From Your Imagination and Ever On

A whispered conversation
Under the setting sun
About a star
We know so well
It has no secrets hidden
For us to urgently tell
But a question–
Nonsense yes, but still
Pressing nonetheless
–must anyway be asked:

Do you think the sun is a spaceship?

Silence rings
As the question hangs
Between two beloveds
On a clear, clear night
Could the wrong answer break a heart?
Could the right answer really be right?
Another question must
Answer the first before
The first’s thirst for an answer
Can be quenched:

Does the sunset look prettier to you if it is?

An answer, simple
As an answer can be
Pure and
Innocent
And sweet
Let foolishness not
Entreat us to lies
When such simplicity
Ties words on a tongue
To feelings in a heart:

Yes

And so said, only one response
Could ever be right
Let truth be denied
By a higher god
Of imagination
Who demands to let us see
What we must
For the world to be
All that it should
And thus, let one affirmation
Answer another:

Yes, I do

Oh, yes, I do, as long as I'm sitting here with you
We'll see it together
A solar spaceship, flying from here 'til forever

Trepidatious, cautious
Unsure if she should take
That final step
Possibly into another world
The portal swirls
Warm and inviting
Alluring, enticing
She wants to find out:

What’s on the other side?

Jumping across the veil
Between one world and
Another
This fox’s paws will cover
More ground
Than if she’d stayed bound
To a single world
Let her explore
It’s reasonable to want
To discover more
Than can be found in old haunts
Places she’s already trotted
So many times before

Green and shimmery
Strange and glimmery
This fox has never met before
Someone both so different and…
Yet, similar
Tall ears, bushy tail
A pointed face
And eyes that want to see…
A new friend
Found in a foreign place
From far across
Both time and space

One from Earth, the other not
Their friendship crosses
Boundaries of space
Time, gravity, vacuum, society
Their regard transcends it all
The universe takes a breath
Skips a beat
Everything stands still
Turning around the gentle thrill
Of simple
Companionship

The universe is
A pattern drawn
On a butterfly’s wings

Poetry inscribed
On a butterfly’s wings
Indecipherable
Ancient, untraceable
Built into the insect’s genes
By some mad scientist
From long ago
Long, long ago
It taunts us
Making us wonder:
What poem was so beautiful
Essential
It had to be preserved
In this way

Poetry or mathematical equations?
The universe’s calculations
Encoded into genetic material
Recording something ethereal

Words woven into the fabric
Of the cosmos—a kind of magic
But can you read it?
Or will you leave it…
Undeciphered?

Sometimes
Understanding
Is not required

Chase meaning
Like a butterfly catcher
With a net
And you’ll only catch
Exoskeletons, bereft
Of the spark you seek

No, what you need
Is to let your mind meander
Wander & wonder

Become the butterfly
Floating through the gloaming
And soon you’ll forget
You ever needed the net

Gentle, peaceful
Her fur is thick
So the sting won’t hurt
She traveled far
From another star
For a single moment
—this moment—
Just her paw
And the jelly’s arm

She felt so sure
It would be worth it
Now she’s here

And her universe turns
Around this moment
Like a central pivot

A moment of communion
A sample taken
To bring home
To her spaceship’s aquarium
A laboratory, orbiting
The world she’s been exploring
Where she can discover
—try to uncover—
The genetic secrets of this
Wonderful, quasi-magical
Bioluminescent, quantum-radical
Organism

Mementos, treasures
Living tokens
Of a place she’s forgotten
—not fully forgotten—
The memories still glimmer
In her mind, growing dimmer
But nothing will ever
Recapture
The immediacy
The vivid capacity
A moment can have while happening
Leaving you afterwards
Forever grappling

The lighthouse knows
It’s cousin to the stars above
The lantern in its summit glows
With celestial light
Tearing through the night
Traveling through darkness
As sure as any pulsar

Moon & lighthouse
Disparate kinfolk
Circling above, circling below
Their different orbits
Intersect so rarely
Like an eclipse
When the air turns cold—
For a moment
It seems possible there are fairies

The lighthouse shines
Its beams don’t reach
The moon’s face
But they still seek

The crystals in her antlers
Resonate
Picking up signals
Long forgotten sigils
Worked into radio waves
Oscillating like sine waves
Drawing her inexorably toward…
What?
She doesn’t know
But she must go
For the message, though unclear
Leaves her completely sure:
She must go onward

Until she finds…

Delicate crystal
Beautiful to behold
Sprung from the roots
Of an invaluable willow
Roots that extrude
Intertwine & grow through
Engines & computers
Inter-dimensional routers
That help her starship explore

Strange side-effects
Nothing more
That pour through the cracks
Between

At the heart of the city
A crystal, so pretty
Mysterious, imperious
What glories could it control?

