Poetry from Alwayslooking


{ Ode to the Moon } { The Power of Music } { The Music of Evening }
{ Revelation } { The Prayer } { The Sea Storm } { The Flying Lesson }
{ Back to Alwayslooking's Page }


These 4 poems are dedicated to L.S.

 

ODE TO THE MOON

 

Home becomes only a cavernous space,
Lacking your softening warmth within.
Escaping its coldness, I find the night sky -

And gaze, rapt, at the moon.

It too seems out of sorts:
Not quite round, not yet crescent,
As if whittled by an amateur.

So, too, am I - slightly akilter,
A shave or two short of true.
For this night you are far away.

No good reason spurs this ache.
Soon I'll see you light my world
With glow far brighter than this silver orb.

Still, that cannot calm the longing I carry,
Nor can it keep me from the starry night,
Wondering if you gaze there too,

And commune with a lopsided moon.

{ The Power of Music } { The Music of Evening }
{ Revelation }{ The Prayer } { The Sea Storm } { Flying Lesson }


THE POWER OF MUSIC

(written at Scripps College, during the CME Conference, June 1998)
- revised 10/98

This empty place has, it seems,
Become a part of who I am.
Shut off from my inner self
I listen, through the dark,
For jumbled voices calling me,
Reluctant, to mundane duties.

An aria whispers by,
Drifting down hollow halls -
A firefly's magic glow
Amidst a night awash in
Obliging exhaustion -
And my heart is filled
With you.

You are not the singer.
The song is not one I know.
Yet in its lilting strain
Is carried an unwitting memory.
Your face dances before my eyes
And in my being a lightness grows.

The elements which can awaken
The soul within me are at hand:
Music, and thoughts of you.
As the tendrils of melody
Fill the air like scented breeze,
I meet love's own dawn.

And, smiling at the tune,
I put my face toward that sunlight
And sing.

{ Ode to the Moon } { The Music of Evening }
{ Revelation }{ The Prayer } { The Sea Storm } { Flying Lesson }


THE MUSIC OF EVENING

 

Night sounds pepper the otherwise silent world:
The backbeat of crickets, the trilling of beasts in hunt -
And deep within the friendly dark I sit
And think of you.

For you it is who brings the music to my crowded space.
A smile from you springs symphonies upon the wind.
Your laugh calls back to me the rhythms of youth.
I close my own eyes, and see yours.

Oh, that you were here this night, silent beside me -
Your breathing, counterpoint to my own, thrumming against my heart.
Imagining you there, the nightsong echoes in my being,
And you become the tune I'll hum on the morrow.

{ Ode to the Moon } { The Power of Music }
{ Revelation }{ The Prayer } { The Sea Storm } { Flying Lesson }

 

REVELATION

 

You opened a new window in my heart last night.
For suddenly, you were the listener instead of me.
And all the aching jumbles in my head
Streamed out at the beckoning of your
Soft, loving, embracing eyes.

For you have been the hurt one, needing to know
Someone would be listening
When and if you chose to share your shadows.
My role has been to be your rock,
Stable in the midst of storms.

And I have revelled in shared silences,
Hearing in peaceful moments the beating
Of the heart I would claim, if only I knew how.
Sure you knew I'd always be there, waiting
To accept whatever you chose to reveal.

And you have allowed me a glance inside,
A climb over the walls you have placed
Around your bruised and wary soul.
I had, I thought, found my home
In the listening, in the being there.

Yet I never thought I would be the one,
That my pain would overwhelm my need
To listen to yours. But you knew,
And waited, and smiled when it came.
In that smile I have found salvation.

And now I know my greatest truth:
I am healed because you hear me.
I am complete because I love you.
Never again shall the two
Be a part of separate places.

{ Ode to the Moon } { The Power of Music } { The Music of Evening }
{ The Prayer } { The Sea Storm } { Flying Lesson }

 

THE PRAYER

I stood in the temple and waited.
High on the hill,
Its marbled brightness
Fighting for space
With the darkness in my heart.

Finally swept there by the ache
Only souls which touch
Ever feel,
I had to ask
Those who know all
If I could rightly
Claim the bond I sought.

For I am pulled by demons
Surfacing ever from a life
Painted with loyalties
Deeper than flame,
Darker than blood,
Saltier than tears.

Have I the right to love?

It echoed across the hardness
Of white pillars,
Into the night.
And when answer came
It lifted from me
The rusting armor of fear.

For I thought of you...
Of the smile which draws me
Out of myself to shine
In its sunlight,
Of eyes which tenderly
Strip away my veneer...

The voice, when it came
Spoke gently in its finality:
"You have no choice."
And my soul
Gave way to joy.

{ Ode to the Moon } { The Power of Music } { The Music of Evening }
{ Revelation } { The Sea Storm } { Flying Lesson }{ Top of Page }

 

 

THE SEA STORM

 

A fog-grey day, a darkened heart,
While I, afloat upon the swells
Of imagined loss, remembered hurts,
Wept silently at aches
Found present in the silence
Left inside when you were gone.

Eyes closed, I dreamt of touch,
Dwelt on a warmth which seemed
Forever to have forsaken me,
Leaving me adrift in a despair
Made far more pure for being
Manufactured by my hand.

Tossed toward sharp terrors,
The crags which split the soul,
I woke suddenly to sunshine
Spilling from the brightening heavens:
Shining eyes spoke of home,
The end of heart's tempest, and joy.

Suddenly, my sodden craft
Sailed into a harbor deep and clear.
For the sea has no power to wrend apart
Two hearts knit by heaven's hand.
I am welcome, you say, and smile.
And I cautiously come ashore.

{ Ode to the Moon } { The Power of Music } { The Music of Evening }
{ Revelation } { The Prayer } { Flying Lesson }{ Top of Page }


THE FLYING LESSON



I learned to fly last night.
I looked into your eyes
And all the world melted clean away
Leaving nothing but air, and you.
Then you smiled,
And rocketed us both
Toward distant stars whose twinkling radiance
Could not match
The brilliance of your face.
That light, brighter far than galaxies,
Lit a fire within:
An eternal flame which burns
Always, ever, only for you.

Then you looked away.

I felt myself plunging, earthbound,
To dash upon the rocks
Only hearts create.

Yet, the collision never came,
For your hand guided my landing.
Once safe, I knew my flight complete,
For I gazed up and saw the stars
There, in your eyes.

{ Ode to the Moon } { The Power of Music } { The Music of Evening }
{ Revelation } { The Prayer } { The Sea Storm } { Top of Page }