For You Who Grieve Tonight: Poem

For You Who Grieve Tonight

The day was long, the night will be endless
Emotionally spent the tears won’t come
Its just the heart that continues to beat
The soul has nothing more to eat.

But ashes; dust and ashes
Diamonds in the dust it may well be
Grief is an absolute entity
And living another form of tyranny.

Speak of life and death, the details
Of what lies between birth and extinction
Rationality irks, cannot comfort the loss
Highflown theories until complete cessation.

For those who grieve tonight, the pain
Almost too intense to bear:
Hearing, seeing, feeling their loss
And nobody, nobody with whom to share.

The tears should come, do not check their flow
Tears can heal like a gentle loving hand
Calm the mind, ease the heart and
There is a lifetime ahead to understand.

Softly words will come
Someday grief will go
Forget the logical mind
Leave reason behind.

Copyright: Rani Turton

None, Nowhere, Nothing: Poem

None, Nothing, Nowhere

None, nowhere, nothing
Can make me forget except
Complete extinction;
None, nowhere, nothing
Can make my heart sing,
My body's blood flow
In complete adequation
With beliefs, trust, life itself.

I scribbled a few lines today
For you, who read, and who holds my soul
And all it contains; and who may one day realise
That this verse was quite simply love in disguise.

Copyright (text and image): Rani Turton

Everyday, While We May: Poem

Everyday, While We May

To watch the trailing rose on stone walls
Dew on flowers, a resting bird on tree
To listen to the wind, feel the rain,
Everyday, while we may

The sun with it's golden beams
Warms the flesh yet alive
Stars that glisten and shine
Bread, that the soul may dine;
While we may.

While we may, blood and bone
Skin, touch, tears and pain;
Remind us that each and every cell
Lives, and then hears the knell.

Copyright: Rani Turton

Whenever My Soul, Like A Shrunken Dream: Poem

Whenever, My Soul Like A Shrunken Dream


Whenever, my soul like a shrunken dream
Wonders and waits with wasted breath
Destiny beckons on but the road is long
And at the end lies only, only death


Now and then a diamond in the dust
Sparkles with quiet passion
Blossoms colour my dreams
Life is far from all it seems


Paltry rhymes, simple songs, hasty verses
Coming from God knows where
And going on to rocky streams and a pebbled shore
Surely living meant far, far more.


Far away, waves crash in the misty cold
A flagging swimmer, a hallucinating teenager
A tired woman wait for their lives to unfold.

Copyright: Rani Turton

The Days are So Long, My Love

The Days Are So Long, My Love

The days are so long, my love. One has to wander from sunrise to sunset
And then comes the night.

Then comes the night: the hardest part of the day
The hours when the soul flies away.

To another realm: to wander and reflect
When the body tries to unifie the schism;

To leap over the chasm that divides
This world from the next and thus

Dawn to dawn, sunrise to sunrise
I mystify by moonlight

Some lines scrawled themselves onto
Crumpled white pages.

Some tears from tired eyes, there are methods
To comfort the tired body and mind

But not the anguished soul.
The days are so long, so long, my love.

Copyright: Rani Turton