With hoofs so cautious
A tiny deer, so flawless
Decides to try
Turning it on

The ruins around her
Abound with power
Start to sizzle
Electricity fizzles
But naught changes
Anon

Years after
The end of the parties
And the laughter
When the calamity concluded
The ruined city
Secluded, began to crumble
But the wild deer
Still ramble
Wandering the ruins
Old buildings, no new ones
But what’s left
Belongs to them

A space station designed
To be hospitable
To butterflies
Keeping their needs in mind
—open spaces and
Flower’s bright faces—
Will surely be
More comfortable
Less insufferable
Than the metal cages we make
—cramped and dank—
When we keep
Only ourselves
In mind

Nature’s patterns
Applied in abstract terms
To the structures we build
—space stations and
Intergalactic ships—
Allow us to drift
Easily as a butterfly
Across great distances
Beautiful
And practical

Outer space may seem intractable
But we are not alone
And we can learn

When the moon melts the sky
Like a reflection
Disturbed in a puddle

A watching otter wonders why
Their sense of direction
Gets so muddled

They want to fly
Among constellations & collections
Of stars, all huddled
Together, up high

Splashing through
The flashing light of the moon

Watching the moon swirl
Up above the skyline
The whole sky is full
Of melting moonbeams
That make the otter think of flying

If the sky is silvered
Like the water of a stream
Rippling in the moonlight…

Well, an otter can swim
Whether it’s melted moon
Or Earthly water they’re in

Someday nothing will pass before my eyes
No touches will startle my senses
The spark igniting my mind will die
My experience of this world will have ended

But these lines are immortal
Lasting on and on
A string plucked in the universe
Forever resonating, on and on
For once the words are written
They’re always written
(Forget forgotten)
(It only means something to you—
—inside your mind)
Out here, everything that happens
Has forever happened
And in the past is always
—will always be—
Happening

Am I the moment happening?
Or am I the observer of moments?
Am I immortal (like my words)
Or intrinsically transient?

Always alive
—once happened
Always happening—
Or always dying?
Each moment, passing from one self
To the next?

Am I the same author who started
Writing this poem
Only moments
Ago?

A sentimental past
That never existed
Just ghosts born
From remembrance
Of a feeling that haunts us
An idea of an ideal
That never was and never could be
Without collapsing
Down to essentials
In the heart

A flicker
A dream
A song

Nothing more and always already gone

I thought I was happy
When I refused to let the pain
Overtake me

I never imagined what it felt like
To leave the pain behind

You left a map for me
But I thought it was a blueprint
For the place I already lived
Not a path that would take me
On a journey
To places I’d never been

Drive away
The pain & fear
With joyous noise—
Memories held dear

Drive away
From the distractions
Miring you down
Leaving you a fraction
Of the self you should be—
Always searching, never found

Ride into a glorious sunrise
Let the light fall & finally find
Rainbows in your mind

It’s hard to see the world
Through the rainbows in my eyes
Everywhere I look
Shimmering, sparkling colors
Show what could be
Would be?
(Should be)
If everyone else saw too

Maybe if I show them—
Sketching out curves & shades
Pale imitation shadows on a page
I can bring the rainbows to life
Make the world match
What I see
(What could be)
When everything falls into place

Like a kaleidoscope turns
Until the rainbows click
A key in a lock
Between reality
And the world imagining itself
All around me

It is a heartbreaking thing
To be able to see utopia
—as if through a haze
And not touch it

You reach out
Over and over
Again and again
But every bite you take
Turns to ash
No flavor, no taste

You can’t touch it
Only see
The beauty
It could have been—
Could still be

We could live in a utopia
If everyone would ask for it
Every minute
Of every day
If everyone would fight
Every time
The world falls short

We could live in a utopia
We’re only a choice away

I thought I was an orchid
Surrounded by shining
Gleaming
Sun-reflecting
Genuflecting
Walls of glass
Holding in the warmth
Protecting me

But maybe
I’ve never been that delicate

Maybe
I’ve always been alone

And there are no walls
To hold me in
Only concrete slabs
To hold me back
And tiny cracks
Where I’ve fought for a hold
Because the strength was always mine
And mine alone

I could have grown anywhere
I could have grown better
But I grew here
Under the battering rain of an empty sky
Against the blowing winds
I don’t know why
I had to be here
But this is my home
The only one, I’ve ever known

So, decorate the pavement
With colored bits of glass
Plant purple flowers on the bare dirt
Beside the path
And let me help
To make it beautiful
Make it beautiful
Around me
Because I am too strong
To yield
Even when it might
Be better for me

The past calls to you
With a song you almost remember
A song you sang along with when
You were small
The melody pulls like a cord
On your mind
The words
Familiar & well-worn
Were once revelatory

Once they were all you needed
And you scrawled them
In notebooks
Over & over again

The song that once seemed dull
Sparkles now
Pulling you to sea
Unaware anyone could understand
The weight tugging you down
But now, suddenly words
You scorned so long
As fluffy fripperies
—mere cliched similes—
Smile at you like a friend
Who always knew you
And now
You know them

Now they're all you need
And you'll scrawl them
In a notebook
Over & over again