Fireworks - a poem by Margaret Maguire

Flares and silver fountains
Illuminating exotic palms
Rockets and flaming stars
Exploding Chrysanthemums' tips
White crackling Crossetts
Orange glowing sky lanterns
Red Poinsettias and Diadems
Kaleidoscopic rain storms
Shimmering Catherine Wheels

Written by Margaret Maguire


One or two firework facts:

First documentation of fireworks was in China in the 7th century and were used in spring and mid autumn festivals.

The word for firework in Japanese is hanabi which means 'fireflower'.

The largest firework display was in Madera, Portugal, and consisted of 66,326 fireworks.

Welcome to Valentine's Poetry Week at Lindsay's Romantics!

Welcome to Valentine's Poetry Week at Lindsay's Romantics! We're celebrating Valentine's Day, love and romance all this week through the medium of poetry. Poetry is the oldest, most expressive, most intense literary form. It captures and reveals our deepest feelings and enables us to share those emotions with others. So here at the start of our Valentine Poetry Week are some love poems, written by us.

The Stalactite

If we turn to stone above our organic time
let me be a stalactite hanging over you
feeding you drop by drop like a new born
growing a crystal jewel
reaching up closing the distance
an aching gap that mortality rent between our lips
building a bridge until they touch again that kiss
to seal anew the bond that made the spiral column of pure white bliss
memorial to love ten thousand years before.

Alan Calder, Poet and author at Willowmoon Press:
http://www.willowmoonpublishing.com/authors.html



Lovers Undress
You're a shaft of light
In my crimson evening.

Let's make each other beautiful;
You in a silver ball gown,
Shoulders shine above it
Above superb resilient breasts.


Slow, sensual dance, rustling fabrics,
Hands, breath to lips and tongues
Held through this breeze.


I've striven in my work-outs
For this moment;
I'm yours to relish,
you're mine to savour.


So now undo me, see legs first
- Yours I'll match
Now find my waist and torso
- Feel at first
And then unbutton,
Peel and see.


In shorts I stand before you now,
Athletic
You're throbbing for the next -
You take my waistband, draw
Now I'm just in trunks
- Erotic in your smouldering light.


I'll do the same for you, I'm delicate
with zips and buttons, buckles
Release your gown,
A glittering parachute
and you step out


- In what I dreamed you'd wear:
A purple strapless one-piece
Clinging to your toned lovely form


A one-piece proclaims
A woman's fullest power - Concealing, revealing,
Balance just right - to draw on,
and you can wear one
Before all others.


Now you're my bathing beauty,
I am yours.


The water calls us, shimmering warm;
Let's slice the waves,
Please do the backstroke, let me see
Your breasts, your thighs
Thrusting through the surface
And now an underwater kiss


Now to the shore.
You lie on me, I rub your back
Our costumes dry, peel off
and now deep cleaving
Of thigh and groin.


You are so deep , so strong in love
Made thunderstorms;
You frightened all the others off
Yet drew me out;
Let me embrace my feminine
In our unrobing

Submission? domination?
Now those terms
Lose all pretence of meaning,
In the flooding flames of total love.


You're a shaft of light
In my crimson evening.


