- into shore came driftwood
fallen and polished
- into shore came shattered and smoothed
glass, translucent and blue
- into the year came February
cold and snow
- into the storm came the other world
- into the dead of winter came fire
- into the keyholes, locks, into the hinged doors
came relentless wind
- into the wind, a music
from the northern lights
- into the scales the shafts of solar dust
lit by the departed sun
- into the howling, an ecstasy
- into the interior, immeasurable waves
- into the battering, a sea
- into the stones, slender green stems
- into the cracks, came love
- into the vessel, into the body, the source
- in the beginning was a note
- before a word was written
- along the lines against the sky
- like birds that rest and rise up
- and fly away
- in the beginning was a note
- before a word was spoken
- written in rivers flowing
- endlessly in the day and night
- over stones and hard places
- in the beginning was a note
- before there was a word
- written in the blood flowing
- in the veins in the body
- to places never seen
- in the beginning was a note
- in the limbs of trees swaying in the breeze
- not silence exactly
- the calling
- comes like notes
- that press into my breast
- into the chambers of the heart
- and my blood takes it on roads
- deep inside
- that split and divide
- it's never enough, what I have
- in hand, the music...the circumference
- goes beyond
- the body (yours or mine)
- the only thing that contains it
- is the sky, sometimes by the stars
- I can see
- this other body
- we're inside, the ribs' blue vault
- and the wind coming in like breath
- notes bend
- around the strings
- and turn like a river that rises and falls
- along a landscape welling up in the twilight
- petals
- opening on white water
- lilies and the crossing of bears
- and winged migrations calling
- from a tiny wire, vibrating
- from far away, full of arrival, the wind
- from the north smelling of permafrost
- and smoke and sedgy marsh
- sweeping down the latitudes and longitudes
- drops degrees
- drops water on the leaves
- the sun's relentless shining, unbroken
- by cloud or wing or forest, drops
- what the stars pick up by darkness
- onward and endless the blue landscapes
- the gray dome when the sky drops
- the shifting greens, yellow green, deep green
- dark green, gray green, black and dust
- star moss in the damp
- shadow of a tree picks up the sound
- the white pine roots lift the flat stones
- upward everything into music
- what's found
- in the tangle of trees
- in twigs
- from branches
- and trunks and roots
- in the ephemeral
- tenderness of green
- leaves that last a season
- in the trembling and wind
- the blue of sky and lake
- in clouds resounding
- from a place of emptiness
- a chamber that answers
- in vibration, string and wind
- a trembling, brimming and falling
- in the place opposite of grief
- the place opposite of dark
- in the body of lost
- in water and air
- a star whose light
- has ended but travels
- toward us
- rising and falling
- in a cascade of notes
- which is not endless
- but aching and sweet
- like iridescent feathers
- of wings that rise and fall
- in the circle of migration
- a flight of music we breathe
- Love goes on in spite of the quarrels
- in spite of leavings, broken hearts, rejected rites
- discarded love letters, promises never kept
- love goes on in face of all its failures
- betrayals, reverse in fortunes
- formidable opponents, competing needs.
- Love goes on and on
- if not above ground then under, if not under
- then through, if not through
- then around, if not around, then over
- and over, if not you, then another, if not
- another then another.
- Love goes on
- slips out of our grasp
- travels upon the roads
- falls like rain and
- floods and evaporates only to rain elsewhere.
- Love goes on here and elsewhere
- beyond the bodies, the climax, the clasp
- of hand and mouth and ribs and limbs.
- Love is beyond the kiss and the words
- darkness and sunrise, the births.
- Love is beyond the pain of it, the disdain of it
- the stain of it, beyond the seed that falls
- beneath the soil before
- and after the rain that splits the seed open
- the tendril that lifts its small stem
- goes on to leaf and back to seed.
- Love is this circle that we're in
- outside, inside, unsayable, unspeakable, unseeable
- unknowable creator and destroyer.
- Love, love, love, how grief rises
- into dark stars.
- what if a star fell into your hand?
- what would you do with the weight?
- with the infinite roaring
- the burning light?
- what if a star fell into your hand?
- what would you do without a body?
- without shadow or distance
- the end of night?