i<\/p>\n
Pains perch on parallel buds around us,<\/p>\n
intersecting like painting gone wrong;<\/p>\n
but they will flee, they will flee.<\/p>\n
They may as well continue to nibble at us,<\/p>\n
they will be doing so only to mock themselves;<\/p>\n
for dawn will always come,<\/p>\n
stretching from the opaque into the transparent,<\/p>\n
mending the fences of reality.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
ii<\/p>\n
For Se:<\/p>\n
The dark days never got through your doorsteps,<\/p>\n
for your words wear a silk gown of bravery,<\/p>\n
sweeping your floor clean,<\/p>\n
as all sides of near-death receded<\/p>\n
far and far away from your glow.<\/p>\n
Silk and floor and life,<\/p>\n
all sparkle;<\/p>\n
breathing in whole-life,<\/p>\n
deep and long,<\/p>\n
in the sparkle.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
iii<\/p>\n
For Ingrid:<\/p>\n
Those days of pain drowned<\/p>\n
in the ocean of your love for nature.<\/p>\n
Those images of the seas and the skies and the landscape,<\/p>\n
they amplify the light your being feeds from.<\/p>\n
Your external eyes are pretty, they already defeated the set back;<\/p>\n
your inner eyes are bright, full of light,<\/p>\n
full of life<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
iv<\/p>\n
For Caitlin:<\/p>\n
Your inner strength is a moving mountain.<\/p>\n
Light waves of agony do not prevail against mountains of life.<\/p>\n
We will mock those pains and all its associated distractions.<\/p>\n
Light waves of agony do not prevail against the laughters<\/p>\n
that feed from your strength.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
v<\/p>\n
For Anjana:<\/p>\n
That quarantine scare was a mere hoot<\/p>\n
in the broken trunk of the scary trumpet.<\/p>\n
The glow of your home is strong against the ills<\/p>\n
of uncertainties flying like kites above us.<\/p>\n
It is pretty clear we are not at its end.<\/p>\n
It is pretty unclear we are in its middle.<\/p>\n
Yet we live strong, ahead of the evening victories.<\/p>\n
And your shout of relief sent a healing balm<\/p>\n
across the conferences.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
vi<\/p>\n
For Mildred:<\/p>\n
The chaos grew, swollen like the discarded dead.<\/p>\n
Howl for the chaos;<\/p>\n
I know, I know.<\/p>\n
Howl\u2026<\/p>\n
If you are hanging in there, you are hanging well;<\/p>\n
for dawn will always come.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
vii<\/p>\n
For Tanya:<\/p>\n
How can pain not be scared<\/p>\n
of the one who overcame it<\/p>\n
over and over again?<\/p>\n
You know your story, your story knows you.<\/p>\n
Victory found you, got stuck with you.<\/p>\n
Hold that grip, all the aces embrace you.<\/p>\n
Victory will always find you,<\/p>\n
even as gratitude dances for your living.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
viii<\/p>\n
For Jacob:<\/p>\n
Great seeds sprout in silence.<\/p>\n
They tower up high once above the surface.<\/p>\n
With many fruits to spread around the globe,<\/p>\n
yours is the manifestation of great harvests.<\/p>\n
Many yet to come;<\/p>\n
we will mock those pains, they cannot prevail.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
ix:<\/p>\n
For Tobe:<\/p>\n
In a time of revisiting sorrows,<\/p>\n
you savour the refreshing flow of the Vermont wind,<\/p>\n
basking in the renewing words of converging poetry.<\/p>\n
with chocolates drumming the echoes of time,<\/p>\n
healing memories down the lane;<\/p>\n
healing us all.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
x<\/p>\n
For Richard:<\/p>\n
Seventieth is an upper landmark of life,<\/p>\n
and there will be more decades of the line drawn with cheer.<\/p>\n
In these conferences of poetry,<\/p>\n
poems write us, you say.<\/p>\n
As your words jet its healing all around us,<\/p>\n
we await your twelve new surprises,<\/p>\n
like a dozen denizens of poetic paradise.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
xi<\/p>\n
For us all:<\/p>\n
Your voices are embraced with warmth when you speak.<\/p>\n
Your silences are heard from across the horizons when you are mute.<\/p>\n
All of us, as we chase essences in shapes and sizes,<\/p>\n
we unite in these conferences, flowing into a confluence,<\/p>\n
as we swim in the vast waters of unending renewal.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
xii:<\/p>\n
I sip from this cup of overflowing muses,<\/p>\n
in these conferences,<\/p>\n
converging into a confluence of communions.<\/p>\n
All of the pains can nibble again.<\/p>\n
They will be doing so only to mock themselves,<\/p>\n
for dawn will always come.<\/p>\n
Dawn will always come,<\/p>\n
stretching from the opaque into the transparent,<\/p>\n
mending the fences of reality.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Written from Hour 1 text prompt.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" i Pains perch on parallel buds around us, intersecting like painting gone wrong; but they will flee, they will flee. They may as well continue to nibble at us, they will be doing so only to mock themselves; for dawn will always come, stretching from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1389,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1389"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88345"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104539,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88345\/revisions\/104539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}