David Russell


 ~~~~~~ Zurroc's Love Poem to Kytaira
I know my tigress.
Wild fierce energy burning, she is large of heart.
Kind to those in need, she is a predator for justice.

Currents of white-hot fire arc between us when her Tigress spirit mates with my Tiger soul.

Ancient passions ignite when we tangle, woman and man becoming one.

Savage is another name for the beauty of my Tigress.

She frees me, my woman.

For, what is untamed in me growls to caress what is untamed in her.

From ~ Tigress Shapeshifter... meet the new boss, worse than the old boss... by Savanna Kougar 

Sunny days

Sunny days I spent with you
Memories to last my whole life through
From bronze to silver then to gold
This is how our lives unfold
Simple thoughts, simple pleasures
Worth more than any treasures

Margaret Maguire, Poet and Writer.


My Forever Valentine.

As young lovers, finding each other their urgent lips and bodies entwine.
Forty years on the rush is for the hot wheat bag that they find divine.
My love for you takes my youthful breathe away.
My ancient bones tell me, if I chase there will be a delay.

New-born love; so fragile, so precious, so inane,
Ripened love, mellowed and tempered by life,
sees the sprint of youth as insane.

Fresh hearts are easily given away,
bruised beings retreat, in the hope of loving another someday.

Spring like spirit scatters its seed far and wide,
Autumn’s sprite knows a more fruitful place for its kernel to hide.

And as the last of the summer’s sun begins to fade
and our thoughts turn to a hardier time,
We will still be together; sharing our memories,
our hot water bottle, our life
and you will always be mine.

Candida Heard, writer and poet


Real Time

Turn off the satellites,
Throw away the phones,
I don't want to speak.
I need ROSES, bouquets,
Heart to heart.
Facebook OFF-
love ME!

Christine Hirst, writer and photographer. (Christine took the sunset photograph at the top of this post.)

Margaret Maguire: Rethymnon, 1998.

One of my favourite holiday destinations is the island of Crete. Crete is the largest of the Greek Islands, Iraklion is the capital. Rethymnon, known as Rethimno to the locals, is the old town and is the second capital which has miles of golden sands, great for sun worshipers and tourists who like a mixture of cultural delights. In the summer the temperature can rise to 40 degrees Celsius. It is far better to visit the island in late summer when one can enjoy the many attractions on offer.

In the September of 1988 my husband and I booked an apartment near the sea for two weeks. The first impression we had was how very friendly the Greeks were. They would shout kalimera, which means good morning and yassas meaning hello and also goodbye. What a warm welcome for a distant traveller abroad.

Near our apartment was a small taverna. It was owned by a Greek family called Sotos. Everyday we would pass the taverna and could smell the different aromas of freshly barbecued chickens, dolmadas and pizzas. We got to know the Sotos family very well. They would invite us into their taverna and serve us Soumada, a drink made from local grown almonds. It was delicious. They would try and talk to us in broken English which was quite funny; we all ended up laughing, unsure of what had been said.

After a couple of days sun bathing we decided to hire a car and go sightseeing. Our first stop was Chanie. The streets were very narrow and were lined with souvenir shops laden with leather, pottery, ceramics, lace and home woven clothing and bed covers in an array of colours. Aromas of coffee, sweet fruit and cheese pastries surrounded us.

Our journey continued up high winding mountain roads, twisting and turning with stony edges, without barriers. The wind whistled and echoed around us, hot dust rose from the deep ravines below. I must admit I was quite scared, but soon we found ourselves descending and I could enjoy once again the glorious scenery of the many pine forests and olive groves.

We passed some quaint and charming villages. White painted flat roofed houses with small gardens. Some had terracotta pots filled with scarlet red geraniums while other were filled with purple bougainvillea. The perfume from these blooms was intoxicating. Dark haired bronzed children played happily in the narrow streets. The elderly sat in their doorways, or tried their luck playing backgammon in the many bars. Life seemed so slow and relaxing; I envied their peace and tranquility. What a fantastic day.

A night in the old town of Rethymnon sounded appealing. We visited the small Venetian harbour where fish restaurants line the harbour walls. The Greeks boast that one can eat any fish imaginable at these restaurants. Guitarists were serenading customers with their old traditional love songs. Candles flickered and colouful papier mache lanterns hung in the narrow streets, so pretty, swaying in the warm evening breeze.

The shops stayed open very late. Minoan art and cleverly embroided table covers were in abundance. The splendid Platanos Square with its richly decorated Rimondi Fountain. Built in the seventeenth century and still supplying drinkable water for residents of Rethymnon.

