HEART THREAD 255, 256, & 257

255.
Protect this fading image from all the
angry images
this image I made as me
I am the one who thinks myself to be
bad think bad god
to make this double little world of
me and it
make the other be one with me
or one of me or I am none
and where are you in all these trees
leafier this year than ever I’ve
known
after the locust trees blossomed all
spring
the basswoods our lindens blossomed high
summer
their fragrance fills the house all
night when the wind moves. 
256.
Once I wanted what would walk through
the door
because the guest is god I am an
atheist
some pollen fallen from another’s
tree
grows an absolutely different kind of
grain
go inside time to its relenting
suppose I were rain along your spine
would your mind turn rain into
someone else
the way not even the weather is
personal
smoky breath of an old friend
the taste in someone else’s mouth a
word is
once you have seen the picture you’ll
never stop
we have to keep talking to the world
to make it go?
257.
The snail shells move in the night
like ship
who knows where the copper is that
breathes the blood
scratch of a pen on an ancient map
here are the islands of the ancestors
listen and you’ll hear your fathers
calling
they are praying for the clouds to
let them through
they have a name for you a permission
survival of the fastest
dark dark the word gouged in wet sand
they were here before you they’re the
fathers
you think at first it is the traffic
or the birds
but deep in your belly you know
better.  

HEART THREAD 253 & 254

253.
No one can read it all the way
through
even a single sentence is infinite
a verb is an abyss
he talked about language till it
silenced him
humidity abolishes conversation
it is the sea come back to claim us
escapees
our local habitation golden trowel
round the town
hedges of Donegal all gorse and
fuchsia
map the country where my body lives
wherever cold is comfort
half the folk you meet aren’t really
there
vanish into that lush green hill. 
254.
The home I never had is you
the god of communication is the god
of secrets kept
power of the hermetic axe with two
blades
wings on his heels he shows and hides
wherefore set we down words on paper
hoping substance hides what meaning
says
every language foreign to a thing
we live in darkness with skins of
light
where Hermes is heaven is a letter
you can’t yet read
spend all your nights deciphering
this touch
brutal answer of a cloudless day
it must mean something if it is.

HEART THREAD 251 & 252

251.
Let’s do it yesterday
for music’s sake the angel facing
backwards
there is something of sulfur in the
rose
a petal fallen laid along the skin
no other fact can slip past it
natural affinity of rose with flesh
of thorn with mind
the prick of thinking
trickle of blood along the flesh
break the sentence open it will bleed
Scriabin saw his word in color in the
sky
a fatal rose that knows so many. 
252.
Something true about defilement
wrong tool for the right job
or dawn full of feathers fallen
from some legendary bird you never
saw
but these things fly their kind is to
come
close and touch you while you sleep
you say O my dream but it eats you
disdains your sorry meat
touch defiles
that’s why we need it
we come into this dance so pure
no one can remember his father.  

HEART THREAD 249 & 250

249.
Where there should be a road
I write with what I gave you gave me
back
all exchanges spiral into one
this is the point the start the
target the soul
will you get to the point I am the
point
there is no other a minute is my
mother
trees look away today don’t dry on me
I need your perfect beauty in every
line
some people get no older it is a play
retrieve the rain that washes the
rose
cistus or labdanum brings the dying back
to life
offer this resin in the temple and
see what god appears. 
250.
To Venus Virgin Mother of the world
he wrote
shaky Latin his mind on something
else
because nothing is born it all is
here forever
love makes us turn our notice to each
thing
though things appear to enter the
world they were here all along
I like you will you like me back the
only song a child knows
I will lick your back of course of
course
each of us is apt for every need just
find the way
if you believe that you’ll believe
anything
I believe everything because I know
but what he knows he wouldn’t say
leaves it to you to find the right
word.

HEART THREAD 247 & 248

247.
Walk in the shade disprove the sun
everything has been said before so
now we’re free
the blue flower is a never-spoken
word
the color she bent down to touch
became her sky
culture is a long contagion
what can you do with a thought you
can’t think
the empty parable Satan’s answer
if I give you the desert will you
give me my emptiness again
all the jewels of the mountain red
gravel of the Irrawaddy
I had three homes none of them mine
my wife was mad at me and turned away
for me there was no deeper pit than
this. 
248.
As if our business is to make our way
to hell
only that way is the road to paradise
again
who made up all these stories even if
they’re true
everything that’s told is true is
true enough
how much is there to know about you
look into my life to find you
a crack in the windshield makes the sky
belong to someone else
you found your way into my arteries I
breathe you in
cleansing of the blood miracle of
simple prose
grammar of the heart nakedness of any
window
we forget the important things so
they can happen
an image worn smooth by too much looking.