Sample Poems by Charlotte Mandel

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Astronomica

Moon afloat
in night sky peace
pulls / releases

cosmic tides
Venus and Mars
inflame love and war

Lenses gaze
at images
of burnt-out blaze

Hunter and hare
in orbital chase
Lovers ever in stasis

Children connect
dots and shout
I see it! I see it!

During eclipse
cover eyes with discs
like reflective coins

or else weep into
the fiery explosion
by which we live

---

Night Fire

Whirling clouds like a dance of fire
light up the night sky
ignited by unseen force

The clouds' dark blue/purple shadows
outline a distant mountain range
Near trees transform to black

silhouettes rigid startled
from unlit peace after sunset
by out of time brilliance

What far world sends warning?

---

 
Mist-light

a cosmic being
aims a cone of mist
made of light
that plays over ferns
rendering them white

stems raise themselves
leaves branch off
engrossed in new vision of self

beyond where the mist has touched
paths reveal each leaf each petal
luminescence so near
you walk through the mist of light
without touching ground

look at your hands alive
now with inner radiance

gift from invisible source
your form trans-
formed
deeper into forest
slim black trees leafless
bending towards you

urge you
quickly quickly
forward toward
promise in the distance

will you reach it in time
before

day breaks and quotidian
sun consumes the glowing
torch showing you
a way the way

---

Is, Was, To Be

Wood grays with age.
The weather-splintered rowboat,
beached on moss-covered rock,
returns to a place of beginnings.

Sun and water stir
reflections of bordering trees.
Leaves floating on slow current
nestle below the keel.

Seasons employ light's probe
into substances-bark and foliage
dissolve into shifting colorations
of water.

Tree crowns act to shatter sun rays
reaching towards surfaces
in a constant flicker of exchange
between forms

proof that stillness
abides with motion.