HEART TO HEART
Night makes an entrance
saying hello, bowing low
like a cosmic gentleman
listening to my words
as I pour my heart out
in the white-starred silence:
This sad earth of ours
is falling apart
all the people
in our troubled towns
with their angry mouths
have forgotten they're made
from long dead stars
all this mess of life
that strains itself
through cynical hearts
bitter thrones
spirits struck down
choked off, falling hard
and it shows
stardust hearts
have turned themselves off
burned themselves out
it's hard to share
my feathery thoughts
with stony hearts
and it's not in me
to put my fists up and fight
with these bird wrists of mine
this story book mind that
always looks to the skies
that wants to love softly
and fly
I plead with the night:
please help us to
sort it all out in time
and out of the blue
the sky answers in kind
sending me a tender sign
tossing down a falling star
a celestial offering
from its own carbon heart
to mine.
© Sherri Brannon 2017
A falling star is absolutely magical...I saw one recently and my heart overflowed. A split second of a miracle for my eyes only, or maybe not. Did anyone else at that exact moment happen to be looking up at the sky right when it happened? If so, we were supremely lucky to have shared that moment together. Separately, but together.
The state of the world...the ugliness we're showing to each other...the vast separation...it weighs heavily on me these days. Almost all of my poetry is about this subject right now. I like how this poem runs together in a big jumble, just like my stream-of-thought when I'm standing alone looking up at the stars.
My photo started out as a daylight photo I took in Hilton Head a month or so ago - I put it through several apps and it began to look like a night photo. I thought it would be a great photo to support my poem.
Grace is always present. You imagine it as something high in the sky, far away, something that has to descend. It is really inside you, in your heart. When the mind rests in its source, grace rushes forth, sprouting as from a spring within you. ~Ramana Maharshi
carbon hearts..wow...love that.
ReplyDeleteI've always been intrigued by how meteorites are viewed... It's nice and so positive--to see the death of one thing as possibilities for another. Intriguing...
ReplyDeleteI love the night as a soothing cosmic gentleman offering wish-star....beautiful...
ReplyDeleteI feel very much as you do. Thanks for the footnotes to your poem. I feel less alone,
ReplyDeleteElizabeth
Yes, I feel sometimes that we are trapped in misery... maybe it's not correct... sometimes we need to take a step back and looking at all the things that have improved... we have done it before and we can do it again. We just need to breathe a bit and look at stars before we start working.
ReplyDeleteOh yes....hoping we can sort it out in time.
ReplyDeleteYour words speak for me as well. Times are difficult for those of us who are eternal optimists! I'll be looking for falling stars.
ReplyDeleteIt is relief to read your poem and thoughts......that moment of the falling star, earth's grace to us in our confusion. She still shines forth her beauty, for those with eyes and hearts to see. I loved this, Sherri.
ReplyDelete"Night makes an entrance
ReplyDeletesaying hello, bowing low
like a cosmic gentleman
listening to my words
as I pour my heart out
in the white-starred silence:
a tender sign
a falling star
a celestial offering
from its own Holy heart
fell into mine."
I know I'm taking liberties, but the original thought before it became political was awesome. I'm passing on the poem I so wonderfully, actually read. :)
ZQ
PS you can kick my ass later :)
Just knowing you and others have and share these thoughts gives me hope. Thank you, dear Sherri. (By the way, I have the same bird wrists.)
ReplyDeleteit's hard to share
ReplyDeletemy feathery thoughts
with stony hearts
and it's not in me
to put my fists up and fight
with these bird wrists of mine
this story book mind that
always looks to the skies
that wants to love softly
and fly
Beautiful!!
Very expressive poem and the photo edit went with it perfectly. I like that one star shining in the middle as a ray of "hope" to this world of ours.
ReplyDeleteLovely photo and poem!
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteThe comparison of night to a cosmic gentleman is just brilliant.....and that photo is stunning. I love it!
A beautiful poem. I love the way you keep returning to the idea of stars. And thank you for sharing the quote about grace - lovely.
ReplyDeleteAmen. And so lovely.
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness! I love your poem! I read it aloud, and though I may not have used the rhythm you used whilst writing it, I loved the sound of it, which is a big plus in a poem.. ;)
ReplyDeleteFave part:
"it's hard to share
my feathery thoughts
with stony hearts
and it's not in me
to put my fists up and fight
with these bird wrists of mine"
Maybe, it's the mood, I'm in,at this moment,couldn't help,but shed a tear or two, as I read this poem.Only the heavens knows, if we have the wisdom, to escape, from this mess, we have made.
ReplyDelete