The Moon As Seen By The Sea Is A Small Vessel Lit From Within

The Moon As Seen By The Sea Is A Small Vessel Lit From Within

 

Full Moon  July 3, 2023

 

As the giant cuttlefish

chromatophores in the skin make fast-flying clouds in the reef

a skin that itself sees, then tells the brain to be grateful

 

To tell the body back: There is a world

and then to midsummer the mood of pollen finding lift in wind

allow flesh to make music within, that limns into itself lightly

 

For one step unto the next alone

gently

 

Cipher for the unknown

a more-than-green grass in a hidden gulch

for migrants: the melody of extinct water

 

For the sake of the least viable

the unseeded fruit, the recalcitrant emotion, the inner-directed

storm that smothers timid vines, alabaster morning glories

that wait until dusk calms to begin to twine

 

Whatsoever speaks

gently

 

Beneath the whole individual—

a braiding catacomb of earthsong

bones hollowed for music

made gentle

by the circle

 

For the love of non-ordinary states,

great regard  for spiritual emergencies:

listen to crying wind over the lost water

& each a dreaming ship

captives together changing form

somehow grateful

 

 

 

Poem by Qayyum Johnson.

Painting by Suiko McCall. A Skin That Itself Sees, 2023. Oil pastels & sumi ink, 12×16″