smoke screens
“Smoke on the Water” in Cincinnati on 12/6/15 as captured by Wayne Clause
🌀
I stand where I am
lost between worlds
the past is gone
the present space between
a foggy future
not fully workable
full of hard edges
struggling
empty air
lack of conversation
missing soft expression
draining
exhausting
my fingers clasp wispy dream clouds
of you
of love
of home
of music
my tired hopes hang on by threads
longing for what I want
a home for living full of love and happy
building a life
eating food made with love
friendship filled with
silences
conversations
passion
compassion
touch to sooth our sore places
arms to hold and be held
keep me safe
let me breathe a little easier
laugh a little
sing a lot
covering me
surrounding me with love
❤️
AL
APART OR TOGETHER
So much that was
good in her,
so much in me,
cut off now
from the future
in which we
grew together.
Now
through the window
of my new house
that hawthorn’s
crooked faithful
trunk round
an old and broken
growth,
my mouth dumb
and Dante’s voice
instead of mine
from the open book.
‘Brother, our love
has laid our wills to rest.
Making us long
only for what is ours
and by no other thirst
possessed.’
Our life not lived
together
must still
live on apart,
longing only
for what is ours
alone,
each grow round the missed branch
as best we can,
claim what is ours
separately,
though not forget
loved memories,
nor that life
still loved by memory,
nor the hurts
through which we
hesitantly
tried to learn
affection.
Our pilgrim journey
apart or together,
like the thirst
of everything
to find its true form,
the grain of the wood
round the hatched knot
still straightening
toward the light.
…
From
THE HAWTHORN
in
‘THE SEA IN YOU: Twenty Poems of Requited and Unrequited Love’
© David Whyte and Many Rivers Press
Now Available at davidwhyte.com
life: acoustic & amplified 