The Color of Water

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The Color of Water

Eyes the color of water. The tree I cut down
returns: fallen leaves, smoke, the missing

shade, memory come to reflect
emotion. Once the blue grosbeak

hid in its branches, calling but refusing
to appear, the voice our only consolation.

Now rain streaks the empty space.
Those things we touch often bruise,

but to leave them untouched may harm us
even more. Two days ago the sky cleared.

Changes, how often we see them for what
they are not. An essential falsity. Those eyes.

Words, ever-changing. Shadows of lovers
whose bodies merge but never touch.

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48 thoughts on “The Color of Water”

  5. There is a really lovely sense of negative space in this poem. Not in form, per say, but in the imagery. The shade, the grossbeak’s voice, the shadows of lovers. Wonderful— and this turn- “Those things we touch often bruise,but to leave them untouched may harm us even more” Much enjoyed.

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  11. What I felt your poem speaks about is the impossibility of certainty. We know deep inside us that there is nothing certain in this Universe, other than the Universe itself, but still we look for things to cling on.
    And, at the same time, there is nothing certain in love other than love itself, still we stubbornly press into things to be as we expect them to.

    It also reminds me of our, apparently, innate melancholy as human beings. There is a certain sadness hiding deep inside, maybe a feeling of what we can be, but rarely become? So seldom in the present, so often in the loses of the past.

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  22. Reblogged this on Life is But This and commented:
    To Robert – thanks for letting me translate your work. Hope you like it:

    水的顏色

    眼染著水的顏色
    砍下了的樹重現
    化為烏有的葉
    毀了的樹蔭
    激動了懷情

    曾經隱在樹中的鳥
    現在只聽聲而不見
    託歌僅為安慰
    雨在空中留痕

    可觸之能傷之
    但不碰會更傷

    兩日前天晴了
    變化不是我們
    想像中的一樣
    是必要的謊言

    那一雙眼睛
    常變的說話
    情人的影子
    可融不可觸

    (c) Mary Tang 2015

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