We realized our holiday would soon be coming to an end. The sun had never stopped shining. We achieved a great tan, but our memories of Rethymnon would last far longer than it takes a tan to fade. The wonderful Sotos family who made us laugh, the refreshing almond wine they served us. The many friends we made from Denmark, Sweden, America and of course our dear friends Frank & Gladys from Walsall, whom we still see today.

Unforgettable memories. Yassas.

We returned to Rethymnon in 2008 with our friends Frank & Gladys hoping to see the Sotos family. As we neared the street we saw their old taverna once again. To our great surprise it was still owned and run by the Sotos family. The old taverna looked more or less the same but it had been refurbished and had an automatic sunshade fitted, the favourite feature.

We stopped for refreshments and to reminisce. The son told us that his father and grandfather had sadly died. He had been quite happy to carry on running the business with his wife and daughter and still enjoyed the job very much.

By the way, he did remember us.

Midsummer Poetry Week, Day One

Welcome to the start of our Midsummer Poetry Week on the Lindsay's Romantics blog! Here to open are two poets from my own local writing group: Alan Calder and Margaret Maguire.


The Chemistry of Love

Sin from thy lips? Oh trespass sweetly urged!
Give me my sin again.
William Shakespeare


Two specks of nubile dust coalesce
In the infinity of space and time
A low probability event, it happens
Anywhere called destiny
Or is it really down to chemistry?

Hands melt together in warm caress
Fingers knot round fingers
Keeping in fond light touch
Enough to fan the next flame

In the dark quiet corner
Lips seek out soft quivering lips
The passport gateway to all else
Four slivers of flesh colliding
Teasing, searching, sensing
Pouting, puckering, pressure
Signalling passion explodes in
A hormone high tide that
Sweeps them far upstream on
Waves of strident urging molecules

Phenylethylamine sets them on fire
Dopamine makes them feel good
Norepinephidrine makes their hearts race
The level of sinister serotonin drops
A symptom of another form of
Obsessive compulsive disorder
Or the up phase of manic depression
Plato said it was a mental illness

A cocktail chain that binds them
Drowning them in each other
Lifebelts invisible in their blindness
Two hermit crabs outside their shells
Nature’s drug fuelled purpose
Storm troopers from its Ministry of Population
We know what it wants, it isn’t pious
Our ancestors whisper in our ears

Addicts in that chemistry of life
Cast on that sun kissed beach
They build a castle in the sands of lust
But who would want to say
‘I’ve fallen in lust’
With its Biblical bad press and baggage
Better to call it Love-Stage 1
In love with the idea of being in love

But beware of the withdrawal symptoms
If you’re abandoned there by your mate
The opposite of love is empty grief
Only you can say whether it was better
To have loved and lost than never loved at all
If you break up try not to break down

But who told dopamine and friends to strike?
Not every kiss leads to short term bliss
Is there a winged messenger?
A chemical cupid twixt lip and life
A pheromone that throws the switch
To say that A’s ok a compatible genetic mix
But B’s a frog, get real, no chance

Do we really want to know that?
And have to find a mate in a lab
Dating adverts, chemical formulae
It might save time for lonely moths
Who never seem to find the flame
Pheromone free zones perhaps?
Let’s leave this part a mystery

Once you’ve found it will it last?
Not that drug fuelled phase
That keeps the heart cuffs on
The tide goes out to leave an itch
To scratch in four to seven years
Time to make a babe or three
And move on to Love- Phase 2
But some are primed to seek others
To extend the human gene pool

So then the love struck junkies
Addicted to that initial ecstasy
Need that aching surging rush
They start afresh along the shore
Condemned to play there forever
Singing that same old song again
Does anything grow in salty sand?
Or is that backward moral bollocks?

If you’re lucky and patient
You will find the soothing peace
Of deep and everlasting love
The novelty of the sandy beach
Must move onto firmer ground
Built on a million memories
And foundations of all things shared
No high pressure chemistry
A gentle balm of endorphins entwines
And oxytocin keeps the cuddles going
It’s in our psyche to work for
What nature makes us desire

A long journey not a sporting event
Evolving with the seasons
Each with its different rhythm
Facing life with one mind
All an investment in fusing souls
Together till death do you part
In hope to meet again
And do it all another time

Alan Calder


My Life long friend

To start our journey I send a kiss
For a life of wedded bliss,
Our first home sparkling and new
A love so faithful and true.

Our lives to spend together come
What may to stay forever,
This we will learn from one another
Truth, love, joy and sorrow.

The journey is never going to end
With you my life long friend.
Many explorations to be done,
The future’s going to be such fun.

We may travel far to distant lands,
Or simply stay close at hand.
When life has gone, we will journey
On through all eternity.

Margaret Maguire

[Pictures by Victor Harris from the garden of Barry Kellington.]