Variations on a Theme
1. The Long Night
We envy the shadow its attributes, its willingness to subside,
but what of its flesh?
I lay in the field and wept.
Think of the fragrance, the moist leaves
enveloping the still
warm body. In retrospect, I realize that I should never have left, that air
returns to voided space despite all attempts to disavow
light, that wind and rain and soil alike filter through the chest’s
cavity, that stones may bear one’s touch in perpetuity.
At nineteen, death had gifted nothing to my world.
At twenty, little else remained.
So close, so lovely.
2. The Loneliness of Shadows
Light collapsing around a point. The two-headed flower.
In my dreams, no one speaks.
Not the thing itself, the bud bursting forth, petals ablaze with color,
but rather change: the process reinforced.
Sleep seldom shows such kindness.
Or its fruit, redolent of sun and rain, withdrawn and shriveled,
and finally, ingested.
Yesterday I woke damp but unafraid.
3. Alchemy
Stones never talk, but they rise from the earth, appearing as if by invitation.
The way silence lines an unfilled
grave, which is to say as below
so above, an infinite murmur open to the night.
And other notions: transpiration.
Waste.
Sublimation. Calcination and burning.
At times I have withdrawn
like water from the air’s
body, fearful yet reckless in the act.
That evening the moon flickered and the shadows lay at our feet,
and all the words we never framed,
the bitters our tongues could not know, the wasted
music and abandoned caresses, those words,
sighed into the ground, leaving you adrift, alone.
But how else might one transform darkness to light?
Or the reverse.
This originally appeared in Boston Poetry Magazine in April, 2014.
I remain in awe.
A sudden chilling in my spine…
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Must be the a/c. 🙂 And thank you, as always, Ron.
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Brilliant photo. Beautiful poetry, Robert
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Thank you, Derrick. That photo is wonderful – wish I’d taken it. It’s from morguefile.com.
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Nice personification and description as well:) tremendous job Robert:)
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Thank you, SM.
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This lingers….
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I’m grateful for your comment.
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All wonderful and haunting….#3 is my favorite. Such a gift —- I feel as if it’s Christmas!
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An unwrapped gift, but yours for the taking! Thank you.
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Some of those phrases … magical and frightening at the same time.
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That’s a good combination, I think. Thank you.
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Definitely.
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Lovely, thank you.
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My pleasure, Cheryl. And thank you.
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Hi, Robert, I really enjoy reading your blog!
I nominated you for a little questionnaire about reading. I know stuff like this can be corny, but I think your readers would be interested in hearing your answers. You can see it here:
http://jackshalom.net/2015/07/21/a-questionnaire/
Best,
Jack
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Thanks for thinking of me, Jack. I’m swamped right now and can’t participate, but I may take a shot at them at a later date.
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Really enjoyed this- and that’s a strong image too.
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Thanks very much.
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Breathlessly beautiful, Bob. I will read and read again.
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Wonderful piece. Great work.
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Thanks very much.
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wow. hit me hard.
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Thank you, Jo.
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