Word Whispereer

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Sentimental Moonlit Sounds

... it has been said that time heals all wounds ... seasons change ... the more things change, the more they stay the same ..." I love you but I'm not in love with you " ... there is a " cliche  du jour " for every occasion ...

Well here is a new one...well spun in a different way ..." we did the things that we learned we shouldn't do again ~ what wasn't learned from mistakes, we will make them " ...




I watched as you disappeared following the infinite rails, headed for unknown final destinations, far beyond the distant horizon…


The Great Horned Owls hoot willfully for hours
breaking the silence of a cloudy and humid summer night.  
The windows to the outside world are wide open
allowing the sweetness of the firs and pines fragrance 
to permeate the stale bedroom air. 
The conversation between the owls
sounds like a long distance phone call
in which time pauses between 
the short awkward sentences.
  
One sounds as if she was in the next room.
As their unique majestic chatter
echoes off the giant trees,
as the other yearns to be near
from a country mile away.
He answers her questions willingly
from the stillness on other side of the draw;
up the treed hill overlooking the rippling brook
where it enters the cool spring water
trickling over the mossy  rock dammed pond .

From the north, beyond the crest of the hill,
a new sound is heard in the night’s darkness
hushing the flirtatious owls lullaby.
It is the sound of the distant trains, down in the valley,
speeding though the night on the infinite rails.
  
Once again from this vantage point
I count crossing horn blasts like sheep 
First whistles are barely heard from great distance
evolving into an undeniable ending to the peaceful solitude.
A dream ruining, eyes wide open, ruminating noise.
Finally  fading into the night air restoring silence
after 28 horn blasts warning all creatures and mankind
that the train from somewhere passed in the night.
Crossing crossroads through great physical and  cultural distances
traveling under the cover of night to nameless destinations. 

The Great Horned Owls were silenced
by a thick aura hovering in the atmosphere, 
a stillness filled with heavy nighttime air.
Weighed down by poignant sentimental emotion,
the silence of ardent reverie replaced their
eerie calling with a heavy thick haze
you could cut with a knife.
I reminisced quietly in my mind
over that exact sound scenario’s feeling of déjà vu,
knowing I've been here before through many seasons past... 
Remembering our time together... 
As you lie next to me
with only a musky cotton sheet
partially covering your sleeping beauty.

Listening to the silence
broken by the wonders of nature.
I watched you countless times;
content to be in the moment
as I enjoyed the melody of your sensual
exhaled breath as you slept.
Willingly, I silently counted 
owls and trains... contemplating
the loss of this fading moment
mindful time waits for no one
while watching your peaceful slumber
knowing one day soon you would vanish to be free.

I watched as the red sky dawned
as you boarded that train.
Abandoned and left behind 
with the burden of these roots 
grounded in the bed rock of my history ;

I gazed hopelessly blinded by the rising sun, 
as you disappeared following the infinite rails, 
headed for unknown final destinations, 
far beyond the distant horizon …


© 2011, 2012, 2013 ... Harlon Rivers 

Monday, March 18, 2013

Black and White Delights


... Black and White memories of the road taken …

The father of the girl from the North Country Fair ~

Black and White Delights


Found inside the old  Scottish steamer trunk
from the trip to find a brighter day
Tucked away in the dustiest corner
of the darkest of lonely rooms
Countless black and white delights
lay cold and brittle
The memories they recorded are
tucked away in albums
Ragged shoe-boxes
filled to the corrugated brim
Overflowing plastic pages
Black and White memories
of the road taken…

The journey on this long road
had many twists and turns
Pot hole twisted ankles
Bumps and bruises,
obstructions brought travelers to their knees
Indecision's crossroads went past
that road not taken
Paths and trails forged
through the thick density of perplexity
Life’s conundrums
of forward movement.
Pathways of nonconformity
must be new trails blazed
Silent reflection in quest
of a brighter, more hopeful,
peaceful existence

Inertia that carried momentum's
uncontrolled cadence
drifting through moments
swept away by turmoil
All moments recorded and remembered
as if even the darkest night’s
memories meanings ,
would somehow be revealed ,
timelessly , from first to last
Retrospective revelations
found in black and white images

Stacks of life in Black and White
Cracked and discolored by darkness
Tattered and faded by the light
Vivid and daunting
Positive photo prints
Negative film strips
Slides to reprint
lost memories illumination
Magnification seen through the looking glass
Snippets of life’s baggage left behind
now remain as still similes of lost time
Serving as a reminder,
preserving  destiny's journey
documenting life's long and winding road followed...


 © 2012 Harlon Rivers  

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Unbridled Darkness


...this is a  " Diary of the Falling Dominoes " chapter , called " Unbridled Darkness."   It is written about enduring the darkness of a Bi Polar disorder cycle...




