Simply (the river)

 

(fragment):

      its water comes from the ocean
      travels across the sky
      leads to the mountain

the river is always and only

beginning

its water comes from the sky

its water comes from the ocean

its water comes from the mountain

its water comes from

the river

the mountain is

the mountain

the river

is the river

the sky is a cupped hand, palm

turned towards the ground

let us gather all our sadnesses

in that.

Arian Tejano is for me one of those poets whose work often provokes a powerful and immediate desire to engage and respond.

these lines speak directly to his poem Simply, at his blog ANoiseless Patient Spider

one does not stop loving

i'm not sure i have enough fingers.
one does not stop loving.

each of you i hold
in cupped hands, dreaming
and with each
dream
dream
dream

each pain and pinch and slap
each loss and lack
each shovelful at the foot
of the mountain

i hold you all, and my fingers
remember
remember
remember

sshhhh
i will hear no voices

but my meat remembers
meat
meat
meat

and the slap
of flesh on flesh

and the meeting of
meat
meat
meat

i say these syllables
into meaninglessness

i stare at my fingers

and i love you
all
all
all

nowhere is it said
that one must stop

and i will not.




.

autumn haiku

.

mountain air.  pot lid rattles.

dull clock of axe on ironbark

we will be warm tonight.

.