Call and Respond 11:11

I'm pleased for the flush. The words. The the the, I cannot find the words. Please be kindly. Eased from the blush: If you can't find the words,

settle for songs of birds. Lead me, blindly.

In this distance, I will hold you close.

(c) Holly Lee Philipson & Brent Harpur,

April 2020.

"When I don't write, I feel my world shrinking.

I feel I am in prison.

I feel I lose my fire and my colour.

It should be a necessity, as the sea needs to heave, and I call it breathing."

Anais Nin

This WaterSign would be more than content...

Here. Here, at a time when a lot of people in the world are frightened, dumbfounded, lost for words. I am thankful for the writers and the poets, whose outflowing of words, of wisdom; like water to cleanse and awaken us, they sate our thirst & moisten parched lips. I cast aside my umbrella, as a gentle, persistent rainfall brings our deserts and our gardens back to life again. Refilling our riverbeds and our lakes, helping us find our way back to the sea. I will add these mere droplets, tiny words of mine, to the universal ocean. And I will watch, with reverence and wonder, as the tides slowly rise. Today, for the first time since moving into my new home, I can hear the gasp, hiss and roar of the sea. Her ancient song, language and call, it enters me. I am soaked through, but born a-new. I feel her waves and her tide churn & froth deep inside me; healing me, healing the world. I am one. We are all one, with the flood. Tears & saltwater are now one & the same. I no longer wish to breathe underwater. I no longer yearn or learn to swim, dive or sail. No. In this new world we are hatching,

this Water-Sign would be more than content:

Just to breathe. And sigh.

Deeply, like the sea.

(-for W & H.)

(c)Brent M Harpur, 5/4/2020.

"In the thunder-crash / we're a million minds within a flash." Peter Gabriel, 'Here Comes the Flood'.

“Little islands are all large prisons; one cannot look at the sea without wishing for the wings of a swallow.” Sir Richard Francis Burton

“I am longing to be with you, and by the sea, where we can talk together freely and build our castles in the air.” Bram Stoker, 'Dracula'.

Begin Again...

 

There in the fire

deep in the flame

I see your face

I remember your name.

Distant yet close

in isolation

it's true

we're all losing (a little) our mind /

But please, all I ask

(in difficult moments)

is that we don't lose

our ability to be kind.

And there in the fire

deep in the flame

May we burn away our fears

our hurts & our shame.

A new world's a-coming,

and in the absence of cars, aircraft

 birdsong

it'll return /

Spiders will be welcomed back into our homes,

ancient rituals and songs

we'll re-learn.

For there in the fire

deep in the flame

May we never lose hope

we can begin

again.

Yeah, there in the fire

deep in the flame

When all else is ash...

Love will remain.

(-for W.)

(c)Brent M Harpur, 30/3/2020.

"It's the end of the world as we know it [it's time I spent some time alone] and I feel fine. Fine."

(Michael Stipe/r.e.m.)

April Fool Lockdown Blues, Part One...

In these desperate times,

none of us (really) have anything to lose /

So much to gain, perhaps

and if we're really lucky, a distant muse?

And all of this ought to come as

no surprise :

Some of us will be reduced to ash,

scattered in wind

And others,

we will rise.

Try to stay strong, dear.

It won't be long, dear.

I close my eyes, think of you.

And if I'm thinking of you,

you're right here in my bubble with me, too.

In my mind, my heart

(on the other side of this ocean)

I can see that tiny spot - you know the one,

just behind your knees /

Like the wind I will gently blow on it

& find you humming,

like the re-appearing bees.

And when all this is over,

when all of this is through /

I'm going to try real hard

to find a way back to you. 

(-for a distant muse.)

(c)Brent M Harpur, 1/4/2020.

"Oh, that I could shrink the surface of the world,

  so that suddenly I might find you standing at my side."  Wang Chien