Behind my eyelids, there lies a whispering aspen grove in the crisp white mist of an autumn sunrise. Crystalline pearls of dew adorn the curled icy fronds of lady fern and scatter like diamonds in the morning grass. A mockingbird preens his soft grey feathers on a cold naked bough, melting with the muted hues of a sleeping forest. His song cuts sharply through the crisp mountain air, trembling through hoarfrost flowers blooming on a mother log, and rushing into the playful splash of a quiet stream.
Just there, where a holly bush covets an old cedar stump, comes the dainty step of a young doe. Softly through frozen loam she pads, the litter of fall rusting slightly beneath her tread as she leaves the cover of tree line for the crisp grass in a sleepy meadow.
The sun rises slowly from an eastern peak, bathing the wood in a soft rosy…
Too many words worn down with ink
Distilling my thoughts with ease, one blink
Will hold galaxies of dream, incommunicable emotion
Description becomes a frivolous notion
Poetry is merely a reflection of soul
If one is empty, a heart doesn’t feel pull
Gravity is the result of our accumulation of mass
Gathering pieces of friends who orbit past
Incorporating Truth as we find it shown
Making strengths of our weakness, our edges honed
So radiate heat as your ethos flames
Retain a feral eye, be fluid, un-named
For you are the universe manifest, alive
And through your consciousness, spirit will thrive
This miasma, foul air
Vapor from the shameless exhales of chatter
Pollute my lungs with every patient breath
Leaving a residential tar more cloying
Than this cigarette, or any other
Crutch I have leaned upon
In these eyes lurk a feral glow of savagery
Are you so blind that you would smooth my jagged shape with polish
Because I’m blurry about the edges, and ill-defined?
Do you think adjusting your gaze intently
Will alter the reality of my flesh and bone?
I will meet you here naked in the golden light of dawn
Bare, shameless in my possession of flesh
This moment is mine, immersed in solitude
Yet no walls defend my gratifying silence
I would welcome the song of two heart beats dancing
While this rain whispers “yes” to every denial
Opposing each fear you unwittingly buried
Or uttered with shame in that silence you covet
Many believe spending time alone in thought, being introverted and analytical, is not only detrimental to society, but honestly uncomfortable to tolerate in most situations. Those loners who ponder far too deeply those seemingly ambiguous or unimportant observations, the ones who will draw the unwilling party animal into a philosophical conversation on the nature of wolf domestication and the eventual terrier that resulted, and whether or not this alteration of a species raises moral questions. That odd-ball who lurks quietly for hours before erupting in impassioned tirades about anything from melting ice caps to military sonar, is the one I mean.
Those people are precious to me when I encounter them, no matter how obscure or seemingly obsessed -In fact the more insistent and incongruous the better. Tesla, Galileo, Newton, Hook, Van Gogh, Poe, Arendt,Chomsky, Spinoza, Brezsney and so many others throughout time have stepped outside the well-heeled views of common perception to question and probe the very foundations of civilization, and in so doing, revealed truths great and small, both subtle and shattering. It is for this very reason that the insubordinate insurrectionists and idiosyncratic imbeciles were not wiped from our collective gene pool millenia ago.
Those who believe this universe is neatly ordered and logical are either ignorant or delusional. The closer one looks at the complexities of life and the so called “laws” that govern reality, the more disordered, illogical, and chaotic things become. String theory is a great example of this, however even that wild idea is losing ground to an even more left field hypothesis on the nature of (as Douglas Adams would say) life, the universe, and everything, which scientists are referring to as E8. I will include a link for any fellow nerds who want to go down that rabbit hole.
My point is that sometimes those things that make you uncomfortable, challenge your world view, confront your consious, shake your earth, rattle your cage, push you outside the consiously constructed confines of catatonia are crucial to internalizing this imense intelligence intimately… A person must be brave enough to swim head long into ignorance if they truly seek to learn anything new worth writing down. It requires the willingness to miss the mark, admit wrong doing or false leads, to embrace all that is unknown with insatiable curiosity.
I respect those who color outside the lines, for they are the ones who teach us to paint wordless obscurities, or lead us off a cliff to fly or die. Wings given to us by lunatics or luminaries have uplifted humankind since the first fires were lit on the red soil of Africa. Some few things I have learned in this convoluted lifetime, and one thing I know for certain: I would rather follow the passionate yet wayward mystic into poverty, than walk the stainless steel road of a calculating and logical politician.
This world is more pliable than we are led to believe, but cannot be shaped like malleable clay, and those who try to propagate order like monocultured corn rows will poison the ground so wild things cannot flourish.
Laying here saturated, wet with dew
As dawn lends your countenance a golden hue
In the mind’s eye glistens, a devious dream
As an animal in moonlight, they furtively gleam
Hunting, watchful, I am tasting the trail
Left by the passing of those who prevailed
Reaching for depths where others have drowned
Knowing it is in ignorance that knowledge is found
This universe is greater than one mind can hold
But I will grasp the stars if I learn to be bold
Fearlessness is for fools who don’t know of demons
Bravery is for the ones who face them with reason
My sword is a pen, my shield is a page
I will fight with love and never with rage
With a heart flayed open, eyes turned to the sky
One day my spirit will learn to fly
When I first held you
Red, wet and beautiful
Felt the breath in your small body
Looked into those eyes
Seeking and clouded
As you turned for the first time
To the sound of my voice
I knew then, why I came here
I felt a shifting within me
Deeper than I ever knew
Or believed myself capable
Of an emotion so tangible
That it physically gripped me
In my once lonely heart
And in that wordless moment
I gave you my soul
All the strength I possess
Every lesson hard won
Is a gift for you
To lead you onward
In your pursuit of dreams
And a life lived well
You are my sun and moon
My horizon, my ocean
I vow always to guide you
With empathy and honesty
To be your port in the storms
That will surely try to sink you
As your vessel sails
The swells and sorrows
Of love and learning
I am a Mother, a mountain
Your mirror and your sword
The day you came into my life
I became two people
Growing larger inside
Making space for your laughter
In the hollow places
Where once only sadness
Lay silent and serpentine
We make a circle, this family
Connected by threads
Gossamer yet unbreakable
Invisible, intangible
And more beautiful than a sunrise
On the first day of Spring
Rain washes me clean
Though I am dry in the lee
Of this porch, of the wind
Of a past I rescind
This moment is mine
The echo, a sign
That my hollow places
Scars and traces
Are not so far behind
That they cease to bind
Although I am learning
This glorious burning
Feeds decadence and decay
The way we all pray
To our own saving grace
In our own silent place
Where we confront our story
Beside transcendence, and glory
So I write, to spite
Darkness and light
Recalling that society
And also piety
Are constructs of fear
Divinity is near
Not found in perspective
Or a comfortable elective
Your soul is your own
A struggle, wisdom grown
From all that you were
Those paths that diverged
Led you unerringly here
There is no need to fear
Be all that you are
An unnamed star
Shine alone, while those deride
For it is in solace that you reside
where you most presently become
A contribution to the sum
The Memory Of Trees 