Sunday, July 5, 2009

an unexpected exile causes a memory of the future

the windy reversal that made us wetly laugh
in that memorable June when the smoky rain fell
with a dripping insistence that cloaked the roof in musk
and aired the tarnished chimes in a sad, jazzy arpeggio:

in simple times the black climate is an arc that vaults
from downy tufts to the scraping of leather soles.

but the enchanting static of chanting matins
made a scarlet vacuum in the drainage tube that year-
when all we wanted was a savory tear to fall on salty lips:

why was it so hard to bring red closure in a time of dripping rain?
being unable to count the diamonds was not a crime that resonated
in the sparsely screened gazebo with deck chairs slowly yellowing.

the abstract pleasure of pulling purple smoke
can be easily settled in a variety of manners,
from blackly noxious to the wispy puff of now.

living a half-step beneath the melody of shrubbery,
your rough napkins could not rub away the rouge.

8 comments:

  1. Capture the moment in time...hold onto that moment, it's the one thing worth fighting for.

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  2. Hi Gerry,

    I feel that there is an urgent yet restrained tone in this one. Brilliantly sublime.

    The last lines of your poems often helps me to understand the content better:

    "living a half-step beneath the melody of shrubbery,
    your rough napkins could not rub away the rouge"

    You are a master of riddles, jazzy salty stanzas, poignant reddish tones.

    Bravo! :)

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  3. You are a Picasso of the word.

    Brilliant.

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  4. I like the symbolism and incongruity between the texture and colour of ‘red/scarlet/purple/rouge’ versus the ‘smoky/downy/smoke/puff’. You have a real knack for putting words/images together that don’t naturally come together and creating an original, surreal, and at times surprising ‘blend’ of descriptions e.g. ‘black climate’ ‘savory tear’ etc. Once again, a poem that needs a lot of mulling over (smile). I’ve printed it off to keep re-reading and absorbing its mysteries…

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  5. This is truly wonderful stuff. I just loved the way that last line rolled off the tongue.

    I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you and comment on some of your work - combination of laptop problems and just plain scattiness!

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  6. Yes, red closure smacked me and woke me to what was flowing underneath this. Brilliantly tied together, beginning to end.

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  7. you have a beautiful combination of mystic words and power.

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Yes?