This morning, as I sat drinking tea, the shadow ofMy neck found the book in my lap.
Sunlight falling upon my head and arms
And I could see the shadow of my pulse
Beating
Pulsing—and the tea steam had a shadow too.
How common.
Life and dissipating steam.
Something vibrating
Plucked—sounded for all
Or some to hear.
Then harmonics. Sympathetic vibrations.
Then still till music finds again.
Or else ever still.
From windows come music
Or steams
Or seams of life or merely
Light.
“Lord thou pluckest me out.”
Here are glistening strings
Past windows and pulse.
His Spirit
Sunlight passes through
The Shadow and these shades
Listen.
Misspoken Understanding
Crushed by memory that has by chanceWrought disorder grown late of living.
Captured symbolic logic and the glance
Forward into fate or happenstance,
A tireless dreamer forever giving—
Crushed by memory that has by chance
Counted a means unto advance.
Tearing the bit from lover’s chiding—
Captured symbolic logic and the glance
That measured distance an infinite expanse
Without patience and no understanding.
Crushed by memory that has by chance
Caught the unaware in timid stance
While bold step into unhindering.
Captured symbolic logic and the glance
That may without words weeping entrance
A spirit upon edgeless seams of dying.
Crushed by memory that has by chance
Captured symbolic logic and the glance.
Sara was a Blackbird
Where Has the Blackbird Flown?So Far—Distant—
Not Even a Point
Against Infinity.
The Last November
“Therefore we thank Thee for our little Light That is dappled with Shadow.”
I think these thoughts are not my own;
Except for lucid whispers
From faint dreaming
Or day-long nightmares tearing away.
But we are all aware now;
The Dreamers will awaken me
Though we never sleep again.
I think these thoughts are not my own
When memory comes without my bidding
Or ability to forget.
For endless moments listen
Without attention to diction
Or need to fear any consequences
From the chance of any meaning.
I think these thoughts are not my own;
Thought spoken and kept as
True—sheltered from my own understanding
I repeat what voices say
Without pause or notation—Simplicity
Is too Difficult to comprehend.
I think these words are not my own;
Without description
Symbol or History
All message is rhythm—and
The act is one of tragedy.
I think these words are not my own;
A passage without subject
Cannot edify even the most perceptive
Or hold consequence to any departing hero.
These words
–Without—
Are not
–Meaning—
My own
–or—
Voice
–Voice—
Beyond the Sound
Of Paper burning;
My own pages to the
Last.
Mirrors
Here we
look
out
into
Mirrors
and view ourselves
And others
Only once our
self
but
Twice the image of one standing by
Who sees also double—
Reflections and original.
From that vantage
Standing near to both,
Able to discern
Apparition from Reality
Presentation from Truth
Choosing between mirrors
These gazing forms
Reach out through reflections
And embrace
Or else press upon the Image
Until all our Visions break away.
Is It Morning
or Breakfast of the Birds
I
Is it morning?
They must mourn that
Chilly sunrise—
Spring color on frosted branches,
I am warm
Behind the pane.
They are framed fitly—
By a window—
(Also once a tree)
I wonder.
Does it pain them—
Having no home to shelter in as I?
II
It is morning.
Does it mourn—
Hidden from our sunrise?
Pale, thin—feathers plucked?
Is it chill within—
Behind that hard air?
It seems trapped
In that mangle of dead limbs
(Also once a tree?)
We wonder.
Does it pain—
Having no branches as we?
Unspoken
When part of “True” Remains
Unspoken—and every
Passing day becomes the next—
Though lingering; All of
My known and what may be
Right—if only silent—then
Sadness.
When is the remedy for
“True”
now spoken partially?
Every day becomes a
Burden to damaged spirits
Then Sadness—“True”
Faith,
Now spoken—I’ll listen Lord.
Let someone speak “True”
And none become bitter
Through lingering
Between these days
Till the next—and
Ending.
So Near, My Love
So Near My Love
Too close again to see
That one—alone
May never know the
Touch
Of Trust
Or any closer
Than the Distance
Of most Kindred
Kindred Spirits be—
Closer still—
As God will allow—
Did He not make One?
But it is His choosing of
The two—
The same
That moves this
Spirit between us—
So near—
My love
So close that we may see
That each—Alone
Must know this Hand
Of trust—upon us
Before two may closer be.
Call to Forgetting
Every sentence, every thought,Every word a crafted moment.
Hard is the time for loss,
Harder still the time for memory.
I
A warrior roused for conflict
His weapons sleeping
And weary limbs draw him down.
Yet the ranks fall quickly about him
To a deeper sleep beyond marching
Or the call of any new battle.
II
All silence is an act within
A carried item of weightless luggage
Once forgotton, it is difficult to find again