Poetry
Your Love Pours Slowly
Your love pours slowly
Like honey to my tea
Embracing me in its beauty
Like a choir’s jubilee!
©2009 Hyla Menuhin Douglas
www.hylaart.com
Apple
I’m looking for my golden apple
Something happened on the way to the infirmary
Every time I think my life
Is about to pass me by
I think again
©2009 Hyla Menuhin Douglas
www.hylaart.com
Solstice Canyon
A little slice of heaven
from the pie of paradise
An ancient stream
falls from its birth
unhindered into the sea
The oaks and the sycamores remember
in all their glory
a picture book story
Time passes in a capsule
of past and present
The future is always tomorrow
In a simpler time
Indians knew how to live
in a peaceful society
upon the earth
In the days of the Chumash
before the Spaniards came
and brought disease
and persecution
They lived here in this canyon
the very same I have been
lucky enough to call home
The rhythms of time are
always present here
in this canyon
Like a Summer Solstice
celebration
Water
Earth
Fire
Sky
The four elements
in perfect symmetry
Like a golden springtime
Inspired by Solstice Canyon Wilderness Park in Malibu, CA
©1996 Hyla Menuhin Douglas
www.hylaart.com
Ode to Jerry
A Tribute to Jerry Garcia
Moonlight on the ocean at a
grateful party
Pre-show energy
everybody’s getting ready
I was there
and proud to witness
The greatest rock ‘n roll show
on earth, a grateful show
An amazing show
and it wasn’t just the psycadelia paraphenalia
as some may say
It was an outrageous
blend of expressionist improvisation
and explosive innovation
coming from a deep-seaded space
and founded musical roots
drenched with sweet emotion
and symphonic rhymes
yeah I was there
and proud to witness
The greatest rock ‘n roll show
On earth, a grateful show
A musical experiment
that lasted thirty years
fueled by a decade of change
and a new perspective
The San Francisco scene
in the sixties would have been
something to see
I didn’t get a glimpse
until the eighties
But lately I’ve been thinking
How lucky I have been
To have been there
With Uncle John’s
Travelling band, the greatest
Rock ‘n roll show ON EARTH
A GRATEFUL SHOW
A musical odyssey of sunshine and rain
of silver and gold
and a touch of grey
©1996 Hyla Menuhin Douglas
www.hylaart.com
Java Junkies
Java junkies roam the streets at night
Searching for a high
They disappear behind coffee counters
with rows of roasted coffee jars
Java junkies fade into supermarkets
and ride shopping carts through the aisles
Java junkies weave a fabric of concentric circles
in and out of time
Java junkies sleep during the day and at night
they stare up at street lights
or linger in dark alleyways
outside of open coffee counters
with rows of roasted coffee jars
Java junkies play music
in small cafés and old houses
on band wagons
searching for a high
They light cigarettes and candy bars
and any source of flame that keeps a fire
burning through the long and restless night
©1986 Hyla Menuhin Douglas
www.hylaart.com
Music
Music
in my soul
Music
makes me whole
This be my goal
to be one
with
©1986 Hyla Menuhin Douglas
www.hylaart.com
Lady on the Bus
I’m sorry lady
for all the anger
A lonely ranger
in a land of danger
Still my heart aches
while your soul quakes
like a great lake
in a storm of anger
Crying in the dark
sleeping in the park
Life is but a walk
up the street
Is there a spark
of hope in the bleak
world that surrounds you?
I’m sorry lady
for all the hate
Love is but a faint
glow ne’er remembered
in the oh so lonely
dark and narrow
alleys of your life
Pathways of hate
The alleys of your life
ever to create
frustration you burrow
deep into the ground
choking dust
surrounds you
I cry for you
I am sorry
Lady on the bus
Your bleeding heart
in your shopping cart
dying
on the dust
©1984 Hyla Menuhin Douglas
written on Los Angeles City bus,
the author was an impressionable teenager at the time
www.hylaart.com
Birds and Butterflies
Birds and butterflies
trading places
in the trees
I know what I want
it is over here
Twitter twitter
No, it is over there
Birds and butterflies
in the trees
just like us humans
blown by the breeze
© 2009 Hyla Menuhin Douglas
www.HylaArt.com
Moon-Sun
Our sun
special star
life force
our source
Our moon
mirrors magic
inner source
tidal force
Pull of gravity
Moonlight majesty
Full of imagery
Sunlight energy
©1996 Hyla Menuhin Douglas
www.hylaart.com
Mists Rise
Mists rise from my bath
Like small ghosts to the sky
And in my mind
The vaporous question arises
…why
The rainbow sparkles
in the diamond dewdop
there is beauty…still
©2009 Hyla Menuhin Douglas
www.hylaart.com
Shadows and Light
Shadows and light
The dark tree hovers
over the hill, the sunlight
on its back
The earth meanders
on its track
around the centrifugal sun
The earth breathes stillness
in the late afternoon silence
still spinning as it traverses
creating day and night
staging shadows
playing with light
©2009 Hyla Menuhin Douglas
www.hylaart.com
Far Away Birds
The murmur of a faraway
chorus of birds
Like some jazz
ensemble
Dig that crazy jive
daddy-o
Big drops fall
from the oak trees
and plunder into my
steaming bath
of lavender and rose
petals
Laurel Sumac still wears her
Crystal brocade
from last night’s foray
in the rain
And a big bright cloud
floats just above
the horizon
as if to say
Farewell and enjoy the
new blue of the
crystalline dawn
of a sun shiny day
And the birds
still singing soft and low
in the tentative morning
Freshly washed from the
silvery downpour
of a winter’s rain
©2009 Hyla Menuhin Douglas
www.hylaart.com
Going Somewhere
Everybody going somewhere
Lone seagull in flight
in the luminescence
of the falling night
Lifeguard station
on Pacific Coast Highway
Malibu
April 2009
©2009 Hyla Menuhin Douglas
www.hylaart.com
