The uncertainty of tears

wikipaintings.org
Katsushika Hokusai
Cargo ship and wave 1805




Waves swollen like tears upon leaves

burst each one

upon spiked lashes of 

sand

a universe pulled into a black hole of certitude

its retreat pungent 

upon my cheek




copyright/all rights reserved Audrey Howitt 2014

In Search of Expression

wikipainting.org

Gustave Courbet, 1841

Portrait of Juliette Courbet as a  Sleeping Child

Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.

Robert Frost

Dreams flit around the periphery of consciousness

finding their home

in pockets of reverie

before sleep leaves the sleeper

and in those fragile moments in which sleeper remains so bound

emotion fingers the soft tendrils of thought

its search for expression

a lingering bit of fog

in which we find our best, and most deep

sense of ourselves on paper.

copyright/all rights reserved Audrey Howitt 2014

Thank you to those who thrive in the Garden

Somewhere Green

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 Daniel Valcarce, VUELO NOCTURNO (NIGHT FLIGHT) oil on canvas, from the series FIRST DREAMS, 1998

i stopped somewhere green

unmarked in my mind's eye.

a stone blocking my way

told tales belonging to another

of birth and death

so young.

a lamb covered the stone

draped in body

holding soul

to ground

until mother could retrieve

it on her way 

to somewhere green

unmarked in her mind's eye.

copyright/all rights reserved Audrey Howitt 2014

posted for Poets United

A Song Remembered

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Emmanuel A. Gonzalez

Once he held thumb on my pulse

to hear the blood inside sing.

It sang 

without the wind's notice.

It sang

without touching the ground even once.

It sang

in patterns imprinted

upon the quantum of me.

He held my pulse against 

a storm of showered tumbleweeds,

their friction,

my fondest friend,

a relationship impermanent,

like sand

strewn against the sun's eyes.

copyright/all rights reserved Audrey Howitt 2014

posted for dVerse

I'm a fermata

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We clap rhythms to songs we know 

guessing which, as coffee fills the air.

The opening to Eine kleine nachtmusik stumped me this morning.

Nerdling games I know.

I'm a fermata, so hold me.

copyright/all rights reserved Audrey Howitt 2014

posted for Dverse

Chiaroscuro

wikimedia commons

John Chapdelaine

oil on canvas

your vibration,

a chiaroscuro,

shadows

my night.

copyright/all rights reserved Audrey Howitt 2014



posted for Poets United

The Weight of Water

wikimedia commons

Summertime by Mary Cassatt

in the public domain in the United States

I close my eyes

to feel its softness

like a cool cloth

pressing gently 

upon the orbital ridge around my eyes,

the weight

at once present and absent

from lid's creases.

If I open my mouth

it will invade every crevice 

available to it,

a potent reminder of its press,

a heft upon

the slim cord of air

trapped between my teeth

as i float 

up to the surface.

copyright/all rights reserved Audrey Howitt 2014