Someone said a poet died ...

Someone said a poet died
a lamentable natural disaster
no one really ever understood
the uncomfortable loneliness they read,
left unsaid, in the silence between the lines

Gathered words often revealed
an awkward vulnerability
life tethered by an in-severable frayed thread
unable to shed the skin that enfolds
the dauntingly misunderstood laments

Suspended at friendless crossroads
melancholy days of indifference wept
mused many a sleepless night
"accepting an unfinished life"
evanescent as the faltering light

It’s as if there was always some wordless reason
to never feel good enough
unworthy to discover elusive love unknown
cleave a labyrinth out of the darkness
okay to just let go

It’s not a weakness to be human
"Tears are the heart’s traces" … he once wrote
"only eyes cleansed by teardrops see clearly"
heaven's rain unconditionally enlightened
by love and light.

Someone said a poet died
trying to make sense
out of all he thought he'd given
a word at a time was left behind
only abandoned words remain in the torn of silence

harlon rivers © 2016

#poetry #poets #crossroads

Dead Raccoon Along the Long and Winding Road

Dead Raccoon Along the Long 

  and Winding Road

                                  by harlon rivers

Raccoon lying sullied
along the long and winding road
haven’t felt this kind of sorrow
since the day the music came undone
Seen a lot of life stained highways,
walked a lot of lonesome miles
Not going to clean up my own spilt milk
waiting here for the stars fall from the sky

Raccoon lying sullied
along side the long and winding road
Passed by with silent indifference - -
look the other way byway child
Just a bump in the road
blood strain map to the ditch
lovely stretch of the lonesome highway
leading me on home alone

Dead Raccoon lying sullied
along the long and winding road
What are we going to do
this life wasn’t near enough ?
Swarm of honey bees awhirl
land high above on yonder tree,
touching the moment’s greater good
with a beguiled sweetness
natures' reverent ambrosial esprit

Rolling thunder storm
roiled through after midnight ;
cloud to ground lightning
resplendent spider web
Salt of tears or salt of Sea
this bitter sweet song
Dead Raccoon lying sullied
along the long and winding road

Tail stiff and pointed
toward the highway ;
compass needle coursing
on to other side ,
destiny come what may
Now some kind of this storm
has left me down hearted ,
high atop noir thunder heads loom ,
caution thrown to the moon ,
yesterday’s seeds unsprouted
yet lovingly sown one by one

Dead Raccoon lying
on the other side
along this long
and winding road
misbegotten eulogy
this bitter sweet song ...
we leave a lot behind
along this long 
twisted road home ...

Notes: 11 pm June 1st, 2015

June 2nd 2015 a work in progress

In the starless sky blue sky

In the starless sky blue sky
                                              by harlon rivers

    dancing alone,
    when the sky
    is falling down

     free falling
      spinning …
rolling & tumbling 

uncontrollably around

rapt in the variegated
    shameless air
in the starless sky blue sky,

murder of crows watch
 from above high wire

grey nothingness aground …

tucking in the arch of a diver
    rolling upside down

Falling at the speed of loneliness
 espy the passing edge of a ledge
     with empty nest of brown

          uncaring glimpses

              ...the gravity
              ...the weight

           the whoosh of gusting wind

               brushing wild feathers,

                of rushing waterfall
                 becoming a silent
                  fallow creek bed

            …. shattering

    into Many shades of Black

       sky blue Robin’s egg
       nascent hope bestrewn - - - 

           broken pieces
       lie beside the tears

            awakened 

                  in 

                 the 

                 fall …

  Note:                                            

google search photo by Andy

Loneliness ... the antagonist without a face

Loneliness ... the antagonist without a face

Taunting with a treasure trove 

of misbegotten lies

loneliness is ...

the antagonist without a face
Eyes that well with tears 
are the deeply rooted spoils
of what was never sown 
to be harrowed dust and stone

What was never given freely
can never belie the truth
when the will to fight 
or flight is tested,
served up like humble pie

It’s that (diminishing) obscurity
that hides the thread barren
deeply woven into
the frayed fabric aplomb

The demure black sheep 
silently wanders  away
stained loveless without a fold..,
beguiled by other sheep of prey,
blinded by having such 
... finely-wooled over eyes

Love is the only enabling fabric
adept to draw out the chill 
from the darkest cold
true penitence transforming,
bending flecks of light
like a prism splayed glow

For it is through the cracks
the memory of light gets in;
it is through those misbefallen memories,
come what may

The antagonist without a face,
still hauntingly lingers,
amidst blue shades 
of melancholy hues
within yesterday's silenced tears ―


harlon rivers © ...4.24.2015

Notes:

It’s been said “Silence is golden, 
but my eyes still see"   Frankie Valli

though I weary be ,
sometimes silence
is the sound
of loneliness ;
sometimes loneliness
has no sound at all

...a snippet from "A Black Swan of Loneliness" by harlon rivers

"True penitence condemns to silence. What a man is ready to recall he would be willing to repeat."     F.H. Bradley

fading mirage

fading mirage

             by harlon rivers


stale promises beheld lightly
conjecture blowin’ in the wind
unsated expectations dwindling
self-fulfilled prophesy indelibly unveiled

eroding possibilities foreshadow
preemptive notions stigmatized
trying to make sense
out of burgeoning darkness ,
closer to the light

tis’ better to behold
a thickly clouded sky
than descry a shining light
insensible to feel
its penetrating touch into darkness ,
weary of chasing a fading mirage

though passing time
may assuage great expectations ,
not all that glitters is a fool’s gold
it’s not only in my mind ,
all these long and twisting roads
not all diamonds in the rough
yield a languished shine

you live and it hurts you ;
you give up you die ...
it took along time
to get here still standing ,

now "I’m just becoming

comfortably numb" ...


Everything in life you think you've figured out , just reveals another path to another set of questions
"destigmatize mental illness ... kindness matters"

"comfortably numb" is part of a lyric line from a song by that name;
written by: WATERS,ROGER/GILMOUR, DAVID JON

a black swan of loneliness

In the fog

of stifled understanding ,

holding on by a frayed thread

to all these useless dreams 

of living alone ...



waiting in the wings

 
for the turn of the tide ;

keeping one foot

in different worlds

while traveling

somewhere else

in my mind

crossing many rivers

trying to reach out 

and grasp another

perpetually eroding 

shoreline ...



though I weary be ,

sometimes silence

is the sound

of loneliness ;

sometimes loneliness

has no sound at all

in the pensive hush

of lowliness ,

a benumbing ache

reverberates

the ruptured stillness ..,

the hovering dark clouds

masking 

a black swan of loneliness



a silent throbbing

echoes like thunder ,

immerging unto

the unplanned

solitary throes ,

with the sleight of hand

a gravitational collapse



an enslaving

desolate hollowness

plunging into

a nebulous black whole

bathing in the rays 

of darkness ...


where the stars

hide by daylight

shrouding a forgotten sole

immersed in

an ocean of emptiness



harlon rivers © December 5th , 2014



“I was never really insane except upon
    occasions when my heart was touched.”

    ― Edgar Allan Poe

note: 
          " all these useless dreams of living alone,
             like a dogless bone "

attribution :
             a lyric from Damien Rice's song
                  Colour me in
             " my favourite faded fantasy "




additional postscript:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The black swan theory or theory of black swan events is a metaphor that describes an event that comes as a surprise, has a major effect, and is often inappropriately rationalized after the fact with the benefit of hindsight...