Pinned down

 

...perception is us

not manifest

destiny or dream

boards and images

attached.

Artwork by Anonymous Unknown author, 18th century, in Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Name-less

 

A place holder,

beginning with an idea

called Someone.

A word

dear

changes to another

fondness

becomes

a title, a role, given

to the someone, the anyone

shared-

until the job, the role, the position

changes.

And you have become someone,

the only one

you never knew-

until now,

meeting yourself

more than halfway

to being, have become, a place-

holder of names

you will never

go by.

Painting by Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), 'Young mother sewing', in Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Namely

Archer is a good name for a poet.
Only someone intent on honing their craft
could sharpen any word,
with pro-
found in-difference that whispers
copper pennies of investment.

Whistling in the air,
important and pointed,
as it whirs across a perfect arc
the branches dance back
strobing light through
space.

There was infinite,
what did it all mean?
There were names of things,
there was the aim of
Things
and there was connection
with the target of meaning
Eros, all was Love.

 Archer is a pseudonym
for Anonymous, as far as arrows go.

Photograph taken by Julia Margaret Cameron of Lionel Tennyson with bow and arrow [Public domain].

Thine

Certain she was an angel
so no questions were asked
in exchange for quiet
observations
like rites

And I do not believe
in these divine beings
anyway

Her presence
provided a feeling
to pray this reason away

For proof is sought
inside realms invisible
for them to see

Gratefully, I step out
of this shell,
noticing the sleeping orchids swell
while the red breasted finch
thinks of a new song

the angel noticing Him
may know.

Painting by Marcantonio Franceschini from the Dulwich Picture Gallery [Public domain].

In other wor(l)ds

A new day called my name in the mouth of the mockingbird.
In the bullseye of the black widows web,
light is caught in crystal sections
as it tends to happen-sometimes
we don’t hear these things or fail to notice
where chimes and footsteps flail in midair

we were suspended there.

I proceed to contemplate the unwinding of
allotted time, in all its shrinkage and compression
I stuff what I can in my pockets
and balance my left foot precariously
upon the nearest dark cloud that appears
solid enough to leverage my being upon
while I levitate upon
accumulation.

At least, in this way,
the sacrifices won't seem so removed and far
fetched, as stars for life cluster with emission,
timing is everything
and nothing.
The silence can become crippling with
such volume of errant data,
unsynchronised heart beatings
in unison making static lines blur.

Meanwhile, the earth rolls inside of its shell
as if there were nothing to see here
in Turtle Town.
No lingering, loitering, savoring, reminiscing,
embellishing-
making no more mention of
names of things.

The best of it is yet to be made our own.
I take in the wind, I take notes
as I go
this way-paraphrased-what is said sounds familiar
as if we have heard it all before this way
our re-membership lapsed into disparate sounds
it sounded like a name.



Photo By Claudio Giovenzana (Claudio Giovenzana www.longwalk.it) [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons.

Omni-presence

I have seen those. They do not impress me. Showing off and it makes me want to look away.

This one sticks out, it is different that is why. It is special isn’t it super, ultra, mega, stupendous?

Indeed, like these, none of me. Look now, how nonchalantly they pass through, as though neverthere…

smooth or slimy, a greased wheel on a slippery slope all ways gets through or goes down.

I swear this was much much bigger last time. Different. There were reasons and stones. 

Last time,

I left residue and sticks in a mound.  It has been too long to see where these ended up.  This is why babies have no memory. The train still goes through. 

I heard my name called but it did not sound like mine, at first, I did not respond.  

It could have been any of us.

Now, I hear myself differently. This tunneled voice originating in the upper torso blows out something close to heartburn; milk and tears, wine and years, sweet and sardonic, work and wrest, this too will pass over me.  And I listen for harmony.   

Rainbows are too rich.

Foundations are never solid. 

Those shoes do not fit them. Watch how they walk.

