Letter from Austin

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perfection

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, this first appeared on the blog in July 2015.

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43 thoughts on “Letter from Austin”

  6. Beauterrific, Sir Robert!

    I will forthwith pontificate on the question of blushing embers all this quiet (save for one very vociferous squirrel), summer morning, while gazing at shafts of the rising sun igniting the face of a mountain, and actively rejecting my habitual failures to be re-imagined by that light. 🔥🌄🌛

    Liked by 1 person

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  8. Pingback: Letter from Austin — O at the Edges

  9. This one speaks to my heart. I have used your share option to post a link at The Peaceful Pub Blog. Sometimes I feel like we are living in a sci fi movie. I’ve seen schools haul print books to the dumpster, I order to get grants to ‘digitize’. Even as I love this electronic device I’m using to communicate, I have never it equaled a handwritten letter. No emoticon ever had the same effect as a real smile.

    I was already a fan of your work (love that Scarecrow!) but if I weren’t this would seal the deal:
    “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,”

    What can I say…I love it…Fine writing and a subject that is crucial to address in this age of electronics.

    Thank you,
    Sarah

    Liked by 2 people

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  10. Please forgive the typos…I’m using one of those doggone tablets and my fingers are just not nimble on the wee keys.
    “I order to get grants to ‘digitiz” should be “in order to get grants to digitize”
    “I have never it equaled ” “I have never thought it equaled”

    I’m blaming it all on those electronic thingies. : )

    Liked by 1 person

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  15. Reblogged this on Life is But This 命 and commented:
    Often I read one of Robert’s poems and wish I’d written it. Sometimes I do the next best thing and translate it into Chinese. More often I hold the thought of translating for too long and let the poem slip away. I am keeping this on my blog where it will remain as a reminder. One day, Bob.

    Liked by 1 person

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