On Rambling/City Streets

Under concrete still lies the earth.
Am I bridged?  Do I travel on or over?
The air takes my thoughts and plays with them,
embroiders them, suspends them between.

Am I bridged?  do I travel on or over?
My fingers want to hold the windwhispers–
embroider them, suspend them between
the bare branches of the trees.

My fingers want to hold the windwhispers
that touch the moon on her journey
through the bare branches of the trees
into the fullness of the reflected light.

I want to touch the moon on her journey.
My own face is shadowed with uncertainty,
backlit by the fullness of reflected light.
My own hands are empty, unthreaded.

My own face is shadowed with uncertainty,
a landscape I too often inhabit.
My own hands are empty, unthreaded.
I keep trying to rearrange what isn’t there–

a landscape I too often inhabit.
I look for birds.  I want to ask them their secrets.
I keep trying to rearrange what isn’t there–
how to be someone that is also everything.

I look for birds.  I want to ask them their secrets.
How to dance across the invisible threads.
How to be someone that is also everything,
crisscrossing land sea sky stars.

How to dance across the invisible threads
that hold both concrete and earth,
crosscrossing land sea sky stars–
(the air takes my thoughts and plays with them)

This pantoum is definitely a work in progress. For NaPoWriMo day 15, and the earthweal weekly challenge: Toward an Ecopoetry.

Also linking to dVerse OLN, hosted by Sanaa.

33 thoughts on “On Rambling/City Streets”

  1. “My fingers want to hold the windwhispers,”.. this is such a delicately powerful image. The poem in its entirety gives us much to contemplate. 💖💖

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  2. When I first looked at the image on the left I thought of a tree. The one on the right made me think of bats living under a bridge, the kind that fly out en masse at dusk.

    Such a lovely meandering pantoum! One of my favorite lines from it:
    “I keep trying to rearrange what isn’t there–”

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    1. Thanks Jade. I think we all indulge in that kind of arranging. The art is from a few years ago, but when I saw it, I knew it was just right for the poem. And now I think I must do more stitching…

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  6. A beautiful rambling pantoum, Kerfe, with so many shifts, like different kinds of light! I love all of it but especially the lines:
    ‘The air takes my thoughts and plays with them,
    embroiders them, suspends them between’
    and I want to take the word ‘windwhispers’ and kiss it!

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  10. This is such a deep and intricately woven work, Kerfe: I can identify with the repetition of:
    ‘a landscape I too often inhabit.’ I have been trudging across some pretty treacherous terrain the past few days. I think I’m (hopefully) coming out of it though. It doesn’t help when I go to the beach and see the sea turned orange, though!

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  13. The airy braiding of the poem’s thought and weave-work of the art shows the identity of self and world (including our streets) in the same breeze. We think with the world’s mind. Well done –

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