A Day I Remember

July 22, 2015
by Michael
comments 28
Poetry

On that summer day,
that I still remember…
doorways beckoned
from every direction,
hovering near stacked horizons
as if the Beloved
had hung wreaths
of heat and time along
our world’s borders.
There were voices
you could see occasionally,
ribbons of them
wafting up from the ends
to mix with the sky
like jugs of clear sap
poured into whiskey,
swirling and touching noses
and everything at once…
merging.
And the air, too.
The air….!
—pickling in its own fervor,
oxidizing the edges
of purple and yellow flowers
into a golden patina,
and swelling around the trees.
Stoves of grass gone to seed lay thick,
leaned over by the light
and spilling in waves
from their earthen containers.
Bears stumbling into the open
knew they had died,
and rejoiced.
The whole scene
was an opening and a fullness
that day,
every leaf a dreaming.

I remember
that summer day, still,
because I was in on it,
and so thick with the memory
of what was being said
I’d had to flatten out wide
from one horizon to the other,
suffusing entire meadows
with what was left of the day before,
just so I could hold that one…
And every point–
on that summer day
when I lost my footing
and fell straight into falling–
was a perfectly weighted brush
with the magnitude
of our passing away,
our disappearing one into the another,
as the petals of our hearts
dropped off here and there,
where the light was too much,
to wander into the sky.

28 Comments

    • Michael says

      I know it’s a really hot summer in many places. I am feeling very fortunate to be enjoying (so far) a moderate, but obviously glowing season… Stay cool, man!

      Michael

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
        • Michael says

          I did, Dennis, but I also know it’s been a firecracker out there in places… I lost the plot a little… I guess… What plot… I love this warmth we’re finding together… 🙂

          Peace
          Michael

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply
  4. megdekorne says

    Oh Michael , ” the air swelling around the trees ” so beautiful ! And ” I had to flatten out wide from one horizon to the other ” takes my breath away . Thankyou , dear friend for the remembrance of that moment so heartbreaking in its tenderness and holy in its strength and awe . Love , always love , megxxx

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
    • Michael says

      Hi Meg,

      I think this is the same kind of thing you’d be doing at that lake of yours… 🙂 Spreading out across the whole surface, holding the glory of it all in a single glance… The lake, and Meg, and the sky… all in on it… Everyone thinking the other one is where the beauty resides…

      Thanks for your sharing here.
      Yes to Love…
      Michael

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply
  6. Hariod Brawn says

    This sounds rather like a perfect day recognising itself as such Michael, and I enjoyed the conceit of the bear realising it was dead to what it thought it was. I wonder (rhetorically) if that can happen; can animal awareness – we human animals have it too of course – see past its own imagery?

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply
    • Michael says

      Thank you, Hariod. I have no idea…! Ha! For a moment, I was the bear seeing well beyond my own usual parameters… 🙂

      Hope you are well and enjoying the summer’s zenith…
      Michael

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  8. stockdalewolfe says

    “as the petals of our hearts
    dropped off here and there,
    where the light was too much,
    to wander into the sky.”

    My head is swooning over those words. Utter genius.

    Love,
    Ellen

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • Michael says

      Thank you, Ellen. I labored over those words for a while, trying to fit them together… I’m glad you resonated with them. I love to explore the idea we’re unified in ways and depths we don’t readily notice or accept, like we only seldom remember the air around us. Here and there where we write and share our thoughts, it’s as if the wind blows, and we remember the air in which we all co-exist…

      Much Love
      Michael

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  9. Darryl Dapper says

    This has taken my breath away, and was something I desperately needed to read today. These phrases like “wreaths of heat” and “fell straight into falling” are so perfect they make my heart hurt. There’s an old poem I love by I think it was Chu Shu Chen, where she describes the way her face looks to her through the little details of her makeup as she’s applying it. In the poem, she brings the reader along with her to notice the finer details of her face as if focusing our attention on the ebb and flow of all the litlte contours and dips and peaks of who she is: the slice of paint over the top of her lips, flecks of imperfect rouge dusting cheekbones hardened by loss, and bold strokes of shadow smudged on the corners of hopeful eyes. Piece by piece she made a whole world of her own uniqueness and displayed it with a subtlety that still haunts me. Your writing takes me so deeply back into that feeling I felt – it’s amazing how precisely and softly you describe life and the act of living it. Every word you use to paint a particular frame of a scene is such a perfect fit beside the word which came before and after it, that it makes me want to smack myself in the head and wonder how I couldn’t have thought of that. It’s just your perspective, and that perspective is a very, very special one. I would absolutely love to own a book of yours one day.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply
    • Michael says

      Hi Darryl! So good so see you surface here… The poem you describe sounds lovely, even “secondhand”… That’s because your own writing gifts keep the images glowing as you hand them over. I like in particular the “flecks of imperfect rouge dusting cheekbones hardened by loss.”

      Thank you for the kind words… I’m excited to say the day could be closer than you may have thought. I’ve nearly completed the process of self-publishing a book of my poems, but I’m on round four of the proof copies… There’s a challenge a little baffling to both parties about why the cover art is bleeding onto the spine, but once that is cleared up things should progress… I really appreciate your feedback, and am looking forward to your own return to having the time and inclination to sculpt your visions into words again. Sounds like you’re having a very busy summer… Hope things calm down for you, my friend.

      Blessings
      Michael

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
    • Michael says

      Thank you, and excellent! Hope you enjoyed it, and stayed cool all at once… I am loving the summer this year, just noticing its fullness and its abundance…

      Peace
      Michael

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

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