Tag Archives: lesbian literature

VALENTINE TRILOGY Part 3: It Was You Who Understood

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This is a reblog from last year when I’d explored the definition of love. So what is love? The best answer I personally could come up with was: It is all speculative conjecture. Translated: I got nothing.

The emotion of love covers such a huge area. Perhaps each definition differs for each love affair. Each woman in my life has been and is a poem. Certainly not an object, nor have I objectified women.

My search has always started with the heart beginning its bloom. It ends with the majesty that spreads petals as the sun hits and sprays radiance. The person’s energy, truth, kindness, and love, are essential.

Forgive me if I idealize women. It’s my calling, I like to believe. As for love – poetical expertise only expresses what is felt by one singular poet. Is anyone rational when love is involved?

Maybe reminiscence is the great categorizer of emotion. How we feel about love – after the fact – might be most valid. Understanding before, during and after, is sought.

The third stanza of Bob Dylan’s “I’ll Remember You” is about understanding.

I’ll remember you
When the wind blows through the piney wood
It was you who came right through
It was you who understood
Though I’d never say
That I done it the way
That you’d have liked me to
In the end
My dear sweet friend
I’ll remember you.
~ Bob Dylan 

I’m more convinced than ever – if it is love – it is never less. In my years I’ve come to realize that love impersonates a fragile latch. Love, like life, is perishable. Years ago, death took the love of my life. The loss of a woman I adored became a story I told in my novel, Appointment with a Smile. I had believed that life’s ‘piney wood’ emptied my future.

This Autumn, I could have lost one of my best friends – an ex. She is a woman with whom I spent a decade of my early life. After the breakup, our friendship has remained for the past three decades. She was diagnosed with uterine cancer. Now, after surgery, and radiation, my dear friend is doing well, and the prognosis is good. Another reminder to show love.

Why do I mention loss in a Valentine’s blog? Because the one thing I know about love is that it is an enormous gift. Yet we must never forget it is a tentative and interim gift. Taking love in an embrace, and holding on tightly, is one of existence’s truest luxuries.

I believe being cognizant of time is vital to life itself. Treating one another with love and respect is crucial – for we are impermanent. The value of loving can never, ever be diminished. Smile at your lover, as if it were the last smile. Make it matter. Secure each gaze – don’t merely glance. Taste lips tenderly, and be present in that kiss.

And if love ends – I hope there is letting go with love. If both people leave the relationship with respect for one another, friendship is possible.

Fortunately, most of my past loves have converted to lifelong friendships. There is only one estrangement now – and that will remain a permanent estrangement. Post-breakup behavior is revelatory about character.

My experience recommends letting go with love whenever possible. This is important for many reasons. Naturally, a conversion to friendship is exceptionally great. Second – cupids might decide to return.

I am fortunate and blessed. I am thankful that a love of many years ago has returned. The opportunity for romance was provided because we had let go with love. Effortlessly, love simply returned. What a great tribute to mutual respect.

You to me were true….At the end of the trail….It was you who understood.
~ Dylan must have known me when he wrote this song.

Examining what I do know of love – well, we should be kind to one another. Enjoy the moment of love, be swept away with one another for as long as life allows. Cherish the exquisite emotion that is love. Tumbling toward the center of one another is the best ride ever.

Never giving up on finding love is a reaffirmation that we are there for romance. Brand new love, lost love, longtime love, or reestablished love – it is to be venerated, esteemed, fostered, and protected.

I’ve come to value sweet, gentle, and loving moments – where love lives. The treasury of love is abundant. I recognize the glory, the unique charm, the soul’s serenity, flame-fueled passion, and other of love’s secret ingredients.

No – I still don’t have the definitive meaning of love. What is most important is that I know love. Did I happen to mention how truly blessed I am?

I wish happiness to all – every single one – those women who have touched my life. I wish happiness to all of you reading this. May everyone find, relish, and appreciate their special ‘designer’ love.

Yes, I still do believe in angels. And I shall forever believe in love.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

———————————-

For J-SW.YTT.WL.k
Now and Always!

Please check out my poetry in the latest, best-selling Sappho’s Corner Poetry Series: Roses Red, volume 3, and Wet Violets, Volume 2. Edited by Beth Mitchum, the books are available through http://ultravioletlove.com and Amazon. Soon to be released Delectable Daisies, Volume 4. Another great Sappho’s Corner Poetry Series edition!

My newest release of fiction is Careful Flowers. If you’re interested in romantic fiction, please consider by Appointment with a Smile, a 2013 Lambda Literary Award Finalist by Kieran York. Books are available through www.bluefeatherbooks.com. Or order through Bella Book Distribution for books or e-books. Books and Kindle e-books are available through Amazon.

