Repelling Darkness, With a Single Flame

And so it was.

[asingleflame]

The woman I love is crying, and I am drying up. Our only union a mingling of tears between trembling lips that dare not touch, or separate. I am a split in the mountainside, and from me pours sorrow and clay. Grief smites me briefly, revealing my soul in my face for just a flash, before the lightning fades, the tree stops glowing, and I smile as she looks up.

[asingleflame]

Herald

The cool wind -storm herald- the tree crowns did christen, tugging my soul, bidding me listen

to the summer triumphant in the song of bright feathers, and the melody simple in the chords of the weather.

Sky-mounted kingdoms have passed overhead, and the river they travel is the ocean's warm breath;

the lowest unknown is a man's humble head.

Through firmament vast and swift and clear, a wanderer tarries, for a moment held dear-

though long the years since last he heard, he rejoices still knowing the sky-kingdom's word.

[asingleflame]

A Vision Said

There goes my brother, but I do not say his name-

There sits my father but his face is not the same-

My mother isn't here today, the candle whispers flame-

What would your dear old grandma say, were she only here; for shame-

For the counter sits in loneliness, the wooden bareness blank-

The shutters slow their clattering, the wind-flutes hush their clank-

The trees without the garden stand in still and somber rank-

The reckless wind, so cold and thin, to apprehension sank-

And all of this- the morning mist, the dreamless visions playing-

are not but that which myself lacks, and my Self to self-saying.

[asingleflame]

The Patient Heart

The patient heart recalls a time- when it might have roared itself with rhymes,

or drowned in opal depths the sound of its youthful and impassioned cries.

No less the depths of modern feeling- no greater hope for Love's appealing; but less the rancor and watery woe, and more the glow of devotion's healing.

From the hushéd tread on fallen snow to the golden square of Love's window-

From fields of blinking fallen stars, to the hands that brought good wine afar- and the rejoicing of the love that followed after Midsummer-

The patient heart does these recall, along with those of somber joy- and those of bitter tearfulness, though Time's blessing does employ

to render such as memories, ingredients maybe- for the present recipe of patience blessing all it sees.

To the past, the patient heart laughs, what joy to have been so!

To the now, it gives a bow, to honor what it knows.

And to the next, it winks its best, for onwards it will go!

[asingleflame]

Almighty Masses

It is possible to drown in the space between people.

I often get lost… waiting.

It is not difficult to swim, and the currents are mild.

Islands pass in the night, sacred and distant.

In the stillness, a hand brushes mine!

But the wrist slips away, and is gone to drift again.

This cannot be my ocean, rather it is all oceans, and I a thing in the midst..

So then, I stretch out my hands-

-the water is my embrace.

I am the ocean; seeking myself, greeting myself when we pass- as we must; dividing myself with mourning.

We will pass again, you and I.

The space between us is only ourselves.

[asingleflame]

behold, the awed faithful

[asingleflame]

For Love of the River's Daughter

I came down from the mountain’s crown to wed the river’s daughter.

The river leapt to hear of this, and thrashed its foamy waters.

The old man coughed, and asked of me, Why stir you so my daughters? they’ll not assent to you, or any son of earthly father! Who are you, to cause such waves to stir about my daughters?

I am a king, though kingdoms fall, and mine but newly risen. I have not come for glory’s sake, nor do I come unbidden. At my gate a single lily leaf of tiger’s stripe was hidden. And I come now to claim the bride that is nearest to my vision.

Be gone! O flesh, of earth and stone, that makes mud of clear water. Too grand for you is the river’s throne, too fair and fine its daughters.

-

I came again out of mountain ken, and sought the lily daughter, but banks were then as walls to me, and barred the river’s daughter. But ever could I hear the song of lilies in the water.

I called aloud the river’s name, awaking son and daughter, while all the kin for miles around beheld the raging water. I thought to swim, and lilies hearing, I leapt full-length in the rushing rearing.

I woke at length in tender arms, and the hand on my head was cool. but the need to breathe prevailed on me, and I let go the water-jewel.

I woke again on the river’s bank, a sodden, sorry fool.

-

But when I come from the mountain’s drum, and the ice-peaks weep for longing, then do I see in the flowing streams the tiger-lily blooming.

And when I tread on the mountain’s head, and see the ocean’s gleaming, I think that I will end in you, as you began in me.

-

So then made I a final ride, the river’s daughter at my side. Disdaining fate and father’s law, I took on the beach a water-bride, and embracing her current, swept out in the tide

to the sea which all the rivers greet, and a patch of calm where we will meet.

