ljgeoff

Dawn asked if I would write a poem about winter:


Silence flows like melody,
Breathes out soft winter air,
Sings 'neath the snow, holding fast
The frozen lilac, the buds of green
Locked sleeping in hard earth.
It is Winter Woman's frozen song
That rattles the bare branches,
Singing sweetly silent, she
Lays a shroud on the cedars,
A cold blanket snug tight on the land.

Winter Woman holds Wolf Moon
Lightly against her glinting bosom
And silence like a melody
Streams on the deep night air,
Falls ringing like crystal beads
Into the bright bowl of stars,
And down again in soft kisses of frost,
Laying lightly upon my head
Loving benediction. Oh! But cold
Winter Woman's frozen hand!

Watch As I Balance

Breath, like flowing water
Polishing stony thoughts
Slipping smoothly around
Filling the emptiness
Like empty valence shells
Proton to electron
Balance your life to mine
In and out, slipping soft
Between, fingertip to
Fingertip, slide into place,
Like breath between my lips.

Beat

I came to dance, let loose, explode
Out, away from the nucleus,
From the heart, beating
Like the drums, rocking against my
Pubis like a lover,
Oh, yeah, rocking against me.
Your voice in the air, thick,
If I open my mouth
I can swallow it, so that it
Brushes inside of me,
Beats inside of me,
Like my heart, like the drums,
I’ll explode now, like this,
Watch me fall away
Fall out,
Sweat streaked hair flung,
Warm, damp skin pulsing,
Reaching out, out, out of myself.
Oh, catch me.

.
.
.

The look that you gave me
Bent time and space.

I could feel myself twist,
Bend, stretch out beyond my limits
Until I was falling,
Flowing into the gravity well
Of your solid warmth.

I was out doing one of my jobs at work, changing the trash cans and putting washer fluid in the buckets and those blue paper towels in the dispensers. We'd had snow storms all weekend, with a wind that built up the drifts. But, even with the wind blowing, it was very clear while the sun was going down. Beautiful. In my head, I began hearing a voice, like this:



With Eino, Over Coffee


The sun was almost down
An' the sky had that color
That purple-blue color
Makes yer heart ache t' see.
Da wind whipped up, real cold,
Pre' near took that flag off
Da one that I hung for
Our guys over there, eh?
Ya, brought tears t' my eyes,
Da wind did, was that fierce.
But I stood there an' watched
Purple come, like Christ's cloak
Flung across da sky as
A blessing on my head.

..
..
..

Arabus, When Spurned

They will spin a gyre in macabre ballet
When, soft, summoned to the salted circle.
Whirling mad to the geas they must obey
Shreaks and moans echo fierce as they hurtle

Aloft, the moon draws clouds across her face
And the stars leap back like frightened children.
What searching woman finds no hiding place
There is no haven here, nor ever been.

Like crying hawks with spectral talons dire,
Cruel laughter drowns the wretched, sky-flung screams.
So, snatched and borne up high and ever higher,
Enplaced upon the alter of his dreams.

Future rift, your smold'ring soul bursts afire
In the glowing furnace of my desire.

.
.
.
she brushed her hair and braided it,
that wild hair, she wound it round and
round in a plait and tied it tight.
but, of course, it wouldn't lay still.
it really was quite stupid hair.
she railed against it and beat it,
begged it to listen to reason,
or at least have the decency
to be embarrassed by itself.
it only curled around her ear
or stuck up sideways in the back.
so, finally, sick of it all,
tired and disgusted, she cut it,
but it just grew back, no wiser.

She Winked As She Floated By

Languid membranes waltz to an unknown rhythm
Wave like silken ribbons, like waving hands or like
gravity, waving low and slow across time.

Waltz for a moment without touching, but feeling
Looking into the black depths of one another
Across the non-distance of thought, undulating

Come together in ekpyrotic orgasm
Spewing out energy, mass, love, hate, life, wonder.

I dreamed that while I slept,
You came like a spirit,
Shivering the air and
Slipping down next to me,
Warm and heavy, one leg
Thrown soft across my hips.

I could smell you.

If I lay very still
Would the moon lose her way?
And the night catch her breath
Slowing, like our slow breaths.
While the moon swayed and dipped
I believed you were there,

And, oh, you were.

I want to write about how beautiful he is, about how precious he is to me, but this is all that will come:


Ten Days Leave

When she held him close the night before
He left for the dark side of the moon,
A snake came and curled around her heart,
Secret, sated and content, for now.
When lips tasted and she welcomed his
Sleepy caresses just once more, it
Constricted, gently, to remind her,
Bind her in choked silence and breathless
She clung to him, refusing to weep.