december 25, 2022 (for our poets)
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december 25, 2022
(for our poets)
to venture forth this morning
in a state of dishabille,
daedalean perhaps
yet disabused as a dandelion
of all deadlines,
to divest yourself of obligations
unseemly and seedy
as slumlord or sweatshop
and to hear the cacophony of traffic
and neighbors at loggerheads silenced;
to find the stench of fast-food dissipated,
the grisly pneumatic percussives
of the corner automotive muffled;
and in their absence
a panorama of summoning cerulean
crowns the world
above voices of sparrows
who seem to have sprouted
tiny bells in their throats
amid doors of royalist indigo
wreathed apotropaic
as asabikeshiinh,
while an airplane unsubstantiated
as the niuhi who seeks no prey
ascends to altitude;
the heavens’ only other denizen
a morning sun more celebratory
than you have ever seen him
who lengthens and inspires
every shadow
to the shape of yuletide spruce;
and now forefended momentarily
from a plagued and battle-riven world,
the barbarisms of genocide and femicide,
from an enemy who would render
subalterns of our very souls,
through the leafless branches
of winter cottonwood so arterial
that verses course earthward
from a hinterland of cumulus
you scry at its height
lodged like a small tumbleweed
the densely woven nest
of departed starling
or hoarder bird
bard extraordinaire
from which unfurls
a parchment sun-infused,
seraphic as a semaphore,
as the translucent pearl
of that which is yet unborn---
no flag of surrender
but a banner nay wing
of eternal truce
athwart the whilom battlefield
where vestigial no more
your poetry permeates
and predominates,
arisen.
*asabikeshiinh (ah sah´ bah shin): ojibwe word for 'dreamcatcher'; inanimate form of the word 'spider'
**niuhi (nee-oo´-hee): hawaiian word for a large shark
in a state of dishabille,
daedalean perhaps
yet disabused as a dandelion
of all deadlines,
to divest yourself of obligations
unseemly and seedy
as slumlord or sweatshop
and to hear the cacophony of traffic
and neighbors at loggerheads silenced;
to find the stench of fast-food dissipated,
the grisly pneumatic percussives
of the corner automotive muffled;
and in their absence
a panorama of summoning cerulean
crowns the world
above voices of sparrows
who seem to have sprouted
tiny bells in their throats
amid doors of royalist indigo
wreathed apotropaic
as asabikeshiinh,
while an airplane unsubstantiated
as the niuhi who seeks no prey
ascends to altitude;
the heavens’ only other denizen
a morning sun more celebratory
than you have ever seen him
who lengthens and inspires
every shadow
to the shape of yuletide spruce;
and now forefended momentarily
from a plagued and battle-riven world,
the barbarisms of genocide and femicide,
from an enemy who would render
subalterns of our very souls,
through the leafless branches
of winter cottonwood so arterial
that verses course earthward
from a hinterland of cumulus
you scry at its height
lodged like a small tumbleweed
the densely woven nest
of departed starling
or hoarder bird
bard extraordinaire
from which unfurls
a parchment sun-infused,
seraphic as a semaphore,
as the translucent pearl
of that which is yet unborn---
no flag of surrender
but a banner nay wing
of eternal truce
athwart the whilom battlefield
where vestigial no more
your poetry permeates
and predominates,
arisen.
*asabikeshiinh (ah sah´ bah shin): ojibwe word for 'dreamcatcher'; inanimate form of the word 'spider'
**niuhi (nee-oo´-hee): hawaiian word for a large shark
the morning person
no one longs as you do
to desist at twelve
when the meerkat-eyed
madding crowd
of a turquoise noon
sounds their extroverted carillon
to be spirited away
by a soloist
a piccolo-soft berceuse
to an amethystine bedchamber
to haunt your own counterpane
dreamily indecisive
floating forth and back
between the aquamarine
aspiring to aubergine
of periwinkle and plumbago
or any purple’s reminiscing
hearkening back
nostalgic for her alice blue
or aegean youth
like tanzanite or iolite
and on those rare
primavernal or autumn days
when cirrocumuli
scry the southeast texas sky
at five in the afternoon
when you should still be sleeping
how the mediterranean beckons
insinuating itself
through the gulf of mexico
summoning you back
to the dye vats of tyre
the decomposing snails
the ruderal
from which like purple emperors
we eked out the regalia
of byzantine birth chambers
until sunset
composed the nocturne
which resurrected day
to a second morning
divesting it of the stench
of hierarchy
and overweening imperium
until we all became
porphyrogenitos
compelling the sky
once again to remember
wisteria
tahoka daisy
and texas mountain laurel
lavender and lilac and illyrian violet
the inspired exhalations
of thistling heath and heather
hyacinth, hibiscus, and hydrangea
the twilight clairfragrance
of passionflower, ambrosia, and patchouli
frangipani, frankincense, and tuberose
to intimate
that the color of poetry
is azure, pastoral blue
until we savage it
with our own blood
to the more epic, embattled hue.
to desist at twelve
when the meerkat-eyed
madding crowd
of a turquoise noon
sounds their extroverted carillon
to be spirited away
by a soloist
a piccolo-soft berceuse
to an amethystine bedchamber
to haunt your own counterpane
dreamily indecisive
floating forth and back
between the aquamarine
aspiring to aubergine
of periwinkle and plumbago
or any purple’s reminiscing
hearkening back
nostalgic for her alice blue
or aegean youth
like tanzanite or iolite
and on those rare
primavernal or autumn days
when cirrocumuli
scry the southeast texas sky
at five in the afternoon
when you should still be sleeping
how the mediterranean beckons
insinuating itself
through the gulf of mexico
summoning you back
to the dye vats of tyre
the decomposing snails
the ruderal
from which like purple emperors
we eked out the regalia
of byzantine birth chambers
until sunset
composed the nocturne
which resurrected day
to a second morning
divesting it of the stench
of hierarchy
and overweening imperium
until we all became
porphyrogenitos
compelling the sky
once again to remember
wisteria
tahoka daisy
and texas mountain laurel
lavender and lilac and illyrian violet
the inspired exhalations
of thistling heath and heather
hyacinth, hibiscus, and hydrangea
the twilight clairfragrance
of passionflower, ambrosia, and patchouli
frangipani, frankincense, and tuberose
to intimate
that the color of poetry
is azure, pastoral blue
until we savage it
with our own blood
to the more epic, embattled hue.
