swimming,
pool of dawn
splashes of spark ignite me
hope fire chills my bones
Did I dive in?
I don’t remember
I swim in dawn de cologne
it stings a little bit
too alive too now
everything dead is gasping
stranded if it will not
give it self up to life
being dawn-summoned it shrinks
enfeebled, inert,
dissipating in one hiss
warm radiance consoles
consoles the weary
fear not, fear not
wherever hope was not
it was
it is
it will have been
splash spray spray
sea
la vie suspendue – interrompue
Toujours là, kind of.
Yesterday in a pinnacle of irony I found myself panic-stricken that the very cough I’d previous resisted, denied, been in a bad mood with etc etc before I finally accepted that I was ill might be actually be nearly better.
Suddenly it was clear that I wasn’t ready. Whatever was being accomplished by the enforced quiet of being ill-ish (very different from actually ill) had not actually been accomplished yet. In a kind surely-this-only-happens-to-strange-me moment I found myself relieved when the cough reappeared. Relief. I was still protected by the circumstances from emerging back into whatever demands I associate with being well.
But there is a turbulence, nonetheless in this unfinished mid-air living. Last night a friend visited with a variety of provocative thoughts and imaginings about my situation, which despite being sweet and light, shook the depths of myself in places where, so it turned out, I had already settled into what might become a staleness. This morning the inhabitants of the piano apartment announced an imminent visit moments before I expected to play. And there is torrential rain so my beloved garden is out of bounds.
I lean in, listening to my own music, my own heart… what do I do with this, with this ruffling of the still depths, obstacles?
And I hear the answer, ‘deeper’, the kerfuffles of the small disturbances can be allowed to herd me into deeper places, deeper depths, the music of my own being. I elude the obstacles with a deeper intention.
The turbulence of suspendue en l’air, echoes the turbulence of the water. I let myself be carried; I swim deeper. These paradoxical realities do their work with me, within me, wildly. I am sky, I am sea.
hush
Hush, a calm descends
Twilight blossoms its stillness
into night
I heard you breathing
Or did I dream
I heard you, sure
I heard you
pooled serenities
stars, songs, sea, storm
still a stillness
sovereignty
shh suspension
whisper not
a movement
lulls me, lulls
Peace amidst a glimmer
is it night?
it shines
certainty
Hush into this
vast birthfulness
cradled child
we are a oneness
Note: this is the last (I think) poem written from the Divenire series, painted to the backdrop of a performance (to myself!) of Einaudi’s work. The work for this poem is created in the same colours as before, but resulting in a work of profound peace, although there is a sense that in the depths, something new is already stirring.
sea singing
sea singing
carries from the depth
express in
jubilation
joyous in the day, the night
sea singing
shadows shift before me
open up in wonder, your heart,
your soul
rent the sky with longing
joy tears
a rift in pains
hope, hope anew
light, a faint initiation
rites a hymn of potency
a song a song a song
weave a thread of laughter
shadows mourn no more
luminous becoming
fulfil fulfil
sea singing
oh to catch this in a shell, to listen
evermore evermore
Note: this is the third poem (/song) in a series written to Divenire by Einaudi played by the poetess after a long absence. Title of an abstract watercolour in the same colours as before.
wild the sea; the spray, gold
storm, the wildness is coming
restless, I scent the rain
distant, but nearing
me, adrift, chop
currents crush me to
each other, press into my
skin, insistent
you are mine, Mine
I don’t belong to myself
forces pull on limbs
a vast rose crimson,
pulsing in the drench
clatter, rain advancing from
another shore, nearer still,
nearer, sound the drums of
torrents, clash against clash
whip, foam, soak, slap,
gasp, yet not a drowning
yet
monstrous pitterpat
hail, rain!
splatter
tumult a poor shelter,
lift me up, hide me
may I nestle in your ferocity
dip into the pinkish hue
silence a moment
down
returning,
surface
all is rose dawn
wild sea; rain-spray, gold
Note: a second poem in a series painted to Einaudi’s Divenire, played by myself after a long absence. This life size abstract water colour is painted in Rose Madder and Permanent Rose (Windsor and Newton Professional watercolour) splattered with Rembrandt Light Gold (Series III watercolour)