My Intention
May the poems be like wind
in the tops of eucalyptus,
remembered long after,
even in the calm swells
of a still night.
May the poems be vibrant, like
the ring-necked snake last spring,
curling up the underside
of his bright red tail
so we’d take notice.
But most of all, may the poems be
a dinner bell
to a table set for all
who care to come—
with dishes devotedly prepared
and bottles of red, red wine,
illuminated by the golden light
of many melting candles
and soft whispers of close
confidences shared.
Dreaming in Poems
They say when you start speaking
a foreign language in your dreams,
you have reached
a whole new level of fluency,
this the payout for hours
of conjugating verbs—
escribo, escribí, escribiré, escribiría,
thick stacks of index cards
written with new vocabulary—
palabra, verso, poema.
In my dreams, I write poetry with eloquence,
lines that feel precise and whole.
Like in real life, I play
with the words passionately
in search of the best mergings,
attempting to manipulate gears of consonance,
assonance, metaphor, and alliteration.
My semi-lucid self urges—
hang on to those verses,
try to remember the sequences.
But in crossing back over the veil,
the slate is wiped clean.
Try as I might to hold on,
words written in ephemeral ink
evaporate upon waking.
My Muse
—after Marjorie Saiser, “The Muse Is a Little Girl”
My muse is an angel,
dispatched here with a telegram,
draped in a flowing gown
sewn of golden threads.
She flies in while I am driving
or when I’ve just turned off the lights
for the night.
She hovers over my heart,
murmuring softly, reminding me
of the promise I have made.
No, my muse is a master
of black magic.
He looks like the witch doctor
from a tacky black-and-white film,
waking me in the dead of sleep,
taunting there is no way
I will be able to remember
the lines he has stingily
handed over,
word by grudging word.
Remember, he heckles,
you applied for this job.
Do you want it or not?
«VERWANDTES LESEN» POEMS BY MIKE LARCOMBE: My Scattered Tribe, Fearing the Deer and more»
bild: ericdunham