VALENTINE TRILOGY Part 2: At the End of the Trail

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This second installment in the Valentine Trilogy is primarily about solid, long-term, committed relationships. Last year I issued the disclaimer that my knowledge is limited primarily to ‘trial and error’ affairs of the heart. There were also the times when destiny parted what might have been. So any wisdom comes from the reference point of my years of observation.

This Valentine’s Day, my romance has lasted well over a year. That duration is only enough to say we’re comfortable, and planning. I love and respect her – more than anyone I’ve ever known. She is magnificent. And she is my smiling enchantress. (Smiling Enchantress is the name of my Valentine’s Day poem for 2014. I’ll be posting it on the 14th.)

I honor the couples who have endured. Through it all, they’ve matched up; they maintained their love; and romance has prospered in their care. The couples forging durable relationships  have my admiration. They are an inspiration.

The Bob Dylan lyrics are a gentle reminder of the tenderness required to make it through the trail. This stanza – well, it says it more eloquently than I might attempt to describe it:

I’ll remember you
At the end of the trail
I had so much left to do
I had so little time to fail
There’s some people that
You don’t forget
Even though you’ve only seen’m
One time or two
When the Roses fade
And I’m in the shade
I’ll remember you.
~ Bob Dylan

Memories stack up as we age. I still don’t know how love is jump-started. Is it elevated endorphins? Is it some fortuitous event? I wouldn’t want to guess.

Falling in love seems so much more effortlessly achieved than continuing the day-to-day refurbishing of emotion. Kindling and rekindling its magic is a tricky part. What secrets for success do ‘connected duos’ have? Married, partnered, in relationships for decades – melded together with expectations of the long haul. They believe in the important prospect of love forever.

Adoring relationship seem to know about the key ingredient of fun and laugher. Humor goes perfectly with love. They create a chain of cherished memories – lovely, to be sure. It is sculpting the divine out of the promise to never renounce loyalty. It is the sharing of happiness and hardship. It is an uplifting story of the intertwined soul’s endurance. It is being unable to do without one another.

The cherishing – well, there must be unspoken guidelines of love. In all cases, the couples work at protecting their relationship. That requires maintaining, tweaking, diligence, and cooperation.

My personal belief – honoring and respecting one another is paramount. Subheadings might be: honesty, kindness, humor, whimsy, passion, dignity, trust, and loyalty. In short, signifying the relationship. Lifting it to the highest altar – the one about ‘plain ole’ consideration.

These, and many more, are qualities that seemed seared into each heart as couples wreath their lives together. Two people have entrusted everything. They’ve invested precious life itself. Growing love as they go. With time assisting them in their creation. They get it right. They keep one another warm.

So, for couples achieving a sturdy, well-aged, and wonderful relationship, I commend you all. And I aspire to have achieve that – now that I’ve found the finest woman I’ve ever known.

There’s some people that you don’t forget…

These marvelous couples haven’t skimped on their true and abiding emotions. I celebrate this Valentine’s Day with their romances in mind. I thank them for giving us a lesson – and an example.

Happy Valentine’s month to all ‘lifer’ couples. And, to all who aspire to be a part of permanent love. As I do.

Thank you for reading this, I hope you’ll join me when I blog the final installment of my Valentine Trilogy. Part 3: It was You who Understood – will be published on Valentine’s Day.

Copyright: Kieran York

Happy Valentine’s Day. J-SW&LH.YTT.WL.K
ps – We Belong to One Another!

 

Please check out my poetry in the latest, best-selling Sappho’s’ Corner Poetry Series: Roses Read, Volume 3 and Wet Violets, Volume 2. A wonderful Valentine gift idea is giving your loved one ROSES READ. Edited by Beth Mitchum, the books are available through http://ultravioletlove.com and Amazon. Watch for Volume 4 – Delectable Daisies.

York’s latest book is Careful Flowers. If you’re interested in romantic fiction, please consider Appointment with a Smile by Kieran York, Lambda Literary Award Finalist in 2013. Books are available through www.bluefeatherbooks.com. Or order through Bella Book Distribution for books or e-books. Books and Kindle e-books are also available through Amazon.

VALENTINE TRILOGY Part 1: When I’ve Forgotten All the Rest

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This begins my Valentine Trilogy. Each part will feature a stanza of “I’ll Remember You” – by Bob Dylan. The magical, mystical words of the legendary poet/lyricist have captured me.

I’ll remember you
When I’ve forgotten all the rest
You to me were true
You to me were the best
When there is no more
You cut to the core
Quicker than anyone I knew
When I’m all alone
In the great unknown
I’ll remember you.
~ Bob Dylan 

The splendor of these words were my inspiration for this trilogy blog. For I was reminded of yesteryear and those magnificent women who have traversed my life. This includes memorable friendships, as well as the rendezvous of intimacy and of goodbyes. Although some highways have parted permanently; many others have been resurfaced throughout the years. All are stories of love.

