Bell

once I imagined the bell
all the rest came easily
the young man in the burgundy coat
lilies tolling their scent in the garden
pale moon over narrow streets, it all
dreamt itself into tall dark trees
shivering with sparrows and wind

the wind in the shutters
the nervous courtyard
something sacred at the altar
the pale child in her ghost dress
the book with its gossamer gilded pages
its thin black-pebbled cover
this docile child, butterfly wings

the old man bent into his cane
shuffling, shuffling, the pale moon
it all came quite easily, then
the moon walked into the mountains
the stars fell the old man fell
the lilies dropped their thick petals
the young man became a branch

scratching, scratching the window
the shutters opened their louvers the fan
making its ocean sound it all became
lightness and bright stripes on the wall
morning morning and I step into the garden
thick slow beat of pelican wings
into a cloud of pale moths

 

I've decided to promote this poem from "snapshot poem" to actual poem, with a very minor revision.  It must stand-in for a snapshot poem today, as I've just started new medications, and I am woozy and a bit loopy.

Comments welcome (on the poem, I mean.)

(Well, ok, you can comment on my loopiness, too, if you'd like.)

Comments

[Ryan]

It's lovely.

*sigh* I wish I could write poetry, but I appear to be a non-fiction-writer-kinda-guy :-)

[steef]

this audioblog is, by far, the best thing the internet has left on my doorstep in recent memory. reading's fine, but hearing is so much nicer, more participatory. i particularly enjoy your mashing of 'nervous' with 'courtyard'; and the young man turning into a scratching branch. magical. thank you, by the way, for your encouraging note. if i had your strength and resolve of spirit, i'd have more than my few paltry "pomes."

[hanna]

its okay...
i love to write and express everything, but sometimes i'm only a non-fiction writer as well.
but now that i've have kinda worked at it i've gotten to were i can write about pretty much anything...but non-fiction writing is great because usually it helps connect the reader to you:)
thats what i do wen i'm reading others' work i try to compare it to something in my life.
so best of luck to you Ryan...and i hope you can break outta your comfort zone :)