Friday, June 5, 2015

Elizabeth Myhr ---- poem

Alone I Look into You

alone I look into you because
you have the eyes that are my eyes and you have the wrists
that are my wrists that sullen bracelet we finger

I look into you because you alone know how
to play with the surface of the lake that is me
dabbling silent lightshifting music

you rise and teach me to rise and to fade
because you know that to fade is also to rise
and in my fading a long look into the mountains
you made them all didn’t you I bow to you I am
so small the slope of your body shelters our body
and you built the wild rhododendron
I would do anything for you
this love affair with death is itself a miracle

and then all night I run around making plans
but you wait laughing and when I walk out
I turn to see your face but of course there’s nothing but light

and when I fall asleep again and I fall asleep again
our separation hurts like a sword driven into a wall
but you are the sword and the wall and their separation
how can you sometimes fly off don’t you know there is
worship going on here

looking up I have to stop and stare being new to this I
must pretend I am an animal don’t all people
fall back into their animal bodies

and oh no there you are downwind the great cat waiting
your belly wet from the rain in the grass
go ahead snag me on your teeth I surrender my shaking heart
until all that’s left is blood on the leaves
no way in no way out

I’ve been trapped under ice and waiting for years
begging off in the wrong silence some kind of addict
please crack the string of ice at the creek edge
in one breath you can free everything
I might wake up confused but at least I’ll wake up
I beg you please
join me to the unbroken sand

I used to think I was alone
all those years in the shifting greenhouse
I thought I was unable to tell this story
but you never abandon anyone

not so recently the journey has
I cannot make words out of this tenderness

this beautiful descending music
rain in my half-open window



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