Category: poetry

Fire & Water

Stefanie ElrickLeave a comment

This poem was read by Afrodite Zachopolous at Stefanie and Loren’s Equinox Wedding in the Welsh Woodland’s at Cae Mabon. Stefanie wrote it for Loren not long after they met. 

 

Fire & Water 

Stefanie Elrick

 

Fire and Water, they met on the sand

A terrain where the rain and the flame can join hands;

An arena where elements cast off their shape

And dance in the dust whilst the earth’s crust breaks.

 

Fire whispered to Water,

“Will you come watch me blaze?

Warm yourself in these embers to the end of your Days?”

Water gushed,

“Let me quench you, you’ll never run dry;

We will seed this love’s tree with the tears of the sky.

You can cool in my shallows, and bathe in my sea,

Do you think that you’d like to sink into me?”

 

Fire flickered, then crackled, then glowing replied;

“I’ve been seeking a harbor to cling to in tides,

It’s time to retire from the ashes and dust

That crumble beneath in the shifting sands of lust.”

 

“So shall it be,” Said the Rush to the Roar

And they fused in that moment between sky and the shore:

Surrendering in trust, two opposites became one,

Evaporating faster as they rose to meet the sun.

Glass Hearts

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Glass Hearts

Stefanie Elrick

 

The woman at the counter cups a tiny heart of glass,

You swap it for the shards you found behind the underpass.

At last, what you’ve been searching for! Caress it with a gaze:

Admire its weight upon your fate as surroundings start to haze.

 

Phasing out of old perception, the ceiling drips down past the walls:

The windows start to peel away and thaw into the doors.

You’re shuddering now, in a brightening place: there’s a light to bleach your Soul.

You put your hand upon your chest; no brooding beat at all.

 

The floor begins to fracture and you struggle to stand still,

Just keep this little glass heart safe despite the overspill.

A heat begins to sear your skin: your eyes no longer see.

You’re just a little speck of might in a white hot fantasy.

 

Cling tight to this little hope, it’s all there’s left to feel;

A centre to the frenzy in a world of unending unreal.

Now hurtling faster all around are heavy chunks of brick,

They’ll crush your little glass heart if you flinch or don’t act quick.

 

Admit, the only way to keep it safe so nothing will collide:

Open wide your meagre, eager throat and let it slip inside.

Breeze

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Breeze 

Stefanie Elrick

 

A wind

Blows you in

On the breath of a breeze,

It slips past my hips

Grips the back of my knees.

Each gust

Airy clutched

Wraps my hair in its grasp,

I could swear, you were here

But that thought never lasts).

So….

…….try clasp to these fragments,

These splinters of skin;

Slightly dulled by their substance

Merely memory and whim.

Night fell

Pulled me with it,

We scabbed our knees

And split our chins.

We should have watched where we were going

But our instincts pulled us in.

Whirlpool

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Whirlpool

Stefanie Elrick

The world is a whirlpool and it’s tugging at our limbs.

It’s there;

A subtle snare,

Awaiting waifs too tired to swim.

 

All that churning, all the chaos, all the yearning curled within,

It’s the product of our makeup:

It’s the gravity of skin.

The human condition

Is not an unfamiliar disease,

It’s a sound that shudders softly through the ground

And strips the trees.

It’s a greedy, needy appetite,

A garish gorging of the eyes:

For we’ve little use for all this crap,  progression’s just a guise.

 

Surely steady shifting seasons shouldn’t shattered joy or reason,

But as sunlight slides beyond our sights shade hides what we believed in.

 

Try stop you’re grieving, this fear should be fleeting

Paint a daybreak bright on your ceiling.

Then when drizzle has sodden your socks and your soul,

We can huddle like penguins to keep out the cold;

Seasonally affected but sadness deflected,

A shield built to stun away chill and reject it:

Project it to new forms, ingest it in hollowed bones,

It’s our mission in dark days to keep our friends toes warmed.

Seven Sister’s :: Siren Song collaboration with Jodie Cartman of FloorShow

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SEVEN SISTERS :: SIREN SONG 
A Collaboration with FloorShow Photography

Languid, laid along the bay
Seven Sisters, made of clay.
Their natural jewels upon on display
Beneath a blazing sun.

Out at sea, there bobbed some ships,
So from the rock they shook their hips
And quickly shifting into shape,
Settled on the sand.

 

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Processed with VSCO with dog2 preset
Processed with VSCO with dog2 preset

 

The sailors spied these milky maids,
Who did care to hide in shade
And brazenly would bare to all,
Beneath that blazing sun.

The mariners could not ignore,
The sights they saw upon the shore,
And quickly pulling out their oars
They rowed toward the sand.

The Sisters smiled in pure delight,
(Their bellies would be full tonight!)
So on they sang, a lusty ditty
Beneath that blazing sun.

 

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Processed with VSCO with dog2 preset
Processed with VSCO with dog2 preset

The men could not believe their luck,
These sweet young fruits, so ripe to pluck,
The honeyed lips of virgins fair,
Waiting on the sand.

But once their feet had tread the shore,
The sisters, milk-white maids no more,
Were tough as stone and rough as rock,
Beneath that blazing sun.

 

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Processed with VSCO with dog2 preset
Processed with VSCO with dog2 preset

They crushed the men in their embraces,
No grief upon their hardened faces,
‘Til each bold man became a grain,
A speck upon the sand.

Those siren-cliffs, they have a hunger,
To shipwreck fools who’d try to plunder,
To squeeze them ‘til they’re nought but dust,
Beneath our blazing sun.

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WORDS / MODEL :: Stefanie Elrick

STYLING / PHOTOGRAPHY :: Jodie Cartman​