Trying to Understand Is Worth It
I’m trying to understand —
What does this ocean mean right now?
It’s voice is soft, I barely hear
The words its forming in the waves
I stand, attenuated, like a deer —
But stillness breaks before it forms
My mind, it never finds repose
Whatever, now, this ocean meant
Is lost to space,
For heaven
Only
Knows
“Embrace the moment”
This is what is said —
It resonates and echoes
In the head
But lo, arms open wide,
We see the day:
And realize that time has slipped
Away
The artist stops to paint a scene
With colors that she purchased from
A shop that closed six years before,
A place that smelled of spirit gum
And costumes hanging in the back
By landscapes painted for the stage.
And in the now, she thinks about
What happened to that place.
Her painting packed up in her car,
She takes the long way ‘round to where
That shop was open, years ago,
But there’s no newer business there,
Just broken windows, abject signs
Of long neglect and passing age,
And how the dreams we bring to life
Soon leave so little trace.
Her painting hangs now on my wall,
The glories of the woodland fall;
As she to senescence has passed,
I think about the spell she cast
About a shop I never saw,
A time and place I never knew,
And how it feels in moments true
To see another’s
Point of view
“… the noblest arts hold in perfection but a little moment.” — Samuel Butler, “Erewhon”
when he still had the feel, the earth
was cinnamon, and waterslides,
and autumn like a kiss, a lingering,
discovery, no guides,
each whole experience — a birth.
when he still had the feel
when sorrow had another place to grow,
he held the air and ground
inside a heart that stretched into the sky,
each field a temple mound
he came to love, to really know.
when sorrow had another place
see, now — the dirt is open, bare,
and all is silence but the air;
the wind on his uplifted face
blows in from some less sorrowed place,
and he knows buried, underneath,
the feel is there —
somewhere
The sea rolls in at twilight time,
The day is laying down to rest;
My love is standing by my side
And I can hear a beating in her chest…
The waves are lovely, soft and wet;
The dampness there upon my brow,
The spray, dispersing in the air –
And we, yes, she and I, are closer now…
In distant places, somewhere else,
There might just be two others who
Are feeling what we’re feeling now:
If so, those hearts are truly, truly blessed
He walked down to the waterside When he was twelve of years, Awash in nescience and pride And dreams of new frontiers And there were gulls, and mourning doves, And fishers organizing -- But when you're only twelve of years, The sun Is always Rising
Snowfall in the meadow,
Wind blows through the woodland,
Day gives way to shadow,
All with frost is aproned —
Boundaries and fences
Bring to thought tomorrows:
Where we draw our limits
There will come
Our sorrows
