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Planisphere Q, Spring 2021
Theme: Sight

 

Say What You See

Obscenities

If you only see

a pile of rock

rising into mountain

 

say what you see.

 

Leave embellishment 

to storytellers

to history-makers.

 

The mountain in action

speaks for itself

 

festoons its peaking

with the medium

of nature

 

pronounces connection

to that real and solid

something in ourselves

 

allowing the stars

 

overhead their place

in the heavens

 

the wind through its trees

its voice in the world.

What we cannot see

we will imagine 

ever worse,

the fait accompli, hidden,

fully stopped.

 

Numbers, exclamations, percentages, asterisks --

propagated by lockdowns refined naiveté grows into

 

flowers running wild

infiltrating stands of trees 

with atrocious verdure,

 

adding fresh color to common phrases

flares hovering over stories

saying pay attention 

this is the moment.

 

May our eyes not be shielded

from such beauty.

The Things I Can Now See Without You

I saw an indigo bunting today

and thought of you.

Of how I know birds make you happy

and how I wished happiness came as easily to me.

How life thrives when we see things

we usually fail to see

Like impossibly blue birds

Or those heart gems: the people

I would be lesser for not having known.

That my shirt was on inside out

My collar folded in

Or the delightful strangeness of euphorbia

Eagles perched on highway posts

Flowers growing out of rocks.

Yes, today I saw this bird

and I had to let you know

I’m learning to notice things

though I no longer share it all with you.

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