Aliens, angels, guardians, demons, magi, healers, ghosts, and gods, why would omniscient Them’s-obsess with teeny humanity? Have They not learned nothing from us, taking no credit, just having a spot of fun, and making it worth their wait in astronomical units…I found out, I don’t think so

since this is Public, you look like a regular here.  

I am still new. But so glad I found you. Shall we? 

Tell me more…

about all the-while I am just observing too. Don't look 

now. 

Painting by Jan Baptist Saive (II) (1597–after 1641) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Sticks and stones spell...

That name I was given was a tool
to taunt my grandfather-
I was not told-
how to use.
He loved me best, more than his own.
And I have wrestled with its odd shape
and sharp turns on my tongue.

Walked on past when people stumble over it
and twist it to suit their native mouths
translation is just a place to hold things,
this placeholder for me is only temporary...

Life's a bloom until you become part of the potpourri,
which is why the dry blooms last longer.
I would be of the waxflower variety,
piney and if this name a color
it must be yellow-although it sounds more like
an oboe, not a cello.

If you could only touch me, I'd be satin-
sometimes
velvet.
My name would grow like a city, Odessa
with more steps.
This misshapen label matches me
even though I know contradictory;
looks like summer, feels like snow.
And so not the tool I thought I wanted
yet when fashioned to fit precisely
the only one that could work on me.

I now know this tool was used

to pry my grandfathers' irritation open

every time he picked it up

and held it tight.

He loved me best.

Its protrusions also make my mouth bleed.

And I have casually passed by when others

grimace and contort it by twisting

their own cherry knot tying tongue.

It is just a name,

to hold me 

in his passing voice 

temporarily

It fits.

Photo by Ohannes Kurkdjian [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Titilating Entitlement

       All we have are letters.
We have made many names with these,

not to confuse utility with title.

When I say

This chosen wisely,

You have started to build-

What is in a Name?

Impressionism in colors.

Blend and bleed by disagreement.

I do not regret leading you on

down the stream, naming and pointing

at amphibious synonyms, 

like crayfish holding their feathered gills.

As only bends and boulders can dictate 

in a white water fury, insurgency in translation,

an explanation of how all minerals find their way

to greater meaning than assembly 

or Magic. Deception has its angle.

Words like water most transparent

when calmly collected. 

Dropping names sink

Ideas float
Titles tell This. 

Image By Romaine (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons.

Gene-us species

If the majority of people
you meet
misspell your name,
are you required to assume
that alias as yours (truly)
and claim it thusly-in spite
of the misnomer moniker it may be?

If I discovered post facto,
or say, hypothetically, a friend like me
learned their own last name,
denoting origin,
the one they thought was (a) given-
had ex-ante been but taken
for granted as a
charitable donation
and was in-factually, inherently,
a miss-ambiguation,
how can one conclude
where I,
I mean they, are coming from?

And then in the murky middle
floats a little note
of a single syllabic stress
to appease
simp-lee
the soundest
advice-
Yes.
Free to choose
any one that suits, so
call me what you will,
I will be namely unknown.



Image of painting by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, 1621[Public domain], the Village Lawyer, via Wikimedia Commons.

Will there be cake?

Consciousness tingles, it is innuendo.
Inference must mean Independence.
Did you feel it too?
What is made is meaning,
adding weight to white.
Creativity expressed, is a calculated
release of logical liability,
lingering in anonymity.
Who knew: What it signals: Symbols
And suggestions are like trees
noticed or not
we breathe and need.

My name, like yours, I borrowed
because of its beauty
which withers when said by self.
This Time, made new for you,
an apparition, re-rapt; a peek-and-boo
solely for your special occasion.
What's inside? It is red.
Firing systematic flares in synapse, see red.
Silence is listening as loud as possible.
Aren't all words formal invitations?
-Nevermind-
We are all too busy to attend.



Image By Ministry of Information Photo Division Photographer [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.