Magical Place
—Poems by D.R. Wagner, Locke, CA
—Visuals Provided by D.R. Wagner
FOG VISIONS
The fog took the form of a man,
Bad ass, walking around swallowing
Every vista, hiding the foghorns
Deep within its huge damp.
I found myself beneath a streetlight,
A swirl of fog around me in the twilight.
I noticed a shifting of subtle lavenders
Move through the light and begin to descend.
I hadn’t thought of weather as a sentient being.
This fog was different. It slid through my neurobanks
Straight from my childhood, where the persistent
Nightmares are kept. It stood before me grinning.
Fog has a fondness for time and the cold
Spinning of Autumn, especially when caught
In a poem like an isolated part of a tapestry
Never noticed until the woven mythical beasts
Rise up from their threads and, owl quiet,
Find their way into this old body, eyes shining,
Still able to frighten the hell out of me.
Smoke and whispers from dreams.
I hear the click of dog toenails
Somewhere out in the street.
A delicate border birthed in blood.
Boy and Two Dogs
—Anonymous Illustration
I WOKE WITH A FEVER
Ten thousand twigs floating through the air.
Broken palm trees like letter forms
On the horizon. From here they seem
To form words.
I can walk past them after the storm.
They did try to spell something
But the entire place is wasteland.
I lift my eyes to the moon.
The moon shows no recognition.
It clears the clouds away to make room
For its reflection opposite the sun.
The light feels fatal as the wind and sea
In a Turner painting. It says we are the mirror.
We point to objects rather than try to name them.
The entire island has been flattened by the wind.
We are safe, here, on the other side of the world,
Fed images and sounds. Opening a book
To find the letter blown into the corners
Of the pages. Whatever sense there was
Builds the most tenuous of structures.
The moon swings like a pendulum.
I see its reflection cross your eyes
Time and time again. The skeleton
Of a moon with eyes seeing only too well.
Close to Halloween
—Anonymous Illustration
I RETURN IN WINTER
The tops of the gray waves were startling
With their over-washed white and growing voices.
We had waited. The day coming apart
Even as we walked through it.
“Only dreams will endure.” Dreams, like morning,
Clouds of ashes, the dark underside of clouds.
I watch the water drip from the eves,
Splash upon the marble and roll through
The scuppers to the courtyard. Soon
Snow will join this language and a gold,
As curious as moonlight, will entertain
The streets.
The evening takes a few moments
To state its case with shadows and distant
Sounds that collect around us, so many syllables
Serving no purpose but to remind us of loneliness.
The wind begins to shake the trees
Soon the entire forest is telling this story.
I look out across the cliff tops, the waves,
The singular crying of the heart in the fading light.
My Living Room
THE HOURS
Even if it is just the cast of light
Across the blue pencil and the whirl
The quartz heater makes as the room
Warms, I still feel the edges the words
Make as they move across my mouth
To find themselves safe, once again,
Inside of words that are still able to hold
My heart so gently I can feel the night
Halting, just outside the walls of this room.
There was an idea there. There still is an idea
There. The breath moves it through this one
To hold at least the flame of a wooden match
Against the window as I look past the Winter
Garden, the dense shadows of a waning moon.
I say your name once again and it is many names.
It is the songs waiting inside the instrument waiting
To be played, waiting to be sung once again.
Wait. Wait. The sun will be here in a few hours.
Sit near to me and we can talk of how we finally
Came to be in this room together, still knowing
Nothing. Still listening, still turning the tuning pegs
To get the perfect sound to come though all we touch.
Delta River Mansion, Grand Island, CA
A MOMENT ON THE LAKE
I hold a burnt gold in my hands.
My heart excuses me from from sleep.
It says “Go be with your poems. Tend
Your birds and demons and those bright
Smiles of the weather you seem to love
So much. Sleep is no longer the paradise
It was to you as a child. You have other
Blood in your body now. Tell us how hands
Touch you in the private places of your eyes.
Tell us what we so long to see as we step
To the edge of the world, not dreaming at all,
But wandering in twilight woods, immaculate
With bird song and a filtered light through trellises,
Through the branches of the lilac opening
Upon a Spring so fortunate to have splay across
Your life with its handfuls of color and frenzies
Of splendor, calling to all who love words.”
My heart, grant me grace that I may
Speak in this way and not fear the tiger,
The sudden movement of a hand fumbling
The tops of the wheat, the strange and curious
Song that rises from me now.
I look at myself sleeping far below
Or walking through the garden labyrinth,
Aware only that I am shadow wherever
I may go, both the ending and the beginning.
Loofa Growing on the Side of Stuart's House
Today’s LittleNip:
SCEMATIC NOCTURNE
—Federico García Lorca
Fennel, serpent and rush,
Aroma, scent and penumbra.
Air, earth and solitude.
(The ladder reaches to the moon.)
(trans. from the Spanish by Stanley Read)
Wisteria, Locke, CA
______________________
Many thanks to D.R. Wagner for today’s fine poems and pix! Don’t forget that today at 2pm, Valley Hi-North Laguna Library presents Thursday Night Workshop Poets Rhony Bhopla, Aeisha Jones, Emma Lee outs, Stephen Daly, Vicky Carrol plus open mic (50 lines or less). That's at 7400 Imagination Pkwy., Sac. Scroll down to the blue column (under the green column at the right) for info about this and other upcoming poetry events in our area—and note that more may be added at the last minute.
And check out the wonderful watercolors on Norwegian Poet/artist/publisher/friend Henry Denander’s “Poets and Other Portraits” Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/POETraits/?notif_id=1507296771088932¬if_t=fbpage_fan_invite/.
—Medusa
Celebrate poetry!
—Anonymous Illustration
Photos in this column can be enlarged by clicking on them once,
then click on the X in the top right corner to come back
to Medusa.
