'the essence of human existence consists in human interiority' *

ah

...

the thread

is pulled

so tight

tonight

...

I must go

inside

to find

the light

The Gallery

The Gallery housed ideas

Empty frames

Blurred photos

And some degree of cleverness

Fiction circled

The deep of heart

Of darkness

And pretended

It wasn’t there

And there you were

Reaching from the surface

To the depths

And there was nothing

In this art

That would take you there

Nothing to show you

The transcendent centre

Of your self

Or the Light

Twinkling throughout  the heavens

Dancing upon your soul

Compline *

The bending

The bowing

The beholding

Words wind their way

And now to sleep

In the soft-folded arms

Of silence

And now to rest 

* The English word Compline is derived from the Latin completorium, as Compline is the completion of the working day.

Refraction

1

How the wind blows bending strong branches

Making a howl and birds to move – tiny creatures shaken from their perches to ride currents like surfers upon high waves

2

At the rusted broken down gate

I waited a while

Watching the fields unfold into distance 

But existence does not wait

She points me to the hills that I must ascend

The ancient paths that I must find

3

One tree

Full of itself

Stands

A symbol

Of Time

Blind roots

Reaching down

Into earth

Ageing branches

Straining towards heaven

sic incipit traegedia hominis moderni: here begins the tragedy of modern man

Here begins the fatal blow

As impact in the soul

The force dispelled the anchor

And now the ship cannot moor

Cannot but float aimlessly

The crew scans horizons

Engages in futile activity

Rest not a possibility

And so the pretense

That this is how it should be

But it is not

The ship now so lost

So far from the bay of sight

The bay of remembrance

The place that shelters

In an embrace of coastland

The line of your shoulders

Arms outstretched

Your body sunk into the deep

Becomes the anchor we cast away

Hope strikes the seabed

And is embedded in the soul

Harbour, home, high seas

Balance is restored

love is ...

kiss of life

waves break

upon heart’s shore

heart of many pieces

swells as the water rushes

onto the softened sand

and suddenly

there you are

washed up

naked startled

far from home

but then the

crows

a murder of them

to pluck out

quick-eyed love

to circle your translucent 

light

in flashing blackness

and here I am

a stone

under a glassy gaze

thrown up now

besides your

lifeless curled up form

a hole in your side

leaking liquid love

staining sand

with some transcendent

goodness

I’ll lie by you a while

I’ll decide to die 

to the hammer

blows of self

unite with you 

as silence 

like the evening

descends

I didn’t imagine

I’d rise with you

no

some white darting dove

broke through

the black flapping ranks

to brush a gentle

wing across our cheeks

it was like a kiss

you woke

and we both inhaled

the air of dreams

mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?

O silver-surfaced soul catching rays from eyes loving long after light and song have gone