Unbridled Darkness



As I search for the light 
in this eerily familiar room
Darkness won’t let me
find the switch I assume
I feel for the walls
that confine this hopeless space
So close yet so far away
that known boundaries are misplaced

Where lays that lost tunnel
that funnels away the despair ?
I know I have been there on hands and knees
naked, broken, bleeding and bare
Obscurity consumes me
I sense my aching soul
Am I back here again
in the isolation of forlorn holes ?

Is this a daunting dimness
no faint light may penetrate ?
Are these dark shadows’
self-tormenting delusions only a chimera state ?
Can I patiently wait
for the illusive light in this room ?
Isolation hears no mourning
as if this were my ultimate tomb ?

Blessed be the final anguish
when merciful surrender evolves  into solitude
After all I nearly found redemption,
when I was rescued from earthly turpitude
Memories of slowly drowning,
gasping for a vivid dream
As the angels of mercy hovered over
the ultimate final scene

Don’t deny what’s within the shadows
The  soul is never alone
In this place where midnight floods heartache,
with all that insignificance condones
Surely hopefulness  has merely vanished
as broken hearts leak
The last drops of love rain down in silence
while the spirit within is willing but the flesh is weak

The soul of a man still clenches
for the tunnels to daylight
If only the mind could follow
its intuition’s path into black and white
As I search for the light
in this proverbial empty space
Dreaded darkness won’t unveil
illumination’s key to guidance that’s misplaced

These walls seem so claustrophobic
like fear has consumed
But darkness still envelops
the warrior’s tomb
Yearning for a passage
that was lost along route
Scratching and crawling,
loneliness timidly reaches out  ...

© 2013 Harlon Rivers  …  All Rights Reserved

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Essence of the Dawn







Sitting by the muddy pond
I count crows one by one
Bullfrogs croak in silky silence
There is something sacred
about earthy mud oozing
between your toes
Bluebirds line up on a wire
as I savor the bird’s melodic song

My old dog hears life
beneath this rain soaked ground
Her mystic senses view visions 
underneath the dawning sun
There are mountains to climb
Stones to throw
so you’ve got to love it
or leave me alone

This search is for my essence
A misplaced spirit was hidden by a haze ,
as a moment lost was never really gone
The keeper of your secrets trust 
will never abandon you alone
The weight of the world’s gravity
overwhelms the solitude while sinking down
buried alive barefooted, deep into quick sand

Taste and smell this life's secrets
held in your soul’s sturdy hands
On the outside you wear them like a mask
where your sunburned skin
sheds your incarcerated sins
Squamous cell confusion reigns
Life’s unhealed lesions 
are not a path to hell

" It makes no difference
if it’s night or day
it’s as if the shadows
never seem to fade away "
On this emerging crack of dawn
I’d give everything away I own
for a moment's peace away
from this rocky,  muddy 
barbed wire throne

In the eloquent morning stillness ,
there’s nothing but veiled hope
yawning at the new dawn
Love evades this stigma's bitter sweet being
Crawling out from the shroud of darkness
into the daybreak’s light 
The sun rises from the shadows thrown
illuminating 
some sacred  
hopeful
distant pond...


©  Harlon Rivers 

Monday, March 4, 2013

Mending Unraveled Threads

... a poem about the times when we struggle to see things clearly ... Like the moments when it can feel like the mind can become a twisted and tangled mess ...Everybody has turbulent Monday's now and then ... Just some more often than others ...

... A new chapter from " The Diary of the falling Dominoes ."






Mending Unraveled Threads


From time to time the thoughts get so twisted
Lost in vague and muddled silent reverie
If only the silenced words could be spoken clearly
An untangled and redrawn picture
Seen in a new light’s shining glow

The silk threads spun get knotted and tousled
Where the web is blindly woven out of sight
Interlaced within the shadow’s darkness
Ensnarled loose skeins get harder to unravel
When the tangled mess is known by heart

When the trailing vines of the vineyard get twisted
Entwined in the forgotten moments of a time pasted
The grapes of wrath craft a bitter sweet vintage
Gone astray within the jumbled maze unfurling
The crawling vines reaching for the radiant sunlight

A journey’s tapestry montage becomes unraveled
Tugging too hard at the past’s hanging strand
Unraveling and exposing every last stitch of thread
As the collage of snippets from the past
Comes unglued

Can you imagine looking up at the enlightening moment
As the mosaic of glistening stars
Assembled the enchanting sky ?
The moment the universe unveiled crystal clear perfection
Far beyond the mystic illumination of the midnight sun

Do you remember when you held me tight as I trembled?
You can’t see where you’re going in the pouring rain
You knew for an instant I was lost deep within my being
Until hope parted the clouds
Letting love’s light shine right on through ...


© 2013 Harlon Rivers  … All Rights Reserved