06 April 2010

jónsi sang go

go with jónsi

jónsi sang go

i thought i was ready to throw off
winter’s weight as soon as spring
peeked from the ground, softened
the stark dark trees, that i too
could again be green and colour
and soft earth, but the cold
deadness clung with suffocating
hands to its post, dug in deep
and obstinate. so i took jónsi on a walk.
out through the sunlit streets, filled
my eyes with petalspetalspetals
all orangeredyellowwhitepink.
the magnolias bursting – branches
once heavy burdened with snow
and ice – now in flight against blue sky
waving their arms adorned (aburst!)
with pinkwhite blossoms, sharing
their glory with the grass below – a sprinkling
of pinkwhite salt seasoning the green.
my feet sang along – starting and stopping,
turning, slowing, lifting (sometimes imagining
in their minds – twirling) and then i found a tree
and sat beneath it when what i really wanted
was to lay on the grass, gazing up

it took a moment, but my feet
talked me into it – “go do”
they sang with jónsi – so i lay back
and the streets were no more –
just me, the tree, the blue and
masses of white cloud creating
a moving landscape beyond
the dark stark branches
sprinkled with leaf buds.
occasionally birds flew past.
and once a dry brown leaf skittered
from the ground up over me
its dead dryness somehow
a part of this simple playful
scene of bluewhitebrown
while i lay, one with the green

“no one knows you, till it’s over”
maybe that means even me.
maybe i’ll be surprised by
who i can be when it’s over.

*inspired by jónsi's album, go.
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03 March 2010

some rilke to break your teeth and spark your soul

{o}
sometimes the truth lies in the end
if we imagine our being as a room of any size,
it seems that most of us know only
a single corner of that room,
a spot by the window, a narrow strip
on which we keep walking back and forth.
that gives a kind of security.
but isn't insecurity with all its dangers
so much more human?

we are not prisoners of that room.

connemara flow
on the rock
i have great faith in all things not yet spoken.
i want to free what waits within me
so that what no one yet has dared to wish for
may for once spring clear
without my contriving.

if this is arrogant, God, may i be forgiven,
but what i need to say is this:
may what i do flow from me like a river,
without anger, without timidness,
no forcing and no holding back.

then in these swelling and ebbing currents,
these deepening tides moving out, returning,
i will sing You as no one ever has,
streaming through widening channels
into the open sea.

{rainer maria rilke

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06 January 2010

hanging on

brown on white

driving in the bitter cold the other day,
i saw a few trees with brown leaves
still clinging to their branches - huddled
and brittle. and i wasn't sure whether
it was terrible or beautiful.

are they simply unwilling to let go,
clinging bitterly because this is
all they know, doubtful of anything
else being better? or,
like anna & simeon,
are they waiting for a glimpse
of the life that is to come,
holding on with hope until it does?