Bone Magic

Solid dust of yesterday's stars

Grown in an old and bubbling womb.

Life breathed into ashes

In midnight woodland

With songs, words unknown,

Flourishes of death's rattles,

The hiss of air through teeth

And howls of moonlit wolves.

I burst from myself fully grown -

Aphrodite in the waves,

Athena from the head of Zeus -

To meet you with a drop of blood,

An old scar and sword in hand:

I have never been so ready.

Sheer

My skin is sheer,

The finest denier,

Like a Samhain veil between worlds.

So little left

To hold me in

Or keep you out:

Excruciatingly exquisite,

Exquisitely excruciating;

I am numb and overwhelmed.

Every nerve excited

At once;

Each teardrop an ocean

In which to drown

Or float luxuriously

In soft moonlight.

Why do I

So often choose

To tread water

When a life

Of heaven or hell

Is on offer?

I try out each

But cannot stay with either.

And perhaps I am not meant to.

From Tiny Acorns…..

I am a leaf on an oak tree:

Tiny and transient.

I feel and flutter in the slightest breeze;

Have a shiny surface

With a tender underside;

My colours change

In seasons all too fast.

Perhaps just once in a lifetime

A pair of lips descend

To kiss me as I now

Kiss this leaf,

And I will understand

That life is love.

Someday I will fade and wither,

My dry bones will be crushed underfoot.

Perhaps I will inspire

Peace or a poem

In some other delicate soul.

Perhaps not.

But the I that was me,

That was a leaf on a tree,

Will have ceased to mind.

Stirring

I stir the drink.

Heat and small grains

Rise to the top,

Only to slowly sink

Back down,

The weight of forgiveness

Bearing them gently.

I am a god

Who can choose

To change the world,

Or leave it alone

- Either well or not so well.

Each action an earthquake

Every motion a revolution,

I see the separation

Of surface and content

And I see they are made

Of the same such stuff

As dreams;

While reality is disappearing.

I am each and every grain;

I am the whole.

I am a cat, and a blade of grass,

A murderer and a saint:

There is nothing I am not

As I dissolve into nothing.

I drink the drink

And it is gone.

Miracle

Love presents itself in you.

I am a child
Gazing at snow flakes
For the first time,

Amazed that my heart
Still beats, my lungs still breathe,
As time halts:

There is no diamond
As precious as this
Still moment;

No bond of gold nor blood
Has more weight
Than here, now.

Like the moon or wild seas,
Depths and darkness
Are not seen,

Yet they are known.

The In-Tuition of Soft and Slow

My jaw is locked:

Teeth clenched,

Grinding their warning

To stay shut up.

Tongue pushing,

Attempting freedom

It moves the odd tooth:

I make it push them back.

My jaw is locked:

A presse of soft flesh

Once existed,

Now lemon lips are squeezed of juice,

Thin and sucked inward,

Hiding deep layers

Of feeling….. voice…..

Opinion.

My jaw is locked:

Held closed with memories

Of hurt and humiliation -

Hinges of resentment

Keep it snapped shut;

Fear is the glue that binds;

Shame sits in my chin

Like a Victorian child.

I know my jaw is locked:

It kept me safe once

Or a thousand times

In distant lands.

Now this witness

Protection hinders

The creative truth of

Who I am.

I know my jaw is locked:

I open it wide,

Feel the creaks of disuse,

Unoiled crunches

Snapping in my ears,

The flicking of

An uncertain tongue

Which does not know.

I know when my jaw is locked

I am somewhere

Other than here,

Mind leaping over reality

With quick nervous jumps

To find greener grass

And knock the troll

From his bridge.

When my jaw is soft

Whole worlds open up,

Full of tender fervour,

Gentle passion,

Slow dances of love.

As I part innocent lips,

The heart of my longing

Emerges.

The Wise and Innocent Sponge

I grab the other sponges they were killing - 

Ripped from their underwater home

Left dying, drying out over long slow hours -

And dive into blessed cool waters;

At last we can breathe.

Ocean fills our lungs: salt and 

The ancestry of millennia.

Moving from shallow waters into depths,

Our hardened scales slowly soften

Enabling expansion into tender new skin.

We absorb peace and uncertainty -

A briny duo steeped in enlightened realism;

This is the gift of the sea:

Nought but presence and the wisdom

Of what is, right now.

Sharks, angel rays, rainbow fish, flexing mussels,

We witness the beauty of them all,

Gratitude swelling our chests

The further we swim into the bounding main:

We collect love with each heartbeat.

We take what we need

And are given so much more;

Some of my spongy friends remain

Here in the deep or shallow blue:

They have found their home.

But I return to land,

Re-grow the legs I thought I'd lost,

Share the sagacity of Davy Jones' locker

So that other desiccating souls know:

They can choose to live and dive.