poems as hand- and foot-holds on a glass mountain

July Aubade

Eyes won’t open. Seen through their lids
the room has taken on mingled colors of morning light
a prism or water vapor would make rainbows of
cloudless, sunny, promising more of the same
not imagined or dreamed, not like pale thin artificial light.
A pause seems longer afterwards than from inside.
July has so far been amazing, a whole year’s mornings
rare in soggy Seattle whose weathers
are hard on newcomers. Wakings are interruptions
in ordinary flow like punctuation in run-on sentences
their new light a challenge, a burden, an irritation,
wanting more of us than we would give
yet is already us. We meet ourselves
on the other side of Then; not a turn exactly
as those are expected, more like a miracle
we don’t believe. What we expect seems continuous
but isn’t. Whatever happens is a flow of interruptions
mostly ignored or revised to resemble familiars
might otherwise be received as such
in a radical waking. Later, still in a pause
without borders we settle into a wild joy
already waiting for us
silent, outside time and expectation.


2 Responses to “July Aubade”

  1. Craig Brandis (aka Burl Whitman)'s avatar Craig Brandis (aka Burl Whitman)

    “Wakings are interruptions 
    in ordinary flow like punctuation in run-on sentences
    …We meet ourselves 
    …a flow of interruptions  mostly ignored or revised to resemble familiars might otherwise be received as such 
    in a radical waking. Later, still in a pause 
    without borders we settle into a wild joy.”

    Marvelous. Buddha nature embedded yet always available. The insight “a flow of interruptions  mostly ignored or revised to resemble familiars might otherwise be received as such 
    in a radical waking” is fascinating.

    Reply
    • place9011's avatar place9011

      Thanks, Craig. We all start out in a single culture, thinking it is all there is. If we mature, soon we live in many, then wherever there is life.

      Reply

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