last night was all full of rising and falling stars
could not be sure which one
was Louis, but there was a crazy orb
dancing around clumps of Northern Snow
dropping deadly cold and moving
like magnet around a man preparing
to join grandparents in their color-crush
of neon drum-steps across a dark sky
I hear him singing words to their heavenly hum,
in his sleep-walk travel between trickery
and temptation to slip between black and white
half-noticed by eye of revelation
that knows heart of the man and judges him thus:
oh, boneless being, naked as light
reflected off Wabasca Lake
that knew your voice as intimately as loons’,
come slide into crack of continuum
that was broken before you were bent
to suck at a bottle that sucked back ~
let them straighten your walk and back
and nurse you as if you were Holy Grail
emptied of its enmity and burnished angst
be polished, person who contains all the burdens,
as they fill your pits and stay your course
towards those who need your forgiveness
dance, dearest, less sideways, less desperately
and let joy arch from you like diamond’s prism
of depths we could never have known
in your wobbling wander through our town
let us see the hearty pulse stand straight
and we will keep our eyes to you
for a while each night, so as not to call you back
where ground desired nothing more
than to swallow you
Author notes
Riverside Louis died last week in the city. They say he hit his head on a cement flower box on the city streets where he had chosen to live because being homeless is easier in the city. They say he was drunk and stumbled, or was pushed. I say he was dancing!
To those who remember Riverside Louis... his book of honor poems needs to be published and I will do so as soon as funds allow. While his collection of poems are removed from AP, they sit, waiting for me, speaking to me, and I am sure he is dancing between the covers.
In a list
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Comments
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Carol...
This is gorgeous. You know how I feel about him. I am saddened by his passing but at the same time I feel that he is dancing in Heaven showered in beautiful gifts dearest to his heart...This is a beautiful tribute to our beloved
Lynda
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I am quite sure he's dancing, as well, especially knowing his name shall live on within your words, my Sister. This is a beautiful tribute poem to the one who has inspired you so often and so well. May he rest in peace and may his soul be lifted by the music he heard so deeply.
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ty girlfriend..I put this up here so other who learned to love him, here, on AP, could know and share
ty for spell check, as always!!!!
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