Kit Kelen #1272 - a whale's way

1272

a whale’s way

for Ross Donlon

(this one’s for your knees)

mazy trod upwards

in a poet’s June

imagine all that up

gnarl of hoof shone

mountain rooted

leaf green

the berries yet to come  

mist is in us breathing

*

moss on slate

on ice on moss

on hill

on fjord

climb on

we are in the card

in the cloud

in the breeze

it’s never so far up

as we are

come with me

let’s climb

that’s the way

we are gone

*

no one made mountains

but fashioned crude gods

for the sky

from the ice

often to lack imagination

carved also

boats to go

rain

hard

unfeeling

touches

anonymously Norse

*

how many ways the water falls!

have you seen the words blossom on the page

the picture blossom in the words

the story come to life in the picture

?

and all in the mind’s eye

light instances

jewel breath out of the snowstorm

a season folding from

*

pine shook

sparkle in

wool wisp

draw deep down breath

be sea be tree

a wing over

look up

gossip of gull

shine like a face in

this world is ours

if only

never to understand

*

they’re leaning in windows for memory

trees and clouds and

hewn rune sun

polished to hold

before the sail stood

gulls ancient

over fresh hewn oars

backs bent

under the skin of night

stars steady coursing

clouds between

as all have come to image it

*

while I sleep

the ancestors

and you’re the waking ice

kraken snapping at the frozen toes

(birds provide the lice)

*

we can all be mountain, king

troll tunnel out of summer’s blind

keep damp, drip

it was better here when the whale’s way

was the only way to go

*

there are no signs but things themselves

and these are not the words

we are the thing lit

you won’t see

but must have dreamt so far

a sunstrip on the other side

may I be the vanishing man