Three Poems By RC deWinter

Metempsychosis
 
It is from stuff of stars that we are made,
sent back again the journey to complete.
Each visit then begins a new parade
marched to an unseen different drummer's beat.
The energy within is infinite,
renewing like the waves that kiss the shore,
each life a chance past wrongs to thus acquit;
unknowing, we don't recognize the door.
We are not gifted with the previous, 
although we circle time again the road, 
for memory is gone, most devious, 
of what we gave and what it is still owed.
So though we live eternal, we are blind, 
each landscape born afresh within the mind. 

The Weight of Salt Water
 
Some nights the tears unshed prevent my sleep; 
lying with wide unseeing eyes awake, 
I measure every promise yet to keep.
 
Into forgetfulness I long to leap,
to lose myself in midnight's black opaque.
Some nights the tears unshed prevent my sleep.
 
The melody of memory plays deep
the chords of unforgettable heartache; 
I measure every promise yet to keep.
 
Gold would I give if only I could weep
and wash away each unthinking mistake.
Some nights the tears unshed prevent my sleep.
 
As I recall the words I held so cheap, 
and what I never gave, but yet did take, 
I measure every promise yet to keep.
 
The hours pass in Time's unceasing sweep; 
I, unrefreshed, bear witness to daybreak.
Some nights the tears unshed prevent my sleep; 
I measure every promise yet to keep. 

The Coming
  
What slip in silent time broke through this room,
opened a space to fit an unseen hand
that, reaching in from some far unknown tomb,
disturbed the silence of night’s dreamless strand?
 
A brief and haunting five-note melody,
the curtain rustles and the song is done.
Then in the air the tang of saltstrewn sea,
and lemons born in kiss of tropic sun.
 
Now all is as it was before the shift
that brought you from some darker, grimmer place.
And, prisoned by that sea, I mournful drift
into the hollow charm of sleep’s embrace.
  
Oh, send me one bright dream for company
until the song of morning summons me. 

RC deWinter’s poetry is widely anthologized, notably in Uno: A Poetry Anthology (Verian Thomas, 4/2002), New York City Haiku (New York Times, 2/2017), Cowboys & Cocktails (Brick Street, 4/2019), Coffin Bell TWO (4/2020), Nature In The Now (Tiny Seed Press, 8/2019), in print in 2River, Adelaide Magazine, Gravitas, Genre Urban Arts, In Parentheses, Kansas City Voices, Meat For Tea: The Valley Review, Night Picnic Journal, Prairie Schooner, Southword among many others and appears in numerous online literary journals.