[asingleflame]

Untitled #11

Gather your rose-buds however you may, they were fresher before they were shucked; and the wisdom which is there displayed is only to pluck, or be plucked. But if you love it, let it go is truly the righteous way, then what is left for those of us who have fallen lovely prey?

[asingleflame]

In the Garden

Strike me down, oh muse of love and take from me this cursed cup- the blood it holds is of my lips, which I am sickened of. If thy will is to be done, then close my eyelids to the sun, and take her damning beauty from my mind. The others passing foul and fair with running locks of silken hair- but whisperings of sad and simple kinds. Dark the eyes, and dark the hair, with parted lips and shoulders bare, my lady love, your lightness makes me blind. And now I beg a boon of you, release my soul from out its tomb and roll away the stone above my eyes. Though Lazarus returned again, I have no hope of such an end, but let me go, to go where I am due. Strike me down, oh burning eye, remove the shroud without a sigh, and let me see the fields in the sunrise. Take from me this cup of woe, appear no more, and let me go.

[asingleflame]

Leave of absence

I'm taking one.

[asingleflame]

Dare Maiden

In fervent wish and burning prayer to the nameless saints of here or there, to simple things, and wishing rings, and my fingers tangled in your hair.

Fair maiden, dare to take my hand- or bolder still, to understand the whispers of this misty grove, the lover’s prayer, the heart’s demand.

Lips as hands and pilgrims we, but you will not my lover be, for try I might, a simple man cannot the far off future see.

Cast aside your earthly fears, they have no place or purpose here, our prayers will be met with scorn if you do not make your meaning clear.

This is the church of earthly Love, our only link to God above, three may receive the Spirit among them, but two may possess the Dove.

[asingleflame]

The Strange and Stable

Between the peaks of loving and longing, the depths of distraught and despair, exists a wondrous country that I never knew was there.

It may be just the gold in my eye that brightens the fields and reddens the sky, but is that not her hand beside mine? her cheeks which fill with lovely blush, when I dare her hand with mine to brush?

No torrent waits upon my head, no chasm yaws to threaten my tread. Strange repose is mine, for once, and I do not fear for its end.

She is not mine, but she is here, and though I make no speeches, I make a study of this perfect woman, and the wisdom that it teaches.

No urgency attends this field, no worry shakes the trees. I have not said all that there is, but perhaps I do not have to. After, one needs no map to a place that one knows the way back to.

[asingleflame]

Gitano Guano

I am the deep breath after the plunge,

the sigh that falls forth when you just can’t-

Explain.

I am the filth that time turns to pearl,

and those who were not there will worship themselves in my name.

I am the sultan of bad ideas,

of words not meant, and souls not saved.

I am the angel of praise and malfeasance.

I am the lover that hates what it loves,

that breaks what it holds,

and never lets go.

I am the righteousness, I am the truth.

Hell hath no fury like gilded youth.

I am the oxygen, I am the drug,

I am the cigarette smoke in your lungs.

I am the jumper in need of a shove.

I am pretension (see above)

I am the poem, and this is the end.

Why does no-one ever stop at the end?

Because

[asingleflame]

Untitled #10

Show me to the secret wild, the precious places which have no name and know no master. Show me to the small expanses, that can be seen by standing only here, not a step to the left, or right. Show me to the hidden mount, where no foot, even mine, can crest the peak. Show me these, and once I have seen, take back the path, and leave me the dream.

[asingleflame]

A Heart Half-full

My heart half-full is never heavy and never is it light. My tears are seldom lasting, my smiles seldom bright. In aspect I may seem to fast from life's most precious waters, but the truth of my condition is a wound from Leto's daughter. A normal human heart was mine, until the arrow sheared it twain, and now the ministry of time has sealed up the cloven remain. I'd hoped that time might reunite the sundered soul within me, but anyone with half a heart will know it's not that easy.

[asingleflame]

The Fading Wave

A look at her and all the world is faded into grey. There is but her, and I would trade the world for a chance to say "You are the garden in my heart, the ocean of my soul, the center of my galaxy, unhinging with a pull." The seas still wave, as you depart, embarking to the shore, but my boundless deep will echo you for centuries; or more.

[asingleflame]

Wishing-be

Oh, to be a whisper! If only for a day, that I might touch her loving lips, and softly fade away. Oh, to be a glimmer! within her wondrous smile, caressing her sweet visage, to pass this lonely while. Ah, to be her lover! and embrace her, warm and true- to know her as she knows herself, and love her as I do.