Out of the wilderness
when the moon was black,
stones rocked from foundation
plummet in the clutches of gravity.
The weight created by need
pulling every atom back to the creator.
The last howl of the wolf wearing
a message along a mother’s spine.
Shadows in the buffalo grass promise
tomorrow’s sorrows have grown from
seed and become measurable in pulse.
Melt of ice caps cling to escarpments
taunting the weary cycle of winter’s sun,
the hunter scans the language of the land
reading the memories of passage
catching the age of memoirs left embedded
reeling in the forgotten pause
when beast breathed prey.
Love is a privilege of the fat.
Light: a woven germ of a dream
hidden in the cell of a plant. Green:
the last color calling for rain to melt snow.
Dirt rides on the skin of work
lurks in the hard packed heart.
When the tide sways the pines --
the owl steals a rabbit from its path
and death is no longer a vagrant
drunken against a trunk of prayers --
the earth stripped,
Man forms a breath for creation
lets it reside in the memory of clay
and declares himself a victor
as he falls back against the history
pulsing from his veins as he is consumed.
Black pearl
against a night’s bear
leaves stars crashing
as mother’s blow out fires
curl against hopes of children.
Where arms are hoops,
it is marvelous to know
dust is a passing season
before the grasses grow.
01/08/09
11:38 PM
Alexandria, VA
Please tell me what you think, what it makes you feel, how you are moved.
Comments
1 - 31 of 31
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Wow! A lot of interesting, complex imagery
I get a sense of the natural cycles of life. It makes me feel reflective, evokes the sense of times I have been backpack camping out in the wilderness (that sense of being in a part of the un/predictable, un/safe wilds).
I particularly liked: "Melt of ice caps cling to escarpments / taunting the weary cycle of winter’s sun," and especially: "he falls back against the history / pulsing from his veins as he is consumed."
Nice!
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To often we deal with what awes us and over whelms us with a false bravado. In the end the price we pay is higher 'cause of this. Thanks for the insightful and positive review.
Peace & Light,
Tom B.
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Very good. The imagery is exceptional!
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I am honored that you find it so.
Peace,
Tom B.
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Superb Plus
'tis a fine write, indeed. Of course, you always express your thoughts quite well. Thanks for sharing this one with us. -
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I am glad you see it as an "of course."
There is little in this life that comes easily worth having. 
Peace,
Tom B.
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wow now that is nature in its wildness and beautiful imagery ...so raw and wonderfully invigorating ..poet you have captured a spirit that flies freedom for the true need and state of this our world Good one and may all read this and understand the wonder and beauty of true nature
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Thanks for drinking so deeply from my vision.
Peace,
Tom B.
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I like this; it is filled with the mystique of the wilderness and creatures great and small and you place man precariously in the middle of it all! We are so bound to cell phones and the world wide web and wall street and the rest of it; we are almost totally oblivious to the fact we are but tiny strands in a vast web of life on a living breathing planet that we treat with little love and less respect...you're poem gives me the impression we have no choice but to revise our priorities!
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We are rather poor guests.
Thanks for the kind review.
Peace and Light,
Tom B.
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Hi tomisb:
This piece is intense..... The message is heartfelt, and profound.....
I loved it, an enjoyable read, please continue to write for us, so we can enjoy.....
Thanks so very much for the invite.....
Blessed be,
forever,
Tanya
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Good to see ya, sweet lass. In the dance of forest and plain, I am glad you enjoyed the vision of how nature is larger than us. We are her guests and she can destroy as readily as she provides bounty.
Please drop by often, for your soft voice and kind words are always a gift.
Love,
Tom B.
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Every once in a while I come across a poem that is truly a wonder. I read it again and again. Trying to find the moment it hooked me.
This is just stunning with imagery that draws the reader in.
Ovations.
Marianne
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thanks, this is one of my naturalist poems. There is an underlying spiritual content, but to me that is but of course. Glad you enjoyed. Appreciate you taking the time to comment.
Peace & Light,
Tom B.
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paralysed, numb, MOVED!
finalists for imagery alone. have never seen such originality in syle and description.
Want to see what you can do if pushed in the second round.
well done ALEXANDRIA YOU HALE MADE A GOOD IMPRESSION ON THIS JUDGE.
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Wow. This is really great. It had a strong beginning and an ending that left me begging for more...lol. Very brilliantly penned. I love your wording and everything! Keep up the great work and thanks so much for such a wonderful share! Best wishes to you in everything that you do.
Brilliant.
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I wrote this on a night when the fires burned bright and words ran free from my fingers. I am fortunate that there are times when the muses become present and the words write me.
Peace & Light,
Tom B.
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i am left speechless by this. i feel as if any compliment i could give would not be sufficient. this was incredible to read. i cannot think of anything to say other than thank you for posting such a piece of art.
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This is the kind of response every artist wants for their work.
The poem is simply a gift. I recieved it and now I share it. Nothing more.
Love, Tom B.
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ah.. stops to exhale..wow thats one beautiful write my friend. beautiful now link me to a sleepy one if you have one please? for it is late and i must wind down a little more
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This is a rare gift of a poem. It came to me out of the nether zone. Truly, it wrote me more than I wrote it. Glad you enjoyed. I think it is rather beautiful.
Love, Tom B.
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In this write, I find colours that tremble as if in sigh from stanza to stanza, inferred to bold stroke.
We have nothingness (black) where everything is possible; then step swiftly into the dun of what haunts the plains of feeling...
Only to be sent reeling into faltered winter, the rage of sun, and on the journey goes.
Steeped in undertone of personal experience,
this poem extends into circumstance of life,
every life....whether acknowledged or not.
Blue
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This was a study. I wanted the images to speak without anymore revelation than the sparks left within the reader. I tried to find primal images that sing to the cellular memory like haunts tied to timber in a gray house.
Love, Tom B.
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Much food for thought from your elegant hand. Reminds me... I need to check my petri dish. I'm cloning a new permaculture from the dust of a passing season...
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Only you would take the strewn dust from my poem, mingle it with your own and then leave it in a agar to grow mold. Of course, who knows, maybe some strange beastie might emerge and it would be named tocia or cim or some such and wreck havok upon the land.
Love, Tom B.
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I Would
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As an artist, I can only hold a light for you to see your own vision more clearly. I may provide the open doorway, the clue to the epiphany, but your spiritual and physical journey have provided you the raw materials for your own wonder.
Love, Tom B.
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Masterful Free Verse
Ah what a vivid journey you have taken me on with these words that seem to be in alignment with the stars. I found a harmony and balance of nature within. Once agin you have given us a real treat my talented poet....I sure hope Dalaney loves this as much as I did.....Novy
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Even when the nights are dark and the days are grey we build. Our tomorrows are the fruit we plant from the seeds sown today. A thank you is compost, a hope: the promise of planting, our dreams: seeds. Never give away the moment you have, for even in dispair you may unlock the wonder that showers all you seeds and brings blossoms into your life.
Love, Tom B.
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This is just a delightful journey through your mind and what you see that most of us are blind to. Lane will love it. C
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Glad you enjoyed sipping on the rim of my cup of madness.
Love,
Tom B.
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