
Amongst seashells of our memories.

In the remote garden
Of our abandoned dreams
I planted my soul.
Your blooming petals, thirsty sunflower
Still grow there, flourishing in secret.

Now, a restless, unrepentant monk
I search for your face
In ancient cathedrals and lingering clock towers.

In the eyes of the martyred saints
I see your silent suffering, your wistful gaze
That brought you to me.

In the warmth of the fireside
I feel your flame of longing
Which still glimmers, refusing to die
Surrounded by the biting snow.

In the city that never sleeps
I follow your voice
Wherever it takes me,
Down winding streets and through stoney castles.

To the ends of the earth
To the depths of our desire
To the Old Continent and the New
You call me
And I follow.

Light of my life,
Bird of my soul,

Voice of my everlasting song.