The Poetry Marathon

Hazel eyes, flashes of fire
Precious time, green and gold
In blackest night he said
“I pray, things happen,

that’s all I know.”

Your hazel eyes flash with fire
And she’s caught in between in red
I’ll say precious little,
but “just so you know,

this one I won’t regret.”

If I write it
it will come,
tingle at my forehead,
crawl over my ear.
These days
I walk calmly from the room
I don’t run from

the miniscule body of great fear.

The problem is, of course, that the
road is long for the pilgrim
and he wished he had took
off sooner or looked closer at this
dream before he went and bet it all

Set out, you have to
if you want to be
Elsewhere, otherwise you will be an
insomniac shut-in, an open
question, questioning the invitation

If you want to
Be set
free, You have to get yourself out

Setting Out, Scott Cairns

Fresh
A small child, an elderly woman
Playing at life

Day After
A novice, an old hand
Playing in seconds and generations

Free
Tangles, loose ends
Playing at weaving and tearing to shreds

The trick is knowing which is which.

Deep gladness, great hunger –
having wondered if I would ever get beyond,
I wonder no more.

The green is perfect –
I’m enamoured of the variation in each continent’s pines,
I know that now.

I inherited black clothes, the color blue –
embracing them as my mother before me,
I wonder no more.

Buffeted clean
Come alive in the high wind
Waking green
The plant grown on the pier

Wild winds on the streets
There’s heat where there should be rain
I’ve heard it said “O Lord, hear our prayer”

Wild words on our lips
There’s thunder where there would be silence
I’ve heard it said “ O Lord, hear our prayer”

Frail thoughts in our minds
There’s hunger where there’s always been hunger
I’ve heard it said “O Lord, hear our prayer”

Frail dreams in our heads
There’s riches where there’ve always been riches
I’ve heard it said ‘O Lord, hear our prayer”

I thought I might consider time
But glitter and grime catch my eye
too caught, too kind
to be, “present!”
subsumed in you, ardent

I thought I might consider time
But glitter and grime fill my eyes
too caught, too blind
to see

Far too caught, far too blind
Relieved

A storm that almost came, false promises of wind and rain
turns south, leaves the path set out
To rend someone else
I don’t dare ask for it, I won’t dare speak
I don’t dare hunger, but I do, sight unseen

I watch it
I watch it
I watch it
Crest the horizon

I watch it
I will it
I want it
More now it’s gone

The rush it comes in waves, midnight, midmorning
Succours and saves, for a time, a moment
I’m left behind, left behind,
Left to right, right to left,
Time is bent, time is blind

back to the beginning again.