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awake
---------------

a jet high
overhead as I lay
awake listening
to the untuned
frequencies of my
insomnia and I
wonder about
those people
on the jet feel envious
of their high
altitude comings
and goings while
I’m forever here,
jammed between
these four walls behind
these matchstick
eye-lids no
heavenly vapour
trails behind me no
loved ones
waiting at the gate.



False Starts
--------------------

The birds have
already begun
their morning
song and I
haven’t yet
been to sleep –
the night
a series of false
starts, like
the many journals
I’ve kept over
the years –
one after another
abandoned
before anything
was ever
said.



Pray
-------------

I visit her in the hospital
and she allows me to
brush her hair, her beautiful
strawberry blonde hair.
Yet it’s not like it used to be;
it has somehow lost its life,
its vibrancy; even
the colour
doesn’t seem as striking
as I remember it, all
fanned out across the pillow,
or the way it went curly
in rainy weather.
She smiles weakly
as I untangle the knots
with all the delicacy
of a brain surgeon.
She’s the same girl
underneath all that illness
and disillusionment with life,
the same girl; and I pray,
oh how I pray,
that she will soon come
back to me,
come back to all of us.



Drifter
--------------------

I think of God as a lonely drifter,
passing through people’s lives
as if they were abandoned towns.
I think of God stopping to rest
on the steps of a run-down motel,
a motel where many others have
passed; his long, thin shadow
cast out before him, as he leans
into the afternoon, smoking a cigarette.
I think of God and wonder if he has
regrets like the rest of us; if
at one time there was a woman,
someone he could be with, who’d
listen, but who went away when
he was least able to deal with it.
I think of God, sadly, knowing
he has no one to pray to, no one
to call on in times of crisis. I think
of God and feel sorry for his being
so very much like the rest of us.

Wow. These are good. Each one has its own voice and has something interesting to say in an interesting way. I'm glad I stopped by to read these this morning. Say, do you have a book out? And are you always so lonely?

I may come back later and be more specific, but I should get to work.

Dear Hero in the Seaweed ~

I'd have used my typical "WoW," but my sister already used it. Share and share alike, Mom always said... so, I'll proceed without it.

You've found heroes amongst the seaweed with your writing. I've just now found the time to read them through, and I'm glad I waited until I was able to read them all at once, one after the other, for like a grouping of photos on the wall, they work together and appear to be very connected.

Your expression is so straightforward and simple and, in that, so profound in the way they make their way into me. In so few lines and words, you subtly and effortlessly capture the essence of the passage of time, and of fear, loneliness, and exhaustion. Nothing feels contrived. A unique and very creative way of seeing and perceiving G~d. I love this image and am curious what thought process brought you to it. Not that you'd be able or even want to describe that aspect:

his long, thin shadow
cast out before him, as he leans
into the afternoon, smoking a cigarette.

These impress me with their tenderness and humanity. Thank you so much for sharing them. I hope that your Pray/er has been answered and that she has made it back home to all of you.

Welcome to the Forum, Hero in the Seaweed .


~ Lizzy

Manna wrote:Wow. These are good. Each one has its own voice and has something interesting to say in an interesting way. I'm glad I stopped by to read these this morning. Say, do you have a book out? And are you always so lonely?

I may come back later and be more specific, but I should get to work.

Thanks, Manna. Yes, I have a couple of chapbooks out. "First Touch" is available at:

http://www.bospress.net/index_current.htm ("First Touch" by Glenn W. Cooper.)

and "Methinks I See My Father" is available at:

http://www.onr.com/user/jwhagins/chaps.html

Thanks for your kind words.