Ariel’s Mission
This tree giant knows me
& the grasses I pass upon
looking to ignite brooks.
Listen, I’m calling
through the sudden undulation
of leaves.
Is it some sea sound
or else; stranger:
Soft whispers, candles in petals
placed on a lake?
How they float to anoint senses,
a hushed travelling dream talk
that falls with a clash—–
Tempest, sudden tempest
on the brightening horizon.
Such a wind is astonishing!
It is I, Ariel’s, the siren’s—–
Are you not awestruck?
Once a pine kept me captive.
I bet you can scarcely fathom,
that for twelve years I lived done up,
wrenched in by bark,
the distorting, the twisted twigs.
Then some great sorcerer
got hold of me.
I flew to his bidding,
released by the energy
that inhabits all oceans.
Now, as an enchantress.
there’s an even greater prophesy
to fulfill, to ride
both one with the elements
& that rest in a song’s shell—–
Otherworldly, loving, loving
whatever planet, whatever dove wings.
whatever bat radar—–
In daytime, in night,
the very air breathed
is my dancing
& it costs,
believe me, believe.
Star Dazed
What river is that snaking above
or is it the reptile itself blue as glitter glue
an invisible tube squeezed the stars out of?
Look at that flow spiral, an undulation
held still by some great creative hand
to fashion the canvas of the night
between these two mountains here.
Eyes grasp the heights of the cliffs
and crags edging asymmetrical
where they formed and broke away
as glacial continents magma somehow made.
These are warm still, vermillion-hued
as the richest of clay purple itself could shape
if its shadows were a color
and not the absence of light.
Still, how physical if surreal
the whole scene feels
cropped by hands way down at the bottom
framing this sight as if squinting.
Sense the surrounding valley of crevices
less damp than dry with not another living thing
scurrying over or growing out of the grit of flint
coating shale for miles.
That cloak is a sort of comfort
for how far down we surely are
in the deep end and wishing
more to float, smoothly hover, fly
than walk further or climb
after camping out, sleeping
in this time that is no where
but everywhere we gaze and gaze.
Academy of the Heart And Mind 