La Vita Sobria
Copyright 2015 Ardina Webb
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Prologue
Two Hundred Miles Due North
The Island of Minos
Annotations of Nature
Dominoes
Buried
The Woman of Arrogance, Pity & Fate
Seafarer
Empire of the Mind
Good Things
Rain
No.
Out, Out!
The Ballad of Andromeda
The Devil's Affluence
The Flag
Heart of Ice
About Ardina Webb
Other Books by Ardina Webb
Acknowledgements
“ I shall therefore give my reasons for renouncing intemperance and betaking myself to a sober course of life, and declare freely the method pursued by me for that purpose, and then show the good effect upon me; from whence it will be seen how easy it is to remove the abuse of free living. I shall conclude, by showing the many conveniences and blessings of temperate life. .”
- Luigi Cornaro (1464-1566 a.d.)
Prologue
Faith is all around us,
From the belief that love exists,
To the belief of a man named for us.
Some pursue it to the end of the World.
Others question it,
And many plainly do as they are told.
Not all are able to possess what many believe,
But is it worth to retrieve
What at first you did not believe?
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Two-Hundred Miles Due North
The rain falls gently against the lead pane of the window. The inside of the glass window is frosted hiding the view to be seen outside; it is a perfect illustration of the cold to be felt. A woman sits at the desk before the window. From here she blindly follows the small rivets of rain-water that fall outside. There is not another sound to be heard throughout the large room that is lined with aged books. Once orderly, it now lies in ruins with items thrown violently across the lush carpet; a perfect illustration of her earlier anger at the fates. Defeated and exhausted, she sits in her simple muslin and allows the thoughts to settle…
I have waited,
Waited soo very long.
My iron heart weighted,
Weighted beneath the cerulean depths.
The moment of joy never seems to last as long.
You come to me,
And my entire world is a better place.
My gifts of Roses & Thyme.
The moment of sweetness to hold us now.
We are parted,
Through nothing, but distance.
My choices did not barter on love.
The moments we have are whispers of time.
They fall down.
My tears of unbidden sorrow,
And no matter how numerous,
The ache remains.
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The Island of Minos
Soon it shall be dark,
Your eyes blinded of sight.
Hours still to the lark,
The air so present and tight.
Call out to me,
Feel the tremor of the night.
Feel your way to me,
Make your sight right.
Let there be no other,
Though they call to tease.
Remember me brother,
I hold your lies.
Talk with the day,
But fear the night.
I hold it all, so cry,
Feel the poison in my bite.
I am no hidden dream,
You sold your soul.
Enjoyed the dream,
Now serve the ghoul.
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Annotations of Nature
There in those woods,
We stood as perfect strangers.
Perfect strangers from perfect worlds apart.
A carpet of rusting leaves.
Hidden from a jealous sun by a sea of amber.
A caress of the autumn wind.
Every breath drawn deeper,
Every dream now the sweeter.
Beams of sparkling sunlight,
They fell from between the boughs.
Our gazes only for one true light.
Despite the words I would never hear,
Those words of trust and care.
In all the glory of autumn that began to choke,
I had the vision of a bleak broken break.
Could I hold forever?
Or would I become the ivy,
The clawing vyne grasping for the light.
How much do you know?
What can compare to that feeling of doubt,
Doubt, since I am the lost child now.
But those words never reach me,
Even if they did, I would surely scream, “Liar.”
So hurt I have been,
So much love yet to be seen.
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Dominoes
So cheerfully black & white,
So logical in their numerical simplicity.
How is it not possible that I can never see myself in that light?
Why must I live in complexity?
What I wouldn’t give to be so free, yet so part of a whole.
Each piece so marked, yet each piece a common soldier.
What a sorry state I must be to wish myself a piece of ebony.
As each piece plays his part, I suppose he laughs at his worldly counterpart.
The life I lead can claim no art,
My world revolves with little care for the heart.
Little moments give the time to worry,
I stare endlessly as the little pieces glare up from the wooden board.
Easy for them to judge appearing so numbly merry,
All they do is watch me string myself with cord.
They don’t need to laugh out loud for me to know,
I may be stupid, but not so blind.
A silly mistake & watch the problems grow,
For fate is always ever so kind.
She offers plenty, but binds at least one hand.
So here I am,
Sitting alone & watching the problems grow.
My dominoes help even less than they taunt,
And still the dawn marches. Indeed.
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Buried
Do I ask so much?
The chatter of my teeth,
That sound of predicted crunch.
I don't even seethe.
A wind whips past me,
Her icy tendrils wrap round me.
So tight, Her grasp,
I shiver at the embrace
On a painful gasp,
(That has little to do with Her touch)
My heart feels the ice encase.
What a pretty picture.
That clear ice filled with tainted blood,
Blood of mine.
My mind, now a disenchanted wood,
Strangled by the aspiring vine.
Night approaches soon.
Her winter kiss, deadly,
I know this. But still I stand.
My shivers now echo in the hollows,
Harrowing sorrow could not compare.
These are my own gallows,
Gallows of despair.
I cry alone.
An expression of pain,
A tale of woe.
Stinging tracks travel down yet again.
I love you so.
A glacial rain arrives.
Her talent chills me,
But your flippancy kills me.
The icy torrent drenches,
D
oes nothing to cleanse a weeping wound.
Love is certainly a cause for trenches.
Winter holds me in Her savage jaws.
I cannot move,
Lacked is the strength to let go.
I held dreams. More than the slight of a glove.
You made me love you so.
My tortured limbs embrace the cold.
The lashing of the pelting rain,
Reminders of advice showered upon me.
Good intentions cause perpetual pain.
Finally, the cold shows me mercy.
No longer will I feel the doubt,
No longer the aching need just to be held.
Finally, mercy after all the cruel mockery.
I waited all this time for you,
I waited all this time for a dream.
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The Woman of Arrogance, Pity & Fate
Let the few hate me,
But allow the messoi to love me.
I will always sit & judge.
My name is an enigma,
For who could name the unknown?
Pompously keep your sacred dogma,
For I will find my own pool to willingly drown.
I will reward silent dignity with distaste,
But obligingly burn in the raging flames of conviction.
Warm me & taste;
Taste the blessed elixir of affliction.
Bloodied flames encased by the sheen of ice,
My own beating paradox.
Admired for vice;
But never the passion.
In time allow me the fated concession.
Beware of my bite,
The poison that clouds your vision.
Hold your freedom tight,
For your soul has a fresh lesion.
A sign of belonging.
Tortured & marked, you are mine.
A child of hunger & thirst.
An eternal child of mine.
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Seafarer
Lend me your heart,
For mine was lost at sea.
But then maybe I merely missed that part,
When they called out to me.
Those beautiful women at sea.
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Empire of the Mind
Come and join in the light,
Bring the fairest boon.
Those pretty lights belonging to night,
I will show you the Empire beyond the moon.
My solace.
Here, every star is a hope,
A flame to burn in the dark.
That luminescent scope,
It comforts, unlike the laughter of the lark.
My refuge.
If there is nothing more to see,
Then venture my way.
Beyond the Illyrian shore and the tumultuous sea,
Over and into the crystalline bay.
My beginning.
Leave it all behind,
Untie the lead weights.
A friend in need is always a friend,
I would