Gentle memories of the past make their way through the currents of our being. We sway, tilt, swerve, elude, and scurry to where we must be. Predictions never unfold our futures. Tomorrow is a guessing game. Certitude is that raw collectible moment of now.

Those leaving our area of life might move away, run away, or stealthily redirect. Nearly everyone experiences loss at one time or another. Events are terminated, exchanged for different jobs, locations, or situations. People – family, friends, acquaintances, and lovers – are disbursed toward their destinies.

We are left behind by those with whom we’ve gathered near  – loved. We’ve felt the estrangement in many ways: abandonment, replacement, and loss. Horizons have recast us all. The days of pertinent people are rewoven as yesterday discards them from our lives. Others coast slowly away because they must. There is an overriding commitment – an obligatory reason.

Reunions also differ. Some partings have left only skimpy memories. Others create indecipherable aches in which we realize how sad parting is. As if there is a missing wanderer who has not been beside us, the trail is emptier. And inside, inherent knowledge announces that there should have been two on that path.

Our eras become provisional fate where romance is concerned. The mind continues to be drenched in remembrances. Questions forever arise that invite a longing. We desire one more lustral flare to be held up for another glance at possibility.

Years later, many friendships reunite on a soft landing, and become relevant and joyful. Years simply are picked up like fine embroidery, and the stitching continues. Many of those have become a treasured luminosity within my heart.

When the love is deep, secure, and resiliency is everlasting – the heart-print remains completely intact. Indelibly bonded, with time having intensified its clasp – it endures.

I find complete amazement as to how one gets from dot-to-dot as we are slid across life’s game board. The lyrics of Bob Dylan’s “I’ll Remember You” recently set in place my game’s contest rules with precision, elegance, and truth:

You to me were true…

I wish you all a Happy and Loving Valentine’s Month. And I hope you’ll catch my next two Valentine installments – Part 2: At the End of the Trail, and Part 3: It was You who Understood. They will be published in the next week and a half.

Copyright: Kieran York

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Please check out my poetry in the latest, best-selling Sappho’s Corner Poetry Series: Roses Read, Volume 3 and Wet Violets, Volume 2. Edited by Beth Mitchum, the books are available through http://ultravioletlove.com and Amazon.

Kieran’s latest book is Careful Flowers. If you’re interested in romantic fiction, please consider 2013 Lambda Literary Award Finalist, Appointment with a Smile by Kieran York. Books are available through www.bluefeatherbooks.com. Or order through Bella Book Distribution for books or e-books. Books and Kindle e-books are also available through Amazon.

Poetry – Words on their best behavior!

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Poetry may very well be words on their best behavior. At least I see it that way. This week a new volume of poetry was released.

It is a collection of Sappho’s Corner Poetry Series. Roses Read, Volume 3, was brilliantly edited by Beth Mitchum. Now available through http://ultravioletlove.com, and Amazon. I hope you’ll also check out the first two volumes, Tulips Touching and Wet Violets.

This poem – blog – is in celebration of the amazing newly released poetry.

Poetry, I believe, is the art of manufacturing words that are on their best behavior. Currently, there is an increased interest in poetry. Perhaps the reader is responding to a desire to touch upon their own emotion. Whatever the reason, I appreciate the fact that poetry is gaining fans. 

My poem is about one of my favorite subjects – women. There are so many tremendously talented women who are writing Sapphic blogs, poems, and posting essays. I’m surrounded by words that astound me. And that inspires me. I encourage these writers to grasp the keyboard and continue writing – for us all. Gift us with your words, my friends. I’m so very proud of us all. Sisters, we write!

THE THEORY OF WOMAN

What is woman’s doctrine?
I offer only a singular conjecture.
It is the speculation of my own view.
I believe that beside us, wonder is our nearest neighbor.
We hope to become directors of our fortunes.
We are each one formula among a million enigmas.
We grab our own courage for each odyssey.
Some tangles offer same-day adventure.
Others are powerfully stitched to long-term distortion.
Yet our line of survival is the source of our luxury.
We are the scalpel used to cut pie crust.
We are the switchblades to extract our hearts.
We are the growl of our own exogenous souls.
We dive from the tops of carousels.
Gulping air, we scoop the valley’s deepest pore.
Some of our scripting comes with umbra ink.
Nearly every sigh we edit is with bursts of sunshine.
We sweep with jackhammers and sing with looms.
Our classic axiom clings to our miracle
We are the darkest days, and the brightest nights.
We are the blossoms flowing through a still morning.
We are vine sprigs lethally lashing.
We are the rewind button on forgiveness.
We are the scald when abuse occurs.
Eternity’s map is scrolled in our eyes.
We want to run away together, for we know who we are.
We recognize that the other portion of us is balance.
If our fingertips lose their way, we are a curative caress.
A few hundred kisses ago, I didn’t know my own recipe.
Now I realize only one revelation of womanhood.
And therein beauty’s bouquet is solved.
We each live inside our own theory.

