Through the inky night,
flies an orange spark.
And then there's darkness
once more.
And then a spray of sparks
arc through the dark.
And then there's darkness
once more.
And then there is a flame,
and darkness is held at bay...
tentatively.
The ocean vast
closes in.
Clouds drop.
If the horizon still exists,
it's behind an approaching
wall of gray.
Whatever is closing down
the world has also
drained it of color.
The shadows are black.
The sea foam is white.
Everything else is
some dim, earthy tone.
The sea may have retained
a hint of green or blue,
but it's hard to tell --
so darkened &
gray-infused
are the waters.
I fear the world may shrink
to a dot, like an old timey TV
snapped off, a dot that's
bright white but cold.
green-topped granite.
a gnarled evergreen
clings to the side --
clings without clinging,
effortlessly jutting out
over the chasm
to feel the sun & wind.
Rangikura: Poems by Tayi Tibble
A giant tiger stalks,
baring teeth, tensing claws,
closing the distance
in deep shadows that exist
entirely within the man's mind.
While others, from safe distances,
can see the fearsome beast clearly.
A noiseless patient spider,
I mark'd where on a little promontory it stood isolated,
Mark'd how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,
It launch'd forth filament, filament, filament out of itself,
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.
And you O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,
Till the bridge you will need be form'd, till the ductile anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.
Simplicity.
It flows.
It crashes.
It employs only
as much effort as
conditions dictate.
It does not rush
in a panic.
While straight,
its movements seem
whip-like.
When possible,
it moves straight,
But it rolls around or over
any obstacle.
If follows the course,
but also carves
the course.
Its movement, inexorable.
Gates remain
long after the walls
have fallen.
People pass through
when they could just
go around.
There's something to
treading the path
of ancestors,
Or maybe they just crave
the claustrophobic
squeeze.
snow falls
all night long,
silently piling.
i awaken
to a place
unrecognizable
as the one
in which i took to slumber:
the world's detail erased...
temporarily.
From the hilltop,
one can watch nature reclaim:
green grows up the glass,
tufts sprout from each crevice
and the man-made world is crevice-laden,
one seed blown into a mortar crack
will become a wedge --
a sprout that splits stone.
Concrete and steel prove
digestible:
time, water, oxygen,
the enzymatic requirements are few.
Fungi blooms from a pile-full of dung.
I don't know whether it's a desirable meal,
whether our trappings & vestiges are
haute cuisine,
or merely a meal
of convenience.
This place was once with us.
Now, it's hidden so well
that it's become a myth,
a once firm and tangible thing --
now invisible & conceptual.
Nature swallowed our world
and farted our mythos.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 