Austerity of Air

The illusive autonomy of pain,

that veils the vital pair:

Ubiquity of purpose, and

austerity of air

So idle, until the moment

to tear the fetters free

Let drag your former chains behind,

then shackle them to me

It’s a willful burden born by love;

a love that bears all things

A love; autonomous like pain,

but illustrates the Springs

I would live in recluse before I’d die;

without this fellowship

And with only calls to mind inside,

Surely, surely I would slip.

There Gathered Silences

Here, they say, encased by brick

and copper buttresses,

beneath a ragged banner --

there gathered silences

Where empty lofts, once built for hymns,

now echo memories;

of the ringing in her elder walls,

that rang for centuries

The unwilling abdications;

by slander, or by sleuth

When many silences of trust

was silence of the truth

A pounding on the heavy door

split our placidity

As if they’d been forgotten,

“It’s me!” they called, “It’s me!”

Knowledges, Unbounded

That blinding iridescence

of unfolding intellect,

and knowledges, unbounded;

imagination left unchecked.

Until that final trumpet-blow

to quell the battlefield,

I’ll march beside the drummer boy

without a thing to wield.

Can you beat dawn to sunrise

as the newest day unfurls?

When light overflows the hillsides;

of diamonds and of pearls.

Shelved amongst the readings

of prophecies, untold

to those who asked for nothing, but

awareness of the world.

Continuation of "I Lived On Dread; To Those Who Know" By Emily Dickinson

I lived on dread; to those who know         

The stimulus there is

In danger, other impetus

Is numb and vital-less.                     

As ‘t were a spur upon the soul,

A fear will urge it where

To go without the spectre’s aid

Were challenging despair.

Before horizons, ‘tween beyond

And paths whence I had trod

Unwittingly, and never knew

A more omniscient God.

Still singed and cloaked, a casket

Has glibber a veneer

A pauper’s grave, vapidity,

To live and die in fear!

Continuation of "Much Madness" By Emily Dickinson

(First stanza is the original Emily Dickinson version, the second is my interpretive continuation.)

Much Madness is divinest Sense -

To a discerning Eye -

Much Sense - the starkest Madness -

’Tis the Majority

In this, as all, prevail -

Assent - and you are sane -

Demur - you’re straightway dangerous -

And handled with a Chain -

Such Sadness is a joyous Hymn -

When sung specifically –

And Joy - forlorn Disparity -

A sordid Lullaby

Those who balance tenderly -

Glow – but still unseen –

Smile – a fluorescent pall –

With symphonies between -