tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8555114521624356230.post-54570672270902751422008-03-21T23:39:00.001-07:002008-03-22T04:41:46.285-07:00Days spent without the dumb certainty of language<br />The reprieve found in stepping on rock after rock<br />Moving amongst the evidence of living things and trees<br />Alongside things running somewhere<br />Wild pigs have foraged here<br /><br />Such are the clear moments of small things<br />Snags of blackberry thorns on a long slow hike<br />The impossibility of drawing a deep breath <br />in an abandoned mineshaft<br />Not even the wind finds us here<br />Undersides of ancient things stubbornly static<br />and what collects there<br />Distillations of surfaces<br />Channelled into the depths <br />where we see with our hands<br /><br />We inherit this;<br />Vast underbellies of others’ understandings<br />Clouded thoughts in small crowded houses<br />Tiny tables shortened by too much Pastis<br />Closer <br />Closer until everything touches<br />Forces the air out<br />We leave too <br />the cramped room<br />the tiny village<br />the road<br />Further<br /><br />Inadequate maps without spaces <br />show nothing<br />Give nothing <br />Cartographers of places untouched by the sun<br />Hold maps in their memory to draw later<br />I watch where you place your foot<br />I follow <br />Today the curl of hair on your collar <br />and your square back<br />Sure footed on an ancient trail reclaimed by green<br />Following ghosts of Romans <br />and English tourists <br />Cradled in the valley we walk long in silence<br /><br />The clarity of a river full of fish <br />Sudden leap of a toad<br />First blossoms brave the freezing air <br />against a forest of brilliant green regrowth <br />I watch our shadows pass over the water<br />birdcall anouncements precede us<br /><br />Stories speak more loudly here <br />Voices move <br />years after the sound has left them<br />We breathe them in<br />Silence expands <br />falls softly into the river and the soil<br />crackles under our feet <br />then scattersAmanda Joyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01630905497211235099noreply@blogger.com