Sketchbook  Stephen Mead, US

 

Free  Verse Can’t Sleep ‘til rest has come for every other member breathing the pages of this home, house, whatever domicile I frequent is of no importance should slumber not happen for those I tiptoe around... I am statue as lantern, fountain as phantom. I shed wands of willing in my vibrant Feet, hands, eyes… They are the snowflake feathers Falling from great down quilts. I also have strings wound about My Rochester heart attached to every Other dreamer never sleeping sound enough In the likes of this city. In this city, the likes of which Never before felt, Never before seen Lay me down as a prayer Of flame to sleep & sleep Cat easy as the turning of a page     Voice Singing soft, voice from rooms away, Voice beyond the door & under Such curves, blankets, cats, I wrap myself down sensing As well the outer climate. There: patterns of snows… There: rain & here— Picture junks in Kowloon, Picture clouds over drifts Of the rocking, the mind’s Eyeful where I get started Into the apartness (altogether now) Of dreaming… Dream to dream, Such towers babbling, Such silken screens… I enter their liquid, turn translucent, Stay, a stem, a root, to float flowering, Lily, calla, while yet under the tow… & the reed of a song steers me & the voice is my Mother’s, My best friend’s, yes, the voice, The familial stranger is Surely some angel keeping vigil     Angels Weep Angels weep, the cuffs of their sleeves Catching the tears that roll into wax At the hems of their robes. They turn candle-lit & globe hover. Folds, folds— What stretches under those gossamer gowns? Warfare, torture, & the lonely, the bleeding, Ulcerated with an addiction to be absolved. Love, angels hold these legions Through leagues of wings As meanwhile the dead swim in a rebirth Of rain. Ascend then, every dying hand I have held. Dreams name you ‘til sleep is scarce & The grandeur of heaven is a message from earth. Watcher, guardian, how long can I go on losing you? Angels, gold, noble, silver, With eyes of a certain brown, Deliver me from this question In time to acknowledge that if I can ask Than I can hear as well.     Leaning The arched neck, the curving Back, your body a dreaming Acrobat, as your hands reach behind Finding mine at the waist. Then your head goes to my shoulder, A sweet Chagall image hugging in… In the mirror I watch us. The tenderness is awe. How now, love, to turn my mirror Elsewhere? I shall try through the effort Of moments whose breath already incorporates Your air into my shape… Are you there? No longer must I call or doubt, holding The canvasses of your soul poems— “You look good.” I remember your voice, so matter of fact Upon waking, with you reaching over To hold me, same as you did when the mirror Reflected us… The exteriors of these times fills my insides Entire, wandering to the new sights you urge me to. Death has not severed that promise & I lean, Juggler of our puzzle, to drink in eyes, arms, mouth Of this star, that— Clearly you are there     Again Wings once more, Wings at edge of sleep… I stir, I wake, half Memory, half Forget. Angels Have been around At some business still With nothing still About the stillness… Instead, kinetic, quiet rises & The waves of calm spread ebulliently. I greet the faces passing, & there is Something about you haunting their Earnest eyes. They are of seals & goofy Spaniels… Surgeons, lovers, healers, saints, The purest of the pure, know the guidance Of this skin. Do they also know the soul is caramel Coloured as arab sands? About the rims it goes from pink To yellow ‘til the whole spectrum is Glowing through tangibly ineluctable. I caress that, finding out that the touching Touches back, & even now from the empty room Where our loving went on, off goes your call Light & I astonished, answer. Loves’ absolution does not question anything Any more. I rest. I move. You stay on the fringes, Stay through me, a centering guest… Then it’s hello again, goodbye— But wings waltz, lift, embrace. After this possessed moments are modeled With purpose unawares   View Stephen Mead's Art Gallery