FROM HERE TO THERE

Go through the wall
when you get back

a dust pours
over your hands 

your soul was once substantial
oscillating in the mud face

you wear dry
through fanned air.

Between dignity and intimacy
you can now inhabit

the long countryside
under construction, 

ribbed passage 

through bulwarks,

and the clanging bell
of darkened light.

THE COMPLETE PRESENCE

The complete presence

of almost nothing

- the person vanished -

stirs a memory, embodies

name, voice, and gesture,

forgets the face.

Unawares, others trust -

only I am

watching this familiar

relatedness turn duplicitous,

the man seeming

equal to no

more of distance

than umbilical measure,

is, will be, has been

uncoupled - finessing

recall from indistinct

imaginings. His silence

breaks the trance

of speech, will

cracks, forcing acts

to hope for

incoherence or movement

toward vital, joyous

enterprise. The car

pulls out, heads

for the horizon's

linear necessity,

scraping past perspective's

diminishment. Clouds flatten 

feeling, the storm

moves in, and an entrance-

way door closes

prematurely.  Skittish

with indifference?  Bowed

beyond boomerangs,

the here comes back, 

returns to life 

from what he had thought

to put

behind.  Others.  

Estrangement.

for THE HUDDLED

This never happened,

that things are as they are

because we changed

out of jumpsuits.

 

Dancers, staged to question, 

improvised.

What more instrumental

than the body?

 

One person's expressions

become an ensemble’s

disclosure through abandon

meant of form.

 

We dreamt of scattered presence

re-assembled 

and offered to the self 

(of the audience)

 

Original emotion, 

shaped by attention

and instantly focused  

here, where we are, as we are seen

 

      *

Bowls sang

for the huddled 

flawed 

on the floor, 

uncoiling heat's 

prodding impetus

 

Sky, as always cold

Each silver breath

a struggle

for memories

etched, then 

let go,

 

separating

into limbs

and airy 

trunks of bodies

widening

proportion,

 

a wanton 

flurry of leaps

no taking eyes 

off movement, 

lifts by

grace of 

simple lines 

their crescendo 

of voices

thrown into a skin

across the mirrored 

sphere aflame

 

      *

 

You touch your feet

with your breath,

ranging with intent

in prophetic space

knowing the cue 

to put up a hand.

 

There are no lights,

but lit by wristbands

and polished nails 

upturned faces beam

 

in moon masks

until the shoulders droop

the back relaxes

and the arms flare

 

elbowing as wings

bank a spiral rise

and fall while hips pivot 

into twice-born throes

 

    *

  

Love lengthened

For sweetness

A season’s snow

Pouring into the river

Fields, roads,

Again flooding.

A twig of brain glows,

fizzles, into honeycomb.

Spinning at far remove

we each take our part

feeding from the palm

of death’s many hands.

 

        

                                - for Michael Chorney

FAMILY PORTRAIT

Pop songs, on a radio,

scratched at the darkness

Doors shut and opened

throughout the house

Your parents were snoring

but nothing was trustworthy

Chance had left you

to wall and ceiling angles

that converged, like feelings,

foreshortening corners.

In a dream you ventured out

to the unfamiliar woods,

prowled trees

adorned with scalps,

and withered as the dead 

snapped back,

stinging across the face.

Scurry, dampness,

and torch light

halted the warrior's yell.

No telling how

frightened or captive

the family would look

in the kitchen, in the morning

THE MIRACLE

We came upon
and entered
chance w/creation,

participating
in an unfolding
of events

that went on

earlier

without us.

Fire was the event 

that turned my desire.

*

Either and Or

set up the choice.

To take a breath
before I needed one

or flash out
of my appearance.

The sun always got dizzy
from its fear of heights.

HEALING DAY

A white owl with red eyes

lands the sky

We twist around, go for

the open garden’s edge

drawn to the sounding river

because the back

is a flowing river

rising to silt

the danger darkness

has dropped over us

     *

The lover, the friend,

and the stranger

each will betray you

the lover for passion,

which is beyond reproach,

the friend for gain,

which will not last,

the stranger for evil,

which has no recompense

With each you must go

willingly, permit all wounds

to bear touch, lose

the directions, and scar

threading sinuous

complexities

     *

The brightening light

we wade in

obliterates distress

powerful

as a mountain,

dispersing agile winds

moving the owl onto

the last landing branch

as its wing tears 

the feathers now stitched

to the taxidermist's

skeleton

WHEN THE POEM MOVES ON

The starting point is at the bottom

you reach using words, their tilted

sounds and false count, for support.

Surefooted, laconic, and culpable,

your work moves past embellishment

girding image with mendicant emotion.

Constructing loss by left to right ascent

fixes a watch for wear

inverting the sky, feeding its empty bowl.

Something was happening off the ground.

This is the poetic leap,

finished with meaning, and there is nothing

     

about it to point at.  The poet goes back

to the articulated house.  Its brick

chimney draws smoke above a gable roof.

HERONS

Spaced along the shore 

like chess pieces in an end game,

stalking, patient, still

feelings sorted, thoughts 

not meant to arise 

and feed off memories.

An egret moves suddenly,

stabs at a fish in the water,

swallows it whole.

Then what you desire

(and you are always in pursuit)

folds into difference

needs recalled as pleasure. 

You brought rod and reel.

Always, the scout of wind,

water’s white caps. 

Past lives float upside down

in the lake swells,

and just beneath the surface,

anger glinting like a silver lure. 

The sky fathers traffic,

twigs carried in beaks,

a landing dance 

of plumes and clapper. 

The knowing self points out

a female heron, lining 

the woven nest 

awaiting ritual, high 

in a tall tree's chill

and the rookery's noise.

The place will be defended.

You go away. 

.