7_2004

One Deliberate Evening

 

          In a moment of cheer_

                    One deliberate evening_

I leapt upon the highway of life,

          from the only village I knew_

Broke bonds that bound me to quiet strife_

          Boldly clasp my cloak anew.

                    One deliberate evening_

I breathed in the whole sky_

          I grabbed the ground with my feet_

Opened my eye to be the distant reply,

          of a furtive glance cast cross the room_

Wove a mat of liquid colors replete,

          with the names of weavers who mastered the loom.

                    One deliberate evening_

          I knew the signs of their souls_

Tailored for the gaits of feathered foals.

Making the stumbling village night_

          Streak with the smoke of amber light

                    In one fleet crest,

                             I wakened with the tide.

                    In one disparate undertow,

                             I fell struggleless and died.

                    On a desperate watch_

                             One deliberate evening…>>>

 

You wrap your force with idol prophecy>

Gaze across your moonlit pool from Chin to Xhosa>

In four days you moor yourself to lamplight:

Relent; Renew; Review; Relook—Re, Re, Ra>

Are you here? In Gehenna? In Shangri-la?

You wonder of your wander. You repaint your ka.

In hues of ocher and tones of chalk>

In one fantastic shivering flicker of thought>

Paint with campfire a speckled indigo evening>

Gathered from a deep wide transcendental slumber_

From fallowed grounds in hallowed numbers_

With the molting moments of a life disencumbered.

          You desire a belief in another prophecy_

Gaze into the silver water with a different squint>

          Don a tiled mantle of rehappening>

                    One desperate evening_

To make everything toil in accord…

                    One deliberate evening.

You gaze out into the dim unknown,

          like some procrustean jurist.

You stand firmly on the ether,

          Where you stake your flagpoles>

Unfurl your tasseled banners…

You deliberate and state your sight>

          From everything you’ve thought this night_

One late gravid belabored evening>

          You bore witness to the light_

          Gave birth to the reflection in your mind

          That joined the company of its kind

          Then you grew into ash as the seas grew into aeons.

Behind every good astronomer,

          is a good astrologer.

 

                    One deliberate evening_

You leapt upon the highway of life,

          from the only village you knew_

Broke bonds that bound you to quiet strife_

          Boldly clasp your cloak anew.

                    One deliberate evening_

You breathed in the whole sky_

          You grabbed the ground with your feet_

Opened your eye to be the distant reply,

          of a furtive glance cast cross the room_

Wove a mat of liquid colors replete,

          with the names of weavers who mastered the loom.

                    One deliberate evening_

          You knew the signs of their souls_

Tailored for the gaits of feathered foals.

Making the stumbling village night_

          Streak with the smoke of amber light_

                    One deliberate evening…>>>

 

They would stand on the golden ribbons of Cathay>

   Look through their dreams and thoughts for a glimpse of Serica_

Though the ancient old world country>

   Lay further off than distant America.

They would wrap themselves in marvelous meridians>

          To look backwards so they can see ahead>

Pay the orange toll & sail the Ismaelean Sea>

          Yet the icon and the raj, would visit them instead.

They stand atop their towers in the middle of the Earth_

      View Colchis, Arcadia, Etrusca, and crystal weeds_

Engrave the visions with Lo Shu signs

      On winged dragons the size of seeds

          Then they beheld the fanes of Atlanta>

          Where their visions would fly further afield>

Across Tenochtitlan and the concrete crates of Baltimore>

Across the Aeonian Sea & through the Ten Thousand Doors.

                    Then they were trances

                         Of  Serica?

                    What do I know?

                    What is this trance? Orbit? Life?

          What are these 9 dollars in this Sino-purse>

Perhaps reflecting some hidden meaning>

Perchance to ford the limen

                             One ordinal evening

when all the silver eyes of the sable wrap align themselves to reveal—

          the nature of your being>

      one liberated evening…>>>

                    They breathed in the whole sky_

                             They grabbed the ground with their feet_

Opened their eyes to be the distant reply,

                             of a furtive glance cast cross the room_

          They were the vibrant checkerboarded orbs#_#_#_#

                    Traversing the many reliberated twilights#_#_#_#

          Beyond the confines of deliberated evenings.