through the eye of a needle
I
another sleepless night
every synapse
of my bedouin brain
tows his dromedary
or shambling bactrian
ill-tempered and bellowing
laden
with an unconscionable profane
across the interminable
warp and weft
of cotton bedsheets
gritty and lofty as sand dunes
or stony with hamada
which batter
the soles of our feet
hobbling our toes
and spraining our ankles
all night we nomad
and somnambulate
from gobi
to the taklamakan
drawn onward
to tutankhamun’s
western desert
until we find ourselves
in morocco
on the saharan atlantic
whereupon we turn
to caravan back again
thirsting and despairing
eleemosynary for an oasis
of freshwater mermen
unsung as myrmidons
before the war
unsubjected to slaughter
heat and sand
within opalescent afternoons
their oscillating soporific tails
viridescent and argentine
whose choruses siren forth
an oracular orphean
a connotative serene
II
oh i dreamt that i was morpheus
or was it orpheus
condemned forever
to odyssey eleemosynary
toward tartarus
my guide and mentor
mnemosyne
rife with jealousy
repeatedly betrays us
advising to hearken back
once too often
whereupon my muse
the faithful but tremulous
eurydice
vanishes
forsaking me
of bespoken grace
which transmogrifies
like lot’s wife
to a pillar of salt
insentient monument
to ineluctable
inebriate bereavement
and like lot
sallying forth
and sailing onward
each night
i shipwreck
on every abandoned shore
their beaches
bereft of shells
their sands
lucrative and lachrymal
as camels
sieving through my fingers
another sleepless night
every synapse
of my bedouin brain
tows his dromedary
or shambling bactrian
ill-tempered and bellowing
laden
with an unconscionable profane
across the interminable
warp and weft
of cotton bedsheets
gritty and lofty as sand dunes
or stony with hamada
which batter
the soles of our feet
hobbling our toes
and spraining our ankles
all night we nomad
and somnambulate
from gobi
to the taklamakan
drawn onward
to tutankhamun’s
western desert
until we find ourselves
in morocco
on the saharan atlantic
whereupon we turn
to caravan back again
thirsting and despairing
eleemosynary for an oasis
of freshwater mermen
unsung as myrmidons
before the war
unsubjected to slaughter
heat and sand
within opalescent afternoons
their oscillating soporific tails
viridescent and argentine
whose choruses siren forth
an oracular orphean
a connotative serene
II
oh i dreamt that i was morpheus
or was it orpheus
condemned forever
to odyssey eleemosynary
toward tartarus
my guide and mentor
mnemosyne
rife with jealousy
repeatedly betrays us
advising to hearken back
once too often
whereupon my muse
the faithful but tremulous
eurydice
vanishes
forsaking me
of bespoken grace
which transmogrifies
like lot’s wife
to a pillar of salt
insentient monument
to ineluctable
inebriate bereavement
and like lot
sallying forth
and sailing onward
each night
i shipwreck
on every abandoned shore
their beaches
bereft of shells
their sands
lucrative and lachrymal
as camels
sieving through my fingers
arbor day
scurrilously quirky
question mark
scurvy knave
of a squirrel
your manic suffix
of a tail inflecting
incessantly
as if squiffy with usquebaugh
oh antonym of quiescent
quicksilver
yet no match
for this pacific
woodland denizen
no matter
how quarrelsome
the querulous curlicues
of your gamey ascensions
and dizzy incentives
how irrepressible
your dithering
dissenting descents
sequoia
forbears
without mollycoddling
the perpetual collywobble
of your disposition
sequesters you
amid prodigious
orchestral limbs
stalwartly protective
sesquipedalian
sinewy and avuncular
as a telamon
as if you squirrel
though you hellion
through his day
were a godsend
worthy of upholding
of mentoring
of patience
unfailing and pastoral
of a redoubtable leviathan’s
inviolable
arboreal harboring
as if you merit
the sanctuary
of shamanic susurration
the onomatopoeia
for omnipotence
his ancient calling
and cradlesong
question mark
scurvy knave
of a squirrel
your manic suffix
of a tail inflecting
incessantly
as if squiffy with usquebaugh
oh antonym of quiescent
quicksilver
yet no match
for this pacific
woodland denizen
no matter
how quarrelsome
the querulous curlicues
of your gamey ascensions
and dizzy incentives
how irrepressible
your dithering
dissenting descents
sequoia
forbears
without mollycoddling
the perpetual collywobble
of your disposition
sequesters you
amid prodigious
orchestral limbs
stalwartly protective
sesquipedalian
sinewy and avuncular
as a telamon
as if you squirrel
though you hellion
through his day
were a godsend
worthy of upholding
of mentoring
of patience
unfailing and pastoral
of a redoubtable leviathan’s
inviolable
arboreal harboring
as if you merit
the sanctuary
of shamanic susurration
the onomatopoeia
for omnipotence
his ancient calling
and cradlesong
Aletha Irby is very grateful to have been granted this time, on this planet, to spend with the English language.