Lilypads float motionless

Lilypads float motionless in midair
    fish glide through an insubstantial medium
            we can only trace by filmy apparitions
        transporting us past our conscious selves
            into an underworld of lurking-places
                as if sketched in child's crayon
        mirrors of the above begotten below

while a white sparkling waterlily
    the manifest star of this unlikely haven
        winks with promise:

    "what you give shall be received
        though it comes out not as you thought
            or perchoice hoped
        it comes out nevertheless
            justly in balance
                at a remove
                    from your browbent reckoning"

a fulfillment as prompt to the heart
    as if to our astonishment
        we realize
    it is here
        not there
    that we belong


mmii

And here we are

Next to precious breath
    next thing to cherish
no    not love imperishable
    nor dearth of punitive hurt
nothing fabulous
    like indulgent life
after the fact

yes    affirmation
    blood's pounding tide
active confirmation
    without doubt of inference
after sedulous thought
    instance at one go
here I am     therefore there am i


mmviii

Dear little spark

Dear little spark
    atom monad or quark
you flame in the forge's breath
    elemental one with nameless ancestry
wonder how you came to be
    particular force or undulant light
star in mimicry    that by day by night
    has spun and shaped entirely
the fabric of our vision
    selfless you lie upon the shelf of my desire
the utmost    yet the least of things
    tell me    where did you get your wings


mcmlx__ , rev. mmviii

Crinoline Bridge

Crinoline bridge
    where once we met
wandered up
    that cobbled street
a place to tryst
    fit for a royal pair
in coach and four
    and us no less

we found a pub
    by instinct's guide
apt with the humour
    of an age before

here we two sat
    with taptser's mild
glad to hold hands
    and no words said
till    alas    lunchhour fled

the clock stood still
    for now I see
that arching bridge
    the shallow stream
and you my dear
    as you were then

what would I be
    not half the man
without the sense
    of yesterwhen


mmviii

Solipsis

Take the eye of mind
    the longing i
    the knowing i
explore its subtle self
    as in a mirror
lit by the psyche's lambent flame

a cavern dark and subterranean
    where streaks of vapour
hide the recessed chambers
    to one who peeps
then looks askance

I have seen those caves
    have groped among the passages of self
explored the unreal dark
    and slept inside the tomb of yesterday
I learned to step ahead
    with ready foot
and ear attuned to echoes soft or strange

where sunlight creeps into the eastern hall
    there I awake to life
and mingle with the throng of feelings, presences
    and thoughts
that market-place    where I belong
    awake to self
my self-meant territory

mcmlx, rev. mmviii

Names

These names, mementoes,
Tickets that by your leave
Can reproduce a past event.
Some names that I've forgotten
And some as well-remembered,
Bringing smiles to eyes now poker-sharp
That blink upon the passing of a sleep.

Say so-and-so, a place to go
When we were leisure-conscious;
A bag of chips beside a pub
And cider drunk in daylight spaces
Between the shady trees.

Still, names like these
Cannot survive our day;
And where they go, to vanish,
Those long-disposed-of memories,
I cannot tell. But wish them well.


mcmlx

All the passions mustered

All the passions mustered
Cannot rule a garden
Planted seeds may spring
And grow; now rain now sun
Have fostered germination; straightly bound
To rise and uplift seeking
Present a shoot, a leaf, a flower-face
To skies as open as an angel's forehead.
So I leave my daring apprehension.
Tension of a need, a loss deplored.
Within this need-less heart I capture
Confirmations, glory and my word.


mcmlx