Garden of Hollow Serpents

It happened on one blue day

when my petals were bruised,

and my spirit almost hung itself,

no longer bearing the weight

of being an immortal light source

in a time of forgotten prayers.

I was nearly weeping

not in storms that swallow the world around me,

but in the language of scorpion grasses at dusk

soft, bowed, barely blooming.

He came like a gentle comet,

not as a man,

but as the guiding Hermes

a smile, soft as sacred crocuses,

carrying no judgment,

emerging from a cold land,

gently touching the unopened bud

of my fragile sorrow,

just to remind me:

someone still sees.

Then came the embrace

two arms wrapped around

like vines of honeysuckle

entwining the walls of my cold cathedral of solitude

with warmth and grace:

a tulip and hyacinth embroidery.

I did not flee from that sacred place,

not because I forgot Eros,

but because I remembered Persephone,

longing for the sun,

wandering through labyrinths of wonder

even in Hades' hasty gentleness.

But guilt arrived

on a shocking wave of pain,

measuring the weight of my heart

against a moment I did not ask for

nor did I deserve it,

yet I allowed it.

Not ashamed for desiring a mortal feeling,

but for that pale flicker of bloom

that rose inside my crimson heart

and dared to face the sun.

Yet even so,

I crossed no sacred boundary,

and kept my faith to Hera's vows

my trembling hand bore no corruption,

only the scent of oleander.

Now I return

to the sacred garden I tend with care,

to the altar of my chosen love,

where trust grows like lavender

at the gates of devotion.

He saw me unguarded,

but I see myself whole again

a celestial being reborn beneath the stars:

not untrue or disloyal,

only open,

only tender,

only alive.

Cruel Cronos engraved me early,

not with gentleness,

but by hands of shadows

who mistook my springtime figure

for silence,

who thought my tears were seeds easily buried.

I was a sanctuary of lilies,

crushed before the bloom,

a jasmine bruised by shadows,

an innocent violet forced into stone.

Their voices were storms,

their laughter-chains of iron,

and I, too petite to fight,

learned the language of fear.

Yet within me, a sunflower spark

refusing to give up its soul,

rooted itself deeper,

drinking light even from darkness,

whispering: you are more than their hands,

you are more than their cruelty.

So I rose, piece by piece,

a wounded Rose of Venus,

crowned not by shame,

but by the fire of endurance.

Where they carved burning scars,

I carved flourishing constellations.

Where they plucked petals,

I grew wings of lavender and flame.

Now my voice is the garden restored:

not silent,

not broken,

but alive

a testament that innocence stolen

is not innocence lost,

that even from the deepest, darkest wound,

a sunflower can rise

and teach the world

what it means

to see, to feel,

and yet not become a shadow itself.

He never touched you.

Yet you linger in him

like the scent of damask rose in forgotten temples,

or the shadow of lotus petals

pressed between the pages of a life unlived.

You weren't given,

nor claimed,

but you remain

as Persephone remains between two worlds,

half spring, half surrender.

He sees you

in the gold-threaded robes of Isis,

mother of the hidden,

protector of what cannot be possessed.

You, soft as jasmine at dusk,

yet dangerous as the bloom of belladonna,

a beauty he could never hold

without trembling.

His logic is iron.

His mind, a fortress.

Yet inside,

you bloom like Freyja's garden in Asgard

wild, untamed,

known only to the gods and the ghosts

of those who once dared to love.

He remembers you

in the absence of touch

how your voice would've sounded

saying his name.

Not as a woman made of earth,

but like Aphrodite rising from seafoam,

untouchable and immortal in her effect.

He walks through the world

wearing your memory

like a garland of hyacinths—

invisible,

but fragrant enough

to undo his certainty.

He calls your name in thought

only when Hermes isn't listening.

Because you were not a prayer

you were the echo of something already sacred.

You are not his.

You were never his.

But in the sacred ache

between Odin's wisdom and Hades' restraint,

he worships what he cannot claim.

And so you became

his unseen Nemesis

not to punish,

but to remind him

that even gods must kneel

before something they cannot keep.

