Poem Definitions : I-V

I. WATERFALL, for Joshua Rogers

Tumbling over in barrels
Or drowning under in pitfalls
Of starving rocks and curious weeds
The hands of green too eagar in wooing
The gasping diver from the shore
His fragile calls drowned out
By the Thunderous hunger of the falls
"You need us for life! So drink us! Drink us!"
The greedy river cuts him off from other needs
Air, bread, land, love...
The waters tore him from all asunder,
Disorientated in the tumbling fall
A deafness to his brother's call
A glimpse of a marble shoulder
And of a webby tail
Enchantment in the water's echo
"So drink us! Drink us! Drink us!"
Overpowered, the man obeyed.

II. CASSETTE, For Joshua Austin

Slip, click, a new recording
The whispering plastic cogs
And a man's throat clearing
"Janelle, Janelle..."
He speaks looking for a rhyme
But the only word which came to mind
Was from fear of rejection: Hell.
Slip, click; click, punch;
He uses words that others pray
Conscious his tongue is muddled clay. 

III. TREASURE, for Shelby Waldren

The storming symbols had wakened fear
And her heart heard the drums despair
"Cast the crates, the tea, the sugar!"
Each sweet thing tossed to the sea
The boat was dashed but stayed the night
Enduring all the breaks of a stormy plight,
Returning to her port of birth
Her breath was her treasure
Her life itself was reason for mirth,
When she let the sunlight flutter
Through sails tempered by tempestuous weather.

IV. RECONCILIATION, for Tabitha Johnson

This wind howling outside my bed
Had the same tone my soul ached with dread
That, for more, and more, I knew of love
The greater I longed for home
For every time my heart did break
I felt the cry of G-d forsake
When Christ's agony came from the greatest pain
When my lover turned his face away...
This pain, this ache, did my G-d feel it too?
A shattering in my reason
Cotton oppressing my vocal tube
Is this love then?
Why did I ever desire it?
Why, when one might see my inner spirit
And reject, even despise me for it?
Still I feel a longing no created flesh can fill
Something in the blinking starlight
Eternity staring from day's blue height
My G-d be near, be near to even me!
Look on me and see the emblem of Zion's King,
And I shall take comfort in what Thy prophet's sing.

V. NEW,  for Daniel Hale

These shoes were pure, and bright, and stiff
No miles yet had changed them
No puddles yet had sprayed them,
No steel toed boots had framed them
No tire treads had yet embraced them.
These shoes were new, their existence blank
And how I craved to claim them!
Not just because they were clean and bright,
But stiff! Unbroken by a weathered hide
Unashamed by their window pride
These shoes were bold, their soles innocent:
Never had they met against a dog's hardy bite
Nor crushed the guts from a helpless mite.
No, these shoes were pure, and proud, and clean
Everything I had ever wished to be.