Letter from Austin
Michael, when you say moons do you see
cold stone floating in the firmament
or phrases frayed in the mouth and spat on paper?
And does the Spanish moon simmer at a similar
pace to mine or yours? Which embers blush brighter?
But let’s turn to estuaries, to salt and clamor and gun-
running poets and interrupted words sold in stalls
between parenthetical gates, to incomparable cavas
and the deterioration of envy and intervening years.
Or perhaps mislaid passion – a friend claims love
is merely a bad rash, that we scratch and scratch
and inflame but never truly cure what ails us. Sounds like
politics to me. Or sports. And business. Or neighborhoods.
On my street people should cook and play music together,
laugh, raise chickens and read good books. They should
brew beer, swap tomatoes, recite each other’s poetry and sing
in tune. But we’re different here, preferring instead electronics
glowing in dimly lighted rooms. I reject this failure, as I also
reject the theory of centrifugal force spinning off the moon’s
body from the earth’s crust, preferring to imagine a giant
impact blasting matter into orbit around what morphed into the
earth, and somehow accreting the stuff into this orb we
sometimes worship. This, to me, is how good relationships
form: explosions of thought and emotion followed by periods
of accretion. But what I mean is I hope this finds you well
by the river of holy sacrament. Remember: brackish water
bisects our worlds. Turn. Filter. Embrace. Gotta run. Bob.
Originally published in Heron Clan 3.
… how good relationships form: explosions of thought and emotion followed by periods
of accretion.
There is so much within this “letter” to appreciate, but that line about how relationships form! Well said. Well done!
~a fan
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Thanks, Kathy. Writing this was fun – my friend Michael had lamented the lost art of letter-writing, so naturally I wrote this poem, printed and mailed it to him, which sparked a reply in kind.
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This is brilliant! ‘friends claim live is merely a bad rash’… Love it! Xx
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*love
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Your friend Michael was IMPRESSED, I have no doubt! I truly savored every line in this letter. I am big on letters as u know, so this one truly touched me.
my favorite line: does the Spanish moon simmer at a similar
pace to mine or yours?
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He got a good chuckle out of it, and responded with a poem (by email).
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Wow. I want you to write ME letters.
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Thanks, Cate! Hmm. That may be something for the 30/30 project.
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Nice one! Like reading “Prufrock” for the second time (with enough experience to understand it).
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Experience makes a difference, doesn’t it? And thanks for your kind words.
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So much to ingest here…so much imagery, so much truth…wonderful words as ever! You paint stunning word pictures! Bravo…
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Thanks, Krys. The imagery came easily to this one, based, at least in part, on past conversations about multiple topics.
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Love especially that little manifesto on neighborhoods slipped in there — I wholeheartedly agree! 🙂
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Sitting here in front of my computer, I admit my guilt!
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Friendships = warmth. Is there anything more lonely than a person who is without friends, or reading the word “friendless”? Or more joyous than getting a letter or a call from a friend you haven’t heard from for a long time? Your poetic letter says it all.
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Exactly, George!
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I love this!
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Thank you, Vanessa!
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