A little painting, still wet, that I quickly painted
to accompany the poem...
(posted with the 'accented edges' photoshop filter)
sliding around the world
through many crowds
Mumbai, New York, Rio
like an image from a billboard
flat like film
a projection of light
these burning neurons
their shadow prism shifts
no separation
a market in Madrid
harsh sleet of Himalaya
blade of grass in the prairies
I could be dying
or in a spacesuit on the moon
no separation between me
and the world,
which is my dreaming paradise
nothing was lost
release the inner hold
there is no tight control
write by cell-light
dark hours of running
on this side of living
in the bright world
of the lion's mouth
flying into outer space
where the universe
contains such combustion
stars burn for billions of years
keeping galaxies alive
I searched for you
and found you
everywhere
if you could set all your dissolves
to a fifth of a second
the mathematical regularity
would be bliss
Comment by Brenda Clews on March 17, 2009 at 6:32pm
ReplyDeleteJohn, I'm speechless, your response so laudatory, and want to thank you for your beautiful consciousness and your generosity not just to me but to seemingly all other artistic souls (& I bet everyone else, too, just we only see your 'literary' side here)... your reading makes my day, and I feel so blessed to have happened upon Gather a few years ago and you and the wonderful literary and artistically talented folks you have surrounded your self with. I'm honoured that you've thought to feature this little poem. But what I wrote - isn't that what we all do when we can't sleep in the night? Aren't we out roaming the universe? :-) Mucho hugs.
Comment by John F Walter on March 17, 2009 at 3:57pm
That´s the closest I´ve yet come to experience global simultaneity in a single poem by a pre-Simulationist. Wow! Talk about ¨cosmic consciousness¨ in Richard Maurice Bucke´s original sense. Stanislav Grof would grok this poem: I do believe a contemporary mystical poet like Mary Oliver would as well. I was reminded of Jim Jarmusch´s One Night On Earth for a split second that kept splitting and splitting. I suppose it was the sheer vigor of your imagery and the majesty of the omniscient voice that you extended into the furthest reaches of space.
Brenda, a real accomplishment and one of my favorite of your ouevre. I´m featuring this right now.