if distances were not as long as dark, lonely nights: a duet

By Noel Ihebuzor and Susan Daniels

Noel:  If distances were not as long as dark lonely nights

Susan:  The callous earth sees to it
that even our nights and days
oppose one another;
but, let us ignore laws of geography and physics
for this moment, and meet.

Noel:  If feet could leap distances
ferried and nourished by fertile faith
if minds could travel long distances to their longings

Susan:  Then I would fly to you, heedless of gravity, and mocking it;
the sky, neither night or day where we would answer each other
would blush, rivaling the colors of dawn, or of sunset,  at our defiance
of the order of things, our audacity.

Noel:  If mind, soul and body could paddle silvery
in soft warm lagoons
in canoes invisible to the uninitiated

Susan:  Only light the way for us to find each other

Noel:  If the journey of exploration
was a journey into the deep self
one of discovery and recovery

Susan:  We would range farther
than the resonance of dream language,
sparks dancing past matter,
to a place where twin flames
recognize one other
and blend.

Noel:  Would these harsh beginnings
not signal new becomings
and perfection end points

if only we
you and I could kill present addiction
to birth a future full that whispers and beckons
if, if you could, if we could

Susan:  We would,
and in our waking walk together
generate something live
from these whispered ifs;
a pale hope, and fragile
unfurls into full-blown being;
yes, hope can dream and bring forth joy
as it breaks and buries bitterness.

Noel:  If we could reach within ,
to find that lock to unlock a door
that holds us prisoners,
bound and shackled,
then we would unlock us
this us that currently
glides and drifts, inviting,
suggesting

Susan:  Only unchain us,
that we might taste
even a tenth of what tempts us
into crossing these lines
of time, of space,
of who we are now
and who we could become.

 

***All I am going to say about this is wow, we did good Noel!  Can’t think of anything else to add that wasn’t said above 🙂

Posted in duet, New Free Verse | Tagged , , | 18 Comments

the keyboard is stammering

no such thing as a typo
he says & al of a sodden
misstakes have meaning
wrapped inside
like birthday presents
those backstabbing fingertips
have no business tapping about

like 10 noisy fifth-grade girls
spreading secrets
just because they can

& now the jig is up
& the keyboard stammers
butt butt but I didn’t mean to say that

when of course
we all know it did

Posted in New Free Verse | Tagged , , | 18 Comments

joy HH prompt

sky slowly brightens
with sun drawn into morning
birds sing naked joy

***

most precious of joy
you are such sweetness blooming
within my spirit

Posted in haiku | Tagged , , | 27 Comments

100 Followers!

Thanks so much to Kyle from Mew Tube for becoming the 100th blog to follow this one.  Wow, I am so enjoying this community of voices I am now a part of!

Posted in New Free Verse | 8 Comments

daisy chain

I am linking ifs together
in a chain, picking them carefully from the air
when they pop up in our conversation,
bright & scentless qualifiers,
unplanted & unplanned,
like those tiny white daisies
that grow fast & low, hug close to the ground;
such small things, easy to miss
& step over, just like an if
in a sentence.

I now have enough ifs
to make a quickly wilting necklace;
again, just like daisies:
first, with my sister
& then for my daughter, to show her
how to weave those flowers together.

But those ifs, almost exhalations
more than spoken words
change meaning so powerfully.
Consider:
if I loved you enough
if I buried pride
if I could touch your face

without those ifs
they mean so much more;

& become absolute actions
without the escape hatch.

Posted in New Free Verse | Tagged , , | 12 Comments

Honeymoon Island, Florida, 1995

On the beach looking north with the Gulf of Me...

The beach I walked daily
after my sister died
was just a beautiful backdrop
for my constant conversation
with God.  I framed
a question to infinity,
continuous in asking
& still no answer,
my voice incessant
as waves raking sand
over & over, its rhythm matching
the slow, hollow drum
my heart was

If I had use for a rosary,
each beaded prayer
would have been the same word,
“why?”

The day of my answer
I wandered to the tip
of Honeymoon Island.
The tide was low, so low
I waded out a mile,
head down, watching for rays
half-hidden in sand
before the gulf water
wrapped my ribs in salt
& stroked my arms gently,
its warm hands
almost holding my own.

I was lifted by living water
when something warm
& equally alive
rose beneath my fingers
& curved to fit  my right palm
in a swimming caress.

She called out to her pod
to swim around me.
Dolphins.  I had waded out far enough
in my monologue
to meet six arching,
joyful guides
who nudged me back towards shore
& we played together
until the point where the water
was just below my hips,
where they circled me one final time
in a loose, casual embrace
& returned to deeper water.

They brought me truth
I had been listening for in shells
& in coded water-striking-sand;
that I had searched for,
written inside broken coral
& driftwood.
It was terrible in its clarity:
Beauty is where we find it,
& joy, &  love,
alongside the hard things
that bruise;
it is what raises our eyes
to look up again, or at least see even
with the world,
& do so tenderly.

These are the gifts
& the cost
of living,
& there can be no why

when everything simply is;

as the dolphins are
& as I am,
until we are not.

***Using this for the Dverse poetry prompt for the day.

Posted in life, New Free Verse | Tagged , , , | 54 Comments

Just look at the light & those vines pouring down!

hovercraftdoggy's avatarhovercraftdoggy

Yucatan, Mexico

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Posted in New Free Verse | 3 Comments