Terre Verte
Here is the spectacle of earth
With its blue night and richly colored feathers
Lying greenly along Highway 19 just past the Eat sign
Past the bridge, past the gorge with its distant invitation
Past the poles and wires sizzling and singing the Magnificat
Past the bones and hearts stacked in neat layers beneath.
_____________________________________
The Difference Between
I grabbed a few lines of Euripides
Before leaving for work today:
(Sun, and light of day,
O turning wheel of the sky, clouds that fly.)
Enough to elevate a day
Otherwise spent in mindless
Dementia of commerce;
Enough to anchor my soul
In a churning sea of acquisition;
Enough to defend the heart against
A fierce storm of new products and innovations--
Endless mall dreams,
Unfettered and triumphant.
I grabbed a few lines of Euripides
Before leaving for work today:
(Here, beside the tower there is a sloping ridge
With springs enough to satisfy your thirst.)
And later stepped out
To watch the Savannah Sparrow
Rummaging among the cattails,
Fugitive and intent;
To watch its tiny beak nervously grasp
Thin wisps of curled and broken grass.
To watch the difference between narcotic and need,
Unfettered and triumphant.
____________________________________
Time Out of Mind (The Bandito)
He was a bandito. Everyone knew that.
His effortless mind trickled through
The last moments of time,
Evaporated,
Then slipped silently into the sea –
A smooth stone touched with memory's questions
Beneath the night wind of a traveling circus,
Holding off endless and un-named passions,
His shirt now torn, his pulse stabilized.
“I do not know you,” he said,
“We have never met.”
Why do you act surprised by this simple disclosure,
As if ‘time was’ was ‘what was’
And was what accounted for
The many birds agitating
The shallow waters of the world.
You have only to taste
This feast of remembrance to know when to stop,
To stop…To gather up the few fragments of dust
On your ragged scarf of mourning,
The dew on your golden ring—and return
To the river of love.
Will it be tonight?
Or will you drag one more
Blanket across that barren room,
Calling out for Ovid’s ghost,
Drinking only the nectar of ingratitude.
________________________________________
Seize the Night Like Fortune
A horseman arrives with a message
Wrapped in soft cloth.
Bending down, he hands it to you
Without a smile.
It is raining.
The night is shining.
You receive the message in silence.
Door slightly ajar,
Light pours onto the sidewalk.
You are inside the knowledge
That all creatures inherently possess.
You have made it your habitation,
Your body of grass:
It was not your choice.
Your dance is one of molecules and fire,
Your countenance of the cool morning air.
Here is where the voice says:
I knew thee in the desert land and in the wet lands
I knew thee.
Seize the night like fortune
To a sailor in the sea.
_________________________________________
Fragment
...Having fallen into adversity,
The time of gathering had passed:
(The time of aggravations and delights..........)
The time of implications had passed:
(…............................................................)
The time of obscure consents had passed:
(The time of interventions and endorsements.)
On the plank of a bankrupt horizon,
Bearing the countenance of a remorseless woman—
(…...........................................................)
The cold room erupted in a torpid dream,
Its dim light…
(…...........................................................)
…a dry wind.
In consequence, Archilochus, thus:
"Nor when defeated lie down and weep within thy house."
© rick visser