Thursday, September 29, 2011

Bewilderment

Peeking around the corner down the hall,
you see the fog building
beyond the glass.

Thank God
             you left the window open!

Even the air wants to slake
your thirst, to keep the clay of you moist.
You have to help.

Sitting still is how clay finds itself
as one thing— a jug, a sculpture—
and nothing else;

a mere surface,
most of its self trapped
in the middle-dark— useless.

Open the window more.
Walk barefoot and naked out the door
into the cloud-hidden.

You don’t need answers,
             you need wonder.
Bewilderment is the instinct of the spirit.
Be wilder still.

All the world is waiting
to shatter— mountain to sand, star to cinder,
bright bodies back to ash,

but the fog outside is thickening,
and the questions are waiting
for you.

5 comments:

  1. and I'd like to see you paint it. :)

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  2. Maybe you two should considering collaborating together on a book, where baroness produces the pictures and you do the poetry. I think it would be great. If I weren't broke, I'd certainly buy it.

    Great poem by the way. All of them actually, but you seem to be getting better. Ever read them out loud, in front of other people? Or is it a secret, that you only share here?

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  3. I don't do public speaking, not by choice at least :) But thanks for what you said. I'd love to publish some day, and with chinese-style illustrations, that'd be awesome.

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  4. Hmmm...I have a Chinese friend who writes haiku in English who has just asked me to do some paintings for her annual private publication. Maybe the universe is telling me something.

    Incidentally, in Chinese painting, the so-called spontaneous painting style "xie yi (hsieh yi)" means literally "writing ideas." The other formal style, "gong bi (kung pi)" means something like "industrious or laboring brush." I think you know what I do.

    I'd really like to take the two of you to China.

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