Category: Poetry
Eau Claire
Eau Claire (for Clare)
βturns out tears donβt cause themselves, whatever the scientists sayβ
how do we talk about what we donβt see
in others
their beauty, grandeur, and grace,
what overwhelms and awes
is unmistakably perceived,
sensed, invisibly
like God, horror, love
wind on water, its currents
i can see the river moving
but not its source or pull -
what really matters
in any matter
the H, the O, that does not equal
wet, keeps happening
from ripples to roars to rain,
even from out my own body -
blood and piss and tears -
revising the letters
the responses
iβm learning
are silent
like praises
and weeping
even if the matters resound
Stone Hefter in High Winds
Stone Hefter in High Winds (at Jackβs farm, Western Easter)
Maybe my mind is lost
holding the lamb
held
by holding the lamb -
hope and despair
not so different
after all -
as symptoms of alive
fingering rocks
in pockets
words
accrued structures
layers
of meanings
βGo onβ
Stone Hefter
Living Tree
Breath Brother
Sighted Singer
no division
only specular,
complex,
complicated processes -
birds, soil
plants, mammals
always skies
everywhere in light
or what is darkness for?
he said,
let there be...
and there is
in beginnings
the words
ends and means
roots to branches
seed to flower
quarks to organum
charging inspired
bodies
carbonated sparks
in the high winds
Silence
Greetings all – thank you for continuing to visit, care, find, read the polysemic stupor this site has been for me. I have felt that I should respond to my extended quiet and lack. As with everyone, much transpires within-without always/all ways… for now I can report that after years of PhD studies into the concept of “nothing”, an ever-expanding and extending fertile void…
Has drawn me toward pondering more intensely what silence might evoke or emit… I should like to say that I have been interactive, con-fused, com-municative, alive/immersed in much (empty-full) space(s). Here’s a card of greeting, thanksgiving, and hello again:
Words of Silence
…dreamt to hush you,
like “now”
or some othered ‘then,’
“here” “you” “?”
It is time now, I said,
for the deepening and quieting of the spirit
among the flux of happenings.Something had pestered me so much
I thought my heart would break.
I mean, the mechanical part.I went down in the afternoon
to the sea
which held me, until I grew easy.About tomorrow, who knows anything.
Swimming, One Day in August – Mary Oliver
Except that it will be time, again,
for the deepening and quieting of the spirit.
“Most of the time, to give oneself to language is to abandon oneself.”
–Maurice Blanchot–
“A word’s reach extends a speaker’s grasp, or what’s a language for?”
–Stanley Cavell–
the songs i do not know (iii)
Tell me the songs you donβt know
Dan Beachy-Quick, Of Silence and Song
Lightβ¦makes some things seen, makes some things invisible
-SIR THOMAS BROWNE, IN B-Q, OF SILENCE AND SONG
iii. inside the other
.
i walked
caves, hollows, holes
reaching in
wondering, wandering,
exploring
.
wherefore?
in whom?
this forest-stream-mountain
rain
cloud or animal
species
perhaps kind
world
.
else
.
eye, crotch, finger, part
leg, mouth, buttocks, cleave
begin
in prayer
darklight arithmetic
and and and
also
more
.
a line
emotion
an happening
or even
event
what is called
beginning
again
what feels like
entering, entrance
entry
way
.
fuel
to the opening
.
i walked
in prayer
singing
nothing
known
listening
still
to answer
.
call
response
(“Tell me,” she said)
of songs
you do
not know
(“i don’t,” i said
i do
.
begin
again
before
where now
already
The Songs I do not Know (ii)
Tell me the songs you don’t know
Dan Beachy-Quick, Of Silence and Song
Light…makes some things seen, makes some things invisible
-Sir Thomas Browne, in B-Q, Of Silence and Song
ii. “Tell me…”
bluebell. jay.
joy. blank. block.
blur. when.
what?
how. where. ever why.
now
it is very
most unknown
not knowing –
i don’t;
breathe
.
cerulean. youth.
abstract. asunder.
i wonder
what for
then
when now?
how does
one tell
not knowing
unknown
always
it sings
knowing
(its’ icon)
and melody
The Songs I Do Not Know (1)
“Tell me the songs you don’t know.”
Dan Beachy-Quick, Of Silence and Song
“–knowledge is made by oblivion.”
Sir Thomas Browne, in B-Q, Silence & Song
clips, or snippets,
the known as partial
notes
signifying
the experienced
gesturing
hymning (nearly celebrating)
its reverse –
everything
unknown
i didn’t know
the sounds of
as they were
always changing –
ever never
.
so i made noise
my shapes
transparently novel (novice)
windows
framing, marking, visibling
all i do not know –
every word an icon
view-finding
all it’s not
.
Image
Sound
Landscape
Intention
Meaning
Clarity of
.
definition
None
.
thus every song i sing
i sing of what i do not know
or hear or dream or feel
i think
but do i tell of songs
i do not know
or sing not knowing?
.
would i recognize
unknown
song?
do i?
sing?
.
it’s hard to tell
meaningful questions
from questioned
meanings,
meaning
tones
notion
her eyes
the water
sky
adroit
wonder
or passion
.
not known
i sing.
A Womb-bomb Psalm
Blessed be the name of the Lord –
sweet carrier of the womb –
fiery cauldron,
cold and dark
within the pit.
.
Blessed womb-bomb,
threatening peril,
life-giving
horror of wonders –
inside
.
that terrible cave
in the belly
the heart, the brain
like a virus,
a cancer,
a seed –
.
herewith do we praise thee –
our lives
and surround –
impenetrable everywhere,
blessed immersion
and thundering calm
.
go forth
quiet conquer
of light
veiled in darkness –
a pit, a cave,
o glorious sky!
Quiet. Dampening.
so this is how you swim inward,
so this is how you flow outward,
so this is how you pray
Mary Oliver, Five A.M. Pinewoods
Rain, snow,
damper pedal.
softening…
slowing…
so that sound
may
rise –
Arise quiet sound –
its feel –
tonight, now,
then
a melancholy birth,
nostalgia and utopia
again, combined.
.
Sustain.
All my Words are Silent 