Summer Day

Heat comes
after the cool of morning
down out of a clear blue sky
that reaches upwards
towards forever.

Land bakes under
oven-air that parches
grass and flower,
sears the soul
and wearies hearts and limbs.

Over the mountains building,
towering, darkening
clouds confound
the sunbright heat,
lift gales,
fling lightning bolts
with a crack and grumble
and rain buckets down at last
to bludgeon flowers
into the sudden mud
but the grass endures
and even likes it.

Passing,
on their own, wind-driven,
clouds sail
towards the next horizon…
Clear bright heat,
the sun returns
takes back the wet
and the relief until
declining in the sky
descends
behind the mountains
where the clouds began.

August 2011 CL Redding
revisions 2024

Summer Creek

Silt settles in the summer creek
over hard-wedged wood
and largish stubborn stones
laid bright and bare
since vernal torrents
ripped raw the bed,
tore out old banks
and little bridges loosed
rode wild on white-water
shattered against rock after rock…

The sun is warm now glimmering
over the water where leafy branches
gaze and tease the eye
where the pebbles colorful and striped
and many shades of grey
rest nestled in the silt
that settles ’round but does not
obscure them from the sun
and satin ripples whisper
as they dance together–sunlight,
pebbles and clear-running stream.

I sit now by the summer creek
relieved that wild season’s passed,
soaking in the sunlight at my back,
and realizing, knowing
Springtime
full of itself and its own nature
meant no harm.

July 2011 CL Redding
revisions 2024

Tennis for the Blind

I played the game,
took my side of the net
and played
the best I could
the best I knew
lobbed ball after ball
fair shots, all,
shared good volleys,
you could hear my laughter,
I could hear your smile…

Even when the ball
did not return
still I played
and played
looked for,
waited for returns
that did not come…

I served at last
the last ball that I had
and waited…
listened blindly
to the shadows…
felt at my back
when the sun went down
and knew the time had come.

I lay my racket down
and go.


May 2011 CL Redding
revisions 2024

Duet

Voice of eagle,
Voice of lark
lace-like
rising through a sky
against storm clouds dark
and brilliant-edged
the silver dashing rain
about to fall…

Harmonics rising
building vast
relentless
out of the mighty stones:
deep thunder
not of clouded skies
but from earth’s very heart
resounds…

Bright song pierces
crying angel-high;
God-profundo
out of abyssal silence
suddenly
was always there…

Duet sublime
as Life and Death
are One.

May 2011 CL Redding
revisions 2024

Do You Know…?

Do you know the signs of grief–
denial
anger and despair
apathy
acceptance–
how they follow
one upon the other
at a gallop
first and then
a lope…

How over time
a weariness sets in
the pain, less fierce
need not be
galloped through
headlong…
and days it takes
at last, again
to feel each stage
in all its richness
all its depth…

Weeks revolve
exploring
sorting
weeping
taking hold again
of faith, of life
but if one’s wise
denying hope…

And do you know
the cycle
never ends?


May 2011 CL Redding
revision 2024

Another Morning After

Each morning waking
you are less and less
in my first thought
and shame is passing
into just embarrassment
and simple pain.

Yet still my eye–
with each flicker of a glