*
magic becomes you
the kind found at
the end of light
where tricks of moon
turn darkness white
and prestidigitating
shadows pull a cloak
around your night

magic becomes you
the song hypnotic
in your voice and
spark of likely in disguise
your sleight of hand
over the stars mirrored
in mesmerizing eyes

magic becomes you
suspending belief
in anything else
illusion of love
losing sight of self
and gladly I climb
into your box
despite the chains
and saws and locks
for you become magic
to me
*

singing of spring
amidst white confetti
of sunfire ashes that
billow and blow in
collision of seasons

the sun blinks and wavers
is it time? did I miss it?
but icy glares hush
snowy silence again

they curl and compare
thinning drifts to showy
curves and sigh as
bitter earth and I peel
away layers lukewarm

smoky skies hover
uncertain and leaning
breathing wet showers
that spoil it all

Restrained and slow

A sprig barely allowed in

Vast concrete of frozen snow

Emerges anyway

Photo courtesy of Yvonne Miller

ignoble
raise the
rallying cry
ten thousand
footprints
testify
the dance
of light
the fall
of man
in trailing
grains of
sinking sand

immobile
wings of
dallying fly
repeat
reveal
and justify
the trance
of dreamers
gone astray
hopes once
in flight
now on
display

in total
tally and
multiply
each downfall
as an
upward try
missed chance
trophied
behind
glass pride
dies only
when kept
locked inside

there rises through hard crests of foam
and downy drifts of waving brine
a noble ship of seven sails
a row of towering masts of pine

bare poles of branch, draped rich with green
proud hoisted sails and flags high-flown
looped up with ropes of gnarled twig
secured in knots of brown pine cone

snapping in bright and brisk-paced winds
rippling crisp in bristling cold
blue-bannered spars point sharp and smart
stout timbers rigged in ancient gold

mysterious galleon strong and dark
of long-forgotten wars and foes
that to an earthly bottom sunk
asleep at anchor in frosty lows

but port to starboard never heaves
in solid storms can only sway
for decks are buried cold beneath
white waves that washed across to stay

though gallant stretch the masthead tall
this bow can never quite break free
as colors pale in salt-spray froth
crow’s nest is taken literally

broad hills around will sweep and rise
billowing rolls held ever fast
endless flow stands frigid still
until old time and seasons pass

]]> http://planaquarium.wordpress.com/2012/01/22/pining-for-the-sea/feed/ 30 planaquarium Pine-Row http://planaquarium.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/obliquity/ http://planaquarium.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/obliquity/#comments Thu, 19 Jan 2012 09:55:03 +0000 planaquarium http://planaquarium.wordpress.com/?p=2027 ]]>

*

nonchalant
and disinclined
time-tilted earth
and curving clime

a prim horizon
leans in posh of
piling soft cloud
silvered lined

ecliptic
apoplectic sun
aligns a crowd
of columned rays

rotating
alternating beams
on axis of old
mist and haze

the narrow seam
of sky and dream
cross slanted paths
in deepening gray

as shadows slide
down steepest slope
both land and light
seep far away

*

softly they strayed and milled
about in empty minutes
socializing light with abstract words
seeking an excuse not to descend
though we all do eventually

as I gathered up a shovelful
of drifting thoughts
a sharp
crack
interrupted my window

I glimpsed mortality fall
an icy dagger from high
and seeming nowhere
though we all know
the roof is there

it sliced through time
to punctuate a fence’s end
to stab a dying heap and slow
the rising dusty chest
beneath a flowing beard of snow

an ashen corpse now
this new idea of fallen white
and I, an accessory
to the crime
have nothing else
of which to write

of sleeping

hearts of

color not

yet beating

silver veined

and infant

wings still

curled in

feathered

wombs and

withered

shells of

wintered

mother of

pearl

Ever in your heart

Even as young

Passes the old

Seek life’s treasures

And you will find

Kind truth is

Everlasting gold

reach toward
the closing clouds
of aching sun and cooling night

for with the shadows
dreams will come
in drifting flights of fantasy

on waspy wings
to lift and free us
poor caged birds of gravity

with flocking souls
we rise, we cry
as thoughts airstream and intertwine

your wings, your heart
beat next to mine
breaking beyond the reach of time