#1723 - the expectation of forever

 

1723

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18.x.24

the expectation of forever

for godsbother

 

is once you are aware

 

how can things end as we know?

 

when here’s the sky as round

a day comes next

 

just think how we came

 

the wishfulness always

provided at expense of thought

 

shop changes hands

walls come clean

 

they’ll clear after us when gone

 

there’s something colourless though

imagine

 

you see how a bird dies into flight

that’s your mind’s eye elsewhere

 

the expectation of forever

is something to bequeath

 

blind to the world and what’s known

as told in the prophetic books

of heresy against all truth

 

forever burns through the page of hours

 

it trains hearts up true to vine

 

dull gossamer, unveiling angel

and that could be us, you know

 

every god rots here

we’re far

 

like most things believed in –

the expectation of forever

is cause of war and woe

and so

 

it makes us each less than we are

#1722 - always waking where we are

 

1722

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17.x.24

always waking where we are

 

once vanished

 

few know

 

nothing to breathe

but remember

 

image decays

 

we do
wondering what is another

 

how everything is further

in the glow thereof

 

then this that

 

all time is catastrophic

 

you’re out making distance

receding

 

you’re fading

again

 

in the dream

between stars

 

far distantly lit

 

all things of a type

 

you choose among a field of words

to travel

as per head

 

you say these things to yourself

 

are gone to the world

 

better than real to be

 

just as gone as good

 

burning to be here

#1721 - here to be in no hurry

 

1721

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16.x.24

here to be in no hurry

for Kassia

 

slow is the general idea

 

take a first step to be where you are

 

always half way of half way

and half way there

 

give praise for what is

not what’s to imagine

 

take note

and make this pause

with yours

 

see how impediments have fallen away

 

breathe

and know you do

 

the mountain summits me

I survive

 

here we are then

telling the way

 

to be in no hurry

 

slow is the general idea

#1720 - out in it

 

1720

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15.x.24

out in it

 

mind drifts

hear the pilgrim bells

 

it’s just the weight of days we carry

 

conversation for a stream as well

 

head drifts here

one follows

 

to cross again again

 

speech of the stream is with us still

 

the way instructs us

 

it dapples me, the light

 

there are times the cloud creeps up

is all afoot

as creature

tells

up through the bones

or in my head

 

the elsewhere leads

 

I start with a shirt the way takes

it give me a hat instead

 

where having been before

makes nimble

that’s rhythm where we were

we are

 

are we?

 

there are times you’ll feel you’re not here

or should not be

pinch nothing

 

it’s just the weight of days to carry

 

they wash away in the next breeze

they slough like a skin in the stream

 

and the river

is speaking round us

says

be where you are

don’t stay

 

#1719 - the future is our secret arrangement

 

1719

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14.x.24

the future is our secret arrangement

 

we keep it close

tell no one

 

all kinds of things may be predicted but

 

it’s quite a way to come into my world

with no guarantees, if at all

 

you’ve climbed this far, reached a peak

had a moment

 

the future, too, will be everywhere

just as far as that goes

 

these are the ruins of what was

the true parts must lie under

 

though it will come

it’s to distract  

 

despite the propheteering

a future’s never as foretold

 

efficiency is all about guilt

the need to fit what’s here

 

take self from day – where’s time?

we fail

 

sometimes walk with the creek, take turns

who has precedence?

who knows?

 

still there’ll be sun shimmer

where the river’s morning runs

 

we will – won’t we? – return

to the all day river

 

night falls to it too

 

please tell me just that you’ll be here

 

I write the book till it falls apart

I hope that you’ll read this way

#1718 - the ways of the world

 

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13.x.24

the ways of the world

 

are every which

by stream

and sunwide shown

 

they grow by step

by breath

 

the way has these days of a mountain

 

those whom you meet

have come thus far

 

are all because they have been before

 

even surefooted

far in the midst

a stumble of sorts

 

uphill a line is a pause for breath

it’s good for the knees to go up

 

then sometimes sit

wait for time to come

 

you just had to be there

 

an old tree is the wild creek’s midst

 

the creek is quicker than the way

and sometimes the way is the bed of a creek

ask which came first

 

you learn the names along the way

they are just as far as gone

 

forget your self as well

 

track beaten

rung with pilgrim bells

 

way’s made

 

by hoof, by hand, by wiser heads

 

I salute all the work of the way

each careful stone

the leaf strew skitter

mud to fit

 

one has to look out for the signs

 

of course one may be shown but

 

the ways of the world are all one

to the wanderer

 

much up as down

frequently flat

one goes along with

 

the ways of the world

are every which

by stream

and sunwide shown

they grow by step

by breath

 

they are a homeless home

in Jersey City -- having a crack at Rob Edmonds' exercise for the 2024 Flying Islands Workshop

 

I like the place where rhyme’s forbidden

you have to hear just what’s there

 

 

in Jersey City

 

five am shouting, sudden Monday across the narrow street

through the double glaze too – hard hats, tapes, bossing about

 

all this anger goes into building a building

it comes down from the top of the tree

the shouting in so many languages

 

then the cops come, work stops for a bit

you wonder what’s going on…

the cops leave

 

either nothing really happened or I don’t know what did

now the reversing alarm, it’s all louder than it was before

 

you can’t even lean out the window, shout ‘shut the fuck up!’

they wouldn’t hear you, they wouldn’t listen if they could

they might not understand

 

anyway, the window doesn’t open

 

someone’s got the blow up rat out the front, dinosaur size

the placard says ‘pay your workers!’