Copyright: Kieran York

If you’re interested in romantic fiction, please check out Appointment with a Smile by Kieran York. Books are available through www.bluefeatherbooks.com. Or order through Bella Book Distribution for books or e-books. Books and Kindle e-books are also available through Amazon.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN UTOPIA

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I haven’t done enough, written enough, lived enough, or loved enough. I’m glad that I haven’t – because ‘enough’ connotes no more to come. There is too much left for me to do, to write, to live, and to love.

Life’s magic elixir might be laughing, caring and sharing, and loving. 

I’m so blessed with family and friends, and the joy of never having felt to be invisible. I have never been a laureate. Nothing I’ve done has become a grandiose landmark. Yet the love of those around me has been my enormous treasure.

Another part of my treasury is my home. I also believe, and have stated many times before, that where we live contributes to our happiness.  My backyard is the front range of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. Its beauty has made me grateful.

It has been this place on the planet that has gifted me with its loveliness. So I can offer no more than my words of praise.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN UTOPIA

Morning’s face spans the continent.
Night’s star-freckled sky is abandoned as sunshine approaches.
Day’s pulse inspires silence with its cadence.
My awakening is beside the mountain’s strong shoulder.
Banking against the panorama’s solitude, I wake.
Rockies echo an everlasting, ever-changing universe.
Foothills ruffle their taut passion.
Within the globe’s cathedral a moment pauses.
Pine’s redolent intoxicants mixes with the crisp air’s breath.
I live under a treetop canopy.
With bowed limbs and intricate finger sprigs, it inhales.
Blazing mountain pigment designs the color of tranquility.
Contemplation gives time for random words to coalesce.
Empirical knowledge searches guidance.
Wisdom is a romanticized edition.
For darkness and light step through my trajectory.
During each animated click of time we are registered.
I ask the myth of belonging – are we synchronicity, or coincidence?
From my balustrade of jagged peaks, I examine my sturdy playground.
My ledge allows me an ethereal view.
I am centered where infinity wears its smile.
Belonging is why trails were invented.

Copyright: Kieran York

 Please check out my poetry in a collection called Wet Violets, Sappho’s Corner Poetry Series, Volume 2, Edited by Beth Mitchum. Books are available through http://ultravioletlove.com and Amazon. The latest volume, Roses Read, Sappho’s Corner Poetry Series, Volume 3,  will be published and available this month. 

If you’re interested in romantic fiction, please check out Appointment with a Smile  by Kieran York. Books are available through www.bluefeatherbooks.com. Or order through Bella Book Distribution for books or e-books. Books and Kindle e-books are also available through Amazon. 

 

Contented Flowers

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Poetry is the ticking of my heart. Energy from words flow through my veins as music might through my body. The light of each syllable sparks from a newly created flash.

CONTENTED FLOWERS

Carefully, the day grows with colors encroaching.
Flowers press the top layer of earth.
So tender are the petals.
They pretend to be silk dressings of garlic cloves.
They breathe as if they’re recently incubated.
They turn the page of top soil.
We tend the garden of them.
They are where our memory lives to unfold their story.
Spun around, their centers feel yesterday and soon to be – today.
The planet’s dream takes each drop of breath.
The glitter of butterfly wings releases a breeze.
They zigzag through tufts of foliage.
Those wings appreciate the lopsided curves of earth.
The lands are where seeds scatter.
A script is being written.
Each word is savored by the sacred colossus.
Moments are elevated with a harp’s sunlight.
There is a mythical heart beating out prose.
If unfurled, each flower’s price tag exceeds the cost of glory.
Harvested terrain renders a journey of tomorrow.
Vining roots, venturing stems, and leaves are all exposed nerves.
Contentment grows steadily within rich loom.
Blooms stand like sundials.
Mysterious, shadowy agents tame the light.
Canonical rolls of rays dash the fields.
There are flowers growing with sampler colors.
As if kissed on the inside, petals are dipped in a multitude of hues.
As if caressed on the outside, leaves shelter.
Cast in the wonder of wilderness, blooms lift their heads.
And we recognize the side-effects of contented flowers.
Copyright: Kieran York   

 

Please check out my poetry in a collection called Wet Violets, Sappho’s Corner Poetry Series, Volume 2, edited by Beth Mitchum. Books are available through http://ultravioletlove.com and Amazon. The latest volume, Roses Read, Sappho’s Corner Poetry Series, Volume 3, will be published this month.

If you’re interested in romantic fiction, please check out Appointment with a Smile by Kieran York. Books are available through www.bluefeatherbooks.com. Or order through Bella Books Distribution for books or e-books. Books and Kindle e-books are also available through Amazon.