You are the iris that opens at midnight,

the secret grove behind his ribs,

where he returns not for peace

but to remember what almost was.

You are his

without being.

Sub clar de luna amară,

Am să-ți cânt despre o primăvară,

Primăvară prinsă într-o buclă atemporală,

Încețoșată buclă într-o clepsidră neclară.

Primul boboc blajin de liliac,

Tras fin ca printr-un microscopic ac,

Crescut la umbra unui nuc posac,

Vioi se grăbea deja să fie pe plac.

Îmbăiat în mireasmă, se dorea să pară,

Desprins forțat dintr-o lume bizară,

Să-și deschidă petalele se ruga seară de seară,

Visând la lumea mare ce îl înconjoară

Amorul pândea să iasă la atac;

Propria-i esență urma să îi vină de hac,

Neştiind că mai bine de un veac

Pasiunea ce o va purta nu va avea leac.

Cei dintâi muguri sfioși cedară

La un încordat ceas de seară,

Și-n astfel de clipe scântei se creară,

Căci în grădină emoțiile aveau să apară.

Pentru regat, iubirea părea a fi un fleac,

Dar nu și pentru noul june liliac.

Văzând cum grațioasele magnolii zac,

Fulgerător, cu un gând trecu la atac.

Și, dacă nu ar fi fost să piară

Această dragoste pură și rară,

Probabil s-ar mai fi dat sfară-n țară

Despre nemaivăzuta uniune cardinală

I am just a cub,

Alone in a garden of flowers.

And as much as I delight in being seen by others,

Ilong, with all my being, to finally know myself.

As the world pauses to take a breath,

I press forward with quiet courage.

Freedom unfurls its petals within me,

Opening in this very moment.

So I take the leap of faith, and jump.

At the beginning of that journey,

The garden feels as though it tears my flesh apart

A disturbingly pleasant sensation,

For I have walked among these realms before,

Before I even knew how to shape sound with my voice.

Without rushing,

Without making the water tremble,

The conscious mind gives way,

Leaving space for the adventure to blossom.

So it begins.

The traveler's portal opens its radiant chest,

And the cub passes through.

From that realm of truth, I drift back in time,

Peering through binoculars at ancient predators,

Studying their movements,

Tracing them like vines across memory.

Once, the creatures noticed my gaze

And though they attacked,

I escaped With only a scratch on my paw,

A scar like a thorn's kiss.

I return to the present garden,

But the traveler aches for more.

And so, it begins again.

The next realm blooms in Atlantis.

The cub now breathes beneath sapphire waters,

Transformed into a creature of the deep,

A flower of the ocean's secret garden.

I drift among coral columns and temple ruins,

Their stories flowing into me

Like nectar through a stem.

My touch gathers their forgotten whispers,

Petal by petal, memory by memory.

At last, the fuel of wonder fades,

And the traveler must return.

The garden door calls softly,

Its blossoms swaying in welcome.

I leap once more,

And with gratitude,

reality gathers me gently

Back into its fragrant arms.

There comes a time of year

When the grand bargain begins,

Not on the streets filled with vitality,

But in the shadows of the necropolis.

That time when the Four O'Clock flower breaks,

Shattered glass strewn across morality,

Violins echoing through chrysanthemums—

An entire ballad of the false prophets.

And in such a dreadful realm,

The White Dahlia enters with petals shrinking,

Trembling as the winds begin to embrace her.

Two pairs of eyes seize her gaze:

One's Deadly Nightshade,

the other's Devil's Hand.

One is there to devour her soul;

The other to protect and shield her:

Unfortunately, all entities wear masks.

What gleams is venom,

What offers refuge seems lethal.

The first waltz with the broken,

virtuous entity Unfolds in darkness,

Flowers shivering in the aura that surrounds him.

Warnings drip from his affection;

Her vitality seeps into his mask.

The long, agonizing sway ends in tears.

The second dance with the wicked one

Casts beams of pearly light across the floor,

Flickers of hope and sparks tangled in mysterious smiles.

