Thursday, September 26, 2019

mosses: volatize? stabilize?





Mosses: Volatize? Stabilize?
(There is another world
but it is inside this one.)

tranquility—vast, unencumbered,
terrifying, and primal.  That
naked river…
                                                Forrest Gander
                                                Madonna Del Parto
                                                               


It’s come down
to a question
of when: when do
                                                                when should
                                                                or even
                                                                do

or if
I
should

The moss
that’s gathered
into her own

like a com-
munity on
the stone

or stones—
the poet
the other

day said
lichen
doesn’t die

and his
wife who was
a famous

poet died
she did
she died

in her sleep
suddenly
and without


notice. 
But she’s not
lichen—

maybe
in some way
his thinking


is kind
of like
prayings

that are
lichen
and he

passes them
on to us
to nudge

our way
into
elbow

knee
to settle
into

the settled
cervices
and grow

our own
deeps
grow our

own sighs
grow
our own

children to
release and maybe
let what



brought us
here
become

our feet
folded
beneath us

the way
praying
beings do

or deer
or any
ruminant

who bend to
one knee then
the other

until all
four legs
are

folded under
their warm
torso

and if
a child
or a small

surface
bug
nudged

the nipple
there’d be
calm enough

to go around
for the long
settled

for the just
settled—
for the rooted

ones and
the rutted ones
and the ones

whose hollow
hairs
are filled

with what sun
is offered
and keeps

it for when
inevitably
the night

comes on.





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