The breath of the universe
Blowing gently through the leaves
They blushed
And let go
For this moment
I, too
Am a tree turning red
A little yellow
A bit orange
Every illusion drifting
Floating
Blown away
My branches are barren
All bark and odd angles showing
I wait in the autumn sun
For my white cloak
Limbs lifted in praise
For the cold and dark
For the bright cool light
Longer still
For the warmth of spring
Singing in the dark
Would that I had told you
How the fire burns within
Little embers, little sparks
Lights that brighten up the dark
When I see you smile
And hear you laugh
The joy I feel when you are near
Did I mention that I see your heart
In every thing you do
How beautiful the colors cast
Reflect in every movement
To hear your voice is sweetness
Surpassing every sound
When I sleep and when I wake
It is your name said like a prayer
You are a sacred place
A quiet pond
A respite
From the worries that I carry
Upon your shore I lay them
For a moment fettered free
When you reach for me
The world bursts into blooms
Previews of the tracks for the upcoming album Mixtures Poetica album are now posted on SoundCloud with more to come in the following weeks.
Mixtures Poetica is the follow up album to the previously released EP Poetic Mixtures which was an exploration of audio techniques combining poetic elements with soundscapes for mood and setting, and can be found on many platforms.
One of the things I love about Puddle of Words (written first on this very blog here) is that it really captures the essence for me of how books can pull you right into them, and the invitation to read together. Those favorite books are the ones we want our people to read and share in the story, the experience, the characters!
With Eternal Constellation, I really struggled to capture the feel and texture and delivery that I wanted for it. I woke up one morning with the idea for a stronger speaking element, and the resulting track has an irony about it that emphasizes how a step towards self-centeredness (being true to self and one’s intuition) combats people pleasing conformity, but there has to be balance so that becoming self-centered (in the selfish sense) is avoided.
I had a lot of fun making these, and enjoy listening to them. I hope you enjoy them too!
This is part of my systematic effort to reduce performance anxiety, and share original music. I’ve played this song only for a handful of people prior to recording.
There are other new posts up on my YouTube Channel, some of which are mildly amusing, sporadically informative, randomly entertaining, and insightful as to why something that might take 15 minutes will digress into singing, extemporaneous playing, and exploring the nature of sound.
This video stays on track though (miraculously).
Taking the week off from blogging as I have a couple of extra projects this week.
Expect to be back somewhat regularly next week!
He lingers on the edges
Of a universe askew
I am dancing in the courtyard
Garden fountain flowing
The music’s in the summer breeze
There are flowers in my hair
This dress is swishing softly
The grass bedecked with dew
There’s a tension to this moment
Each step, each turn, each beat
Will he step forward to the dance
Or back again with chilly feet
The moon is shining brightly
The dawn is soon to break
This dance is almost over
The pipes have all been played
My arms are tracing patterns
Against the starry morn
The spell is almost finished
Fate is almost cast
He lingers on the edges
Of a universe askew
I want to be better
More friendly
More open
More kind
I want to be consistent
Disciplined
Organized
Life is messy
Waves of distractions
Knock me from my feet
I tumble over opportunities
Choosing heart over plans
Meeting needs with disregard for
The outline
The bullet points
The lists
Crumple the paper and start again
I am hung upside down
Shaken
Coins drop from my pockets
I lost a boot
Twenty times I almost got it done
Almost
Almost
I write a list of the things I did
I burn it rather than share it
Flames rise from the actions
Which take place in the dark
The left hand doesn’t even know
The right hand exists
So much I never say
The avalanche clears it away
I check in with my heart
What to do today
How many breaks
Of bones and hearts
Fractured into multitudes
She’s many
Exponential
It’s worse than you thought
Or can imagine
How the pain is held behind a smile
At bay
For a minute
For an hour
For a lifetime
He had a temper
They used to say
But it meant more than that
It was a code
And I know there are men in the mix
Suffering at the hands of mad women
You know it two to too
Pink Floyd knew new nu
It’s women hurting women
Men hurting men
Even so these intimate disasters
Create the ruins from which we grow
Everyone is hurting but it’s worse
Than you know
Or can imagine
It all breaks apart
Shattering
and we all want to be home
safe
nurtured
loved
Lacking the skills to get there
Without a map or a guide or a road
We stab at healing in the dark
And cut ourselves on the tip of our tongues
What was said under covers
What was cried in the early morning hours
What was hidden behind sunglasses
What was hissed in the angel’s ears
Of pain and threats
No one saw
No one told
No one wants to remember
Until someone told
And people saw
Remembering it all
They blame the teller
Not the hitter
They punish the outspoken
As their fears push them further to the edge
Fear has a temper
Rising
And she’s compounded
Fractured
And the earth herself
Is cracking open
Grab your pen when the tremors start
Write out your dreams
She speaks
This reckoning in ashes
This reckoning is the sea boundless
This reckoning falling from the sky
She is compounded
Healing
The doves fly at dawn
The nightingale sings
The mockingbird mocks
The pig roots for you
Under the underbrush
Where the truffles grow
She is compounded
A rising vibration
Lift off or or be left
In the throws of the unsung
Stuck in the birth canal
Choked off from the infinite song
Hope rising
Peace settling
stomp once if
Stomp twice if you hear me
In dusty musty boxes
In the basement corner near the back
Papers yellowing with age
Edges curling crinkled
Ink is smudged and
Pencil smearing
Cardboard soft and slightly limping
Are the words that choke you
In the middle of the night
How the sunlight dancing through her hair
Is magic when she lifts her face to laugh
Because she had a thought which pleased her
So she glanced over her shoulder
When her eyes met yours you felt it
Underneath your bones
Electric
How her presence in the darkest nights
Her even softest breathing of her sleeping
On more than one occasion anchored you to life
When her hand brushed up against yours
Fingers intertwining
Held you steady as your fears came creeping
That her touch banished them from sight
How the glimpse of her turning dancing movements
As she measured out a song while she was cooking in the kitchen
And her voice would sing along
That the joy arising from her gave you one more thing to love
About a life that had been dark and wary
Stressed and sacrificial
Maybe she never knew how she was balm to healing pressures
Maybe she never saw her worth beyond a budgeted refusal
Frugal and self reliant
She fixed and healed and tidied
Maybe she wept at times for lack
Maybe she questioned every penny of her worth
Maybe she longed for one more word of kindness
Maybe she wished for a hand which reached her heart
Maybe she knew
How every day you counted her first among your blessings
Some pages in the boxes stuck together
Moldering in cardboard splitting at the seams
Bending breaking open
Spilling letters onto concrete in the basement of your heart
The words running together
In wild fantastic herds
They have galloped across the plains into the forests
Grazing underbrush of lines growing thick
Around the trembling trunks of trees
All the poetry you feel is falling floating down
Drifting in paragraphs
In autumn colors just like leaves
As you trace the patterns on her hands
Watching wrinkles crinkle careless at the corners of her eyes
As she gazes at the antics of the chipmunks just outside
Maybe her smile is warmer, brighter when her glance meets yours
Maybe she reads each unsaid word there within the light
Glowing from within the silence of the corner boxes
In the basement near the back
Spontaneously combusted in the twilight of your life
As the flames dance and spark there
Behind your eyes
All the things you never told her
Flickering tendrils in the darkness
Became her hearth and home
