MFreeZone: DL Harris

PHOENIX
by
DL Harris

As I was walking,
thinking,
in a wild, desolate place:
suddenly I come upon
a massive finger of stone
thrusting skyward from the plain.
Then I heard a shriek,
a grating scream,
and a great bird alighted on top of the rock.
Up shot a roaring sheet of flame,
scarlet fire,
from the cleft in the stone,
and the bird was gone!
Vanished,
leaving only ashes behind,
but--
somewhere within the ashy ruins
something stirred,
and a new bird arose
to sail away in the darkening skies
with a piercing scream...

SONG FOR KILAUEA
by
DL Harris

I stand on the slopes of Kilauea,
camera at the ready.
Peering through the dense clouds of
mist and steam, the rock and fissures
seem almost life-like.
It takes little imagination to turn them
into the mythical Dragon.
Suddenly, the mountain shudders,
and a mighty tower of fire spews forth.
This is what I came to see,
yet I find myself stunned,
staring when I should be taking photographs.
The Dragon is very angry today...

THE ORACLE OF DELPHI
by
DL Harris

The mists billowed up into the sky like smoke
from the cavern where the Oracle lived in days of yore;
men came from afar to hear the words she spoke.
They came by day, or under the Night's concealing cloak
seeking solutions for this; a remedy for that--
the mists billowed up into the sky like smoke...
Many were so worn out that they could barely croak,
but words were not needed for the woman wreathed in the mist--
men came from afar to hear the words she spoke.
From some hidden furnace that some unseen hand stoked,
the mystic mist rose to fill the Oracle's cavern and
the mists billowed up into the air like smoke.
Some twisted their questions into tongue-tangling jokes,
but none could fool the Oracle, who sat as if carved from stone.
Men came from afar to hear the words that she spoke!
To search for the cavern was a very bold stroke,
for many never returned to tell the tale
of how the mists billowed up into the air like smoke.
Men came from afar to hear the words she spoke...

DL Harris is 37 and is currently disabled due to chronic illness. He considers poetry writing to be an effective form of therapy at curing himself.

He has had poems accepted by over sixty publications. Some of them are:

POETALK,
PROSETRY,
THE AUROREAN,
THE POET'S ATTIC QUARTERLY,
and THE LOST LIBRARY OF ALEXANDRIA.

E&OE