Location: Champ Fleurs, Trinidad
Originally From: Mon Desir, Trinidad
Contact: blueheart_blue@msn.com
Artistic Discipline: Poetry
Creative Interests: Photography, Abstract Art, Collages
Title of Poems: "Dawn","What I Can", "The Teardrop", "Night Falls"

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before
- The Raven, Edgar Allan Poe

More from Karlene...
July 19th 1985, I débuted... life, for me, had begun. I was the last child, the optimist and the dreamer.  My family moved around a lot but I primarily grew up in South, namely Mon Desir Estate, Dow Village.  I attended St. Gabriel's Girls' R.C. School, St. Joseph's Convent, San Fernando, St. Benedict's College and San Fernando Technical Institute.  Currently I am a Planning Technician training for a career as a professional planner.

The artistic background
I love reading.  At seven I obtained my first library card and I lived in Carnegie Free Library every evening after school, devouring every book they had; the classics and the contemporary and still taking home books to read.   These fed my mind and my imagination so when I ran out of books, I'd write my own little stories and poems.  I became the scribble girl, always writing or doodling.  My friends Alicia & Maria convinced me my writing was good after sneaking a read of one of my doodle books. Ms. Kelly-Simmons, my English teacher, had created a club “Creative Minds” to encourage and support various art forms amongst my peers so I joined and my writing improved.

My poetry has been published in anthologies by the International Society of Poets and Noble House.  I'm currently working on my own small book of poetry “Butterflies” which I hope to publish in early 2008.  My writing just flows. I never seem to have control over when it comes or where it goes. It's like a voice that goes on until what needs to be said is told.   With time, I hope my writing will continue to mature and improve and I'm always open to critiques, especially that which helps me to grow.

Dawn

The day dawns
with crisp smelling
clean linen air
briskly brushing my cheeks
as carelessly, laughingly,
my feet patter through the dewy grassy slopes
and my nostrils embrace
the wafting aromas
the tangoing scents of
butter fried eggs,
ham and hot fry bakes.

The sunlight
now puttering through the clouds
like a little boy's
newly formed fingers,
eager to grasp yet
not quite having a firm hold
but given time
becomes strong and warm
like the loving embrace
I receive
before I am shooed in
to wash up before eating.

Copyright ©2007 Karlene Gabrielle Flemming-Fortune

What I Can

I cannot give you
sweet words or platitudes
passion or desire;
Nor can I give
promises for a future
I may never know
for fickle is the fate
that determines when we expire.
What I give you
is what I can
Honesty and simple beauty
in the moment that is now
My strength, kindness, laughter,
even my love.
May my silences speak more eloquently
than I ever can
For I may not be able to give you
what you needed
But I gave you what I can.

Copyright ©2007 Karlene Gabrielle Flemming-Fortune

The Teardrop

The silent teardrop
clear, perfect
luminous to behold
Falls off the precipice
of a broken heart
a wounded soul
and as we watch it fade
into oblivion
and then death
It is a fragment of ourselves
torn, naked, bared.

Copyright ©2007 Karlene Gabrielle Flemming-Fortune

Night Falls

Dusk slowly settles
into the shadows of night
Like a scene waiting to unfold
it sits, a gentle backdrop.

From behind their stage blinds
the stars pop out one by one
To dazzle us and shine
only a prelude for what is to come.

The moon, like a tempered goddess
saunters out of her boudoir
to bestow her bounty
upon sky, land and sea
awing us mere mortals
with her timeless beauty,
her enrapturing light.

And I sit, just like I did
when I was a child many years ago
captivated by tapestry that is
the descent of the night

Copyright ©2007 Karlene Gabrielle Flemming-Fortune _________________________________________________________________

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