Kit Kelen #1268 - up and down (back on the track above Messen [at Alvik])

1268

up and down

up

back on the track above Messen

the town is climbing

here’s a long growl howl

or other way around

it’s sipping

we pause to go on

which is up

though it’s the other way

with creek

with falls

with rain

breath catches us

we’re leaving the saws

far far below

time is there to step from

and I could lose my way

but won’t

on rocks where I have been before

in bracken dell

pine still

hollow the head

and will you, world, keep up with me?

o tiny flutter

where I’ve disturbed

and wish I had those wings for up

so effortless to glide must be

on just some worm or insect thrust

blueberries

fresh leafed

promising not yet

my friends not yet

sip and get

the whistle wet

come to the spot

you know from before

it’s like remembering a skin

this four-year-after crawl

(and every page now colour)

(the insect learns to be alive

briefly briefly we too)

birch flutter, clouds flit

long way to go

all of this sits, just waiting for snow

until in a gnarl of dizzy

just sit

until the mountain passes

after a while

so I’m in

bathed in the mountain

that’s just being here

an instinct knows the turns of it

mountain is a workout

have come so far

here’s salt in your eye

(and some days mud)

pace myself, other selves

ants an instance

(ants make a mountain of me)

there isn’t an end of day you could touch

it’s midsummer next week

all of this is in the book

where I am writing now  

down

gently and gently

foot for foot after

there’s some little bird tells

I am overwriting the way come

and steady

slip sideways

if must

the moss and me

we got here by chance

slip

where the ice scraped

through and out

no stopwatch

but there’s bird and stream

that instinct which is memory

lives like a toehold

so see the world sunk

branches smooth

where hands have held

maidenhair, grass fresh green

meet, ask

do you know what the weather will be?

careful with the track now

and gingerly the knee

for every crime of aspiration

there is this going

down

to where the town’s all talk

boasts smoke

a different rhythm down

remember to be

where you are