Tiny, precise steps lure her core into an abyss.

She blooms once more

Only to be severed again with the final sigh of her stamina.

What happened to them, you might ask?

Devil's Hand betrays his loving core, vanishing into obscurity.

White Dahlia, dripping tears of blood, continues to bloom

Brighter, fiercer than ever.

Deadly Nightshade aches still,

Hunting those ruby tears with insatiable hunger:

One astray, one reaching the focal point, one hollow within its own elegance.

Cândva,

planeta noastră respira verde.

Pădurile erau plămânii ei largi,

iar oceanele -

ochii albaștri ai lumii.

Munții stăteau

ca niște catedrale de piatră,

iar râurile curgeau

ca niște psalmi limpezi

prin trupul pământului.

Dar omul -

făuritor de foc și de fum -

a început să scrie pe cer

cu cerneală de cenușă.

Pădurile au căzut

ca niște armate învinse,

oceanele au înghițit plastic

în loc de stele,

iar aerul

a învățat gustul ruginii.

Ghețarii plâng

ca niște candele ce se topesc,

mările se ridică

ca niște avertismente mute,

iar pământul

poartă cicatrici de metal.

Și totuși,

sub cenușa orașelor,

sub asfaltul obosit,

încă mai bate

o inimă verde.

Planeta ne privește

ca o mamă rănită

care nu încetează să spere

că într-o zi omul

își va aminti

că nu este stăpânul ei,

ci doar un trecător

prin grădina ei fragilă.

Mă privea prin geam o fată 

După chipul meu pictată,

Ce-mi întinse o mână,

Să ne pierdem în grădină.

Acolo unde odată 

Copilăria mea toată 

O resimt ca prin vis;

Frânturi din paradis.

Unde poveștile nespuse 

Din timpuril demult apuse,

Prind viață peste noapte,

Învăluindu -ne cu șoapte.

Fermecați sorbim din ele,

Împletim din flori mărgele,

Alergăm prin iarba deasă,

Mușcând din para zemoasă.

Pe craca nucului cărunt 

Ne spunem câte -un jurământ;

Să nu știrbim vreodată 

Piesa de noi jucată.

Să purtăm în noi magia 

Și vie-n amintiri scânteia 

Trăirilor de neuitat,

Pe unde am cutreierat.

În aula aceluiași proces
Am venit la sesizare
Tu să aperi blând
El din interes
Să acuze ... să acuze
Și toți
Într-o legitimă apărare
Cu ,, da ,, cu ,,nu,,
Din pro,, și ,, contra,,
Sentința nu-i de mirare.
E ora când
Pronunțarea apăruse deja în ziare…
Jurații ne-au citat-o.
Ce păcat de aulă
De distinsa adunare…
Când totul se putea rezolva
La un chioșc cu ziare….

Minunată este viața.

Atunci când eu scriu ceva,

Toate le-aș cuprinde odată,

Dar nu pot asa-i viața.

Scriu îmi place foarte bine...

E o datorie a mea,

Să împart astăzi cu tine,

Ce-i frumos în viața mea.

Cred să-ți placă,

Nu doar ție ci să placă tuturor,

Alegerea-i lucrul care,

Te ajută-n viitor.

Mulțumesc acelor care,

Au răbdare a citi,

Și le place aceste versuri,

Le citește spre a fi,

O mângâiere de suflet,

Și mă rog să fiu iertat,

Dacă versurile mele,

Pe cineva-au deranjat.

Ține minte steaua calmă

De pe bolta ce visează. —

Este ultima speranță,

Care-n veci rămâne trează...

(Imagine de fundal: fanthomas)

Pestriță e lumea întreagă!

Pe loc nu știe a sta...

De stă,vrea să se miște,

De mișcă,vrea să stea!

Iar omul nu știe ce vrea!

Când râde, când plânge!

Ori naște,ori moare!

Face,desface, țipă sau tace!

Direcție au toate

Chiar de n-ar vrea!

Lumea-i făcută de cineva

Sau ba!?

(26 februarie 2023 Horia Stănicel -Irepetabila iubire)