for the words you breathe,
I say
pronounce them, announce
their coming on the air,
project outward to the stars
that settle
on winter’s prelude
and follow them out,
moving in a waltz grazioso or
or dolcissimo,
until the sun rises
and the songs of spring return.
An aubergine sound
and a hollow bitter wind,
that portends of a sadness, lately then,
after the reign of summer’s end
and autumnal color,
red and yellow and their kin.
When joy is moved indoors to stand
the test of winter’s blunting hand,
bound with the melodies to hum
within your heart, with flute and drum.
Seeking clear, in midnight skies, between
the snowfall, when angels fly;
and you, among the ones that seek and pray,
wishing upon the stars to stay
awake and listen to the songs you sing
with words of note for every little, living thing.
Then rest your head and fall asleep
in dark and as lovely as woods are deep,
and echos of your song on air,
warm the bitterness to fair.
stacked into order,
their capacity
to be filled is lost,
save the outermost,
only runcible one.
whether it be for
ladling a beef stew;
stirring, clockwise to
start cream vortices;
filled to deliver
measured amounts of
spice. yet stored, nestled
into another,
into wooden pall
cold and wanting, they
are pulled one-by-one
as familiar,
some cleaned and replaced,
some never used once,
but designed to form.
I turned the page,
and there was writing
on both sides.
symbols showing
the birth and death of an idea
comprised of words that twisted and faded
into obscurity.
I remember the texture
of the paper on my fingers, though,
rough fiber and noisy,
and the way the ink
nicked and disappeared
like snowflakes in autumn.
Consecrated between my finger and thumb,
without a varnish that might
have held words together,
it is the feel of the paper
that transferred longing.
One hundred
twenty eight beats
per minute,
beginning like rain
settling on a tenement roof
from a passing storm.
The noise rides a swell
to overtake the edge of
docile music
and crescendos-
then wittily settles in between
the pacing of a brisk walk.
After forty breaths that
fumble hand-over-hand to
scale keys to a resonant finish,
such sounds decay, in imitation
of distant leaves rustling
in the last gasp
of a gale.
heartfelt, kind words,
warm as soup,
is it wrong to want it in a mug
instead of a bowl?
Whether to go left or right instead of up,
down in error of back.
or crab crawl, in lock step
for a beautiful formation
cooked down from the least combination
of ingredients,
ladled out of your mind.
conclude with the oyster crackers from a
cellophane packet that you crinkled
and tossed away.
in that way, you can travel
and warm your hands in the cold
sipping as you need it,
and walking slow,
the people around you
ascend the streets.
The concept
is really simple, where
the addition of them
opens a language that
otherwise stumbles in silence,
As a simple “why ?”
infuses the sunlight and breeze
to rattle the trees in reply.
Yet without sound,
with eyes alone,
that creates a chasm in its invocation.
and, just as quickened,
closes a gap in response
between lovers,
with an embrace,
but no words,
and silence fulfilled.
Shimmered metal,
-as curiousity-
sets into motion,
agitates the dust
and ascends a mountain
because challenge told it to.
a distant voice inspired
a click and whirr,
to go and meet the mountain
on a singular path,
once side winding then inclined.
ever moving, but when complete,
and turned to face
the horizon of red, a being might stand in triumph
-arms raised-
and shout for hills to cry out
with sound!
waves that intrude
upon the desolate solitude
separated by 34 million miles
of loneliness – a vacuous truth.
it blinks.
I’ve noticed that the
majority of visitors
to my blog have no real
place to call home in this universe,
this internet.
-they are phantom and leave no trail-
perhaps they move
from place to place
just looking for rest.
I see the bedding areas
that deer make, but I never see them
actually there,
just crushed ryegrass and swamp oats
pressed in ovals.
it’s not
that there aren’t many
good things to write about any more,
-just so many familiar combinations-
of dark and light,
closed and opened
leading and ending phrases,
that if I pen a melody
in the key of D minor,
I might just end
a song
on the supertonic,
where brooding
turns to joy,
in full measure.
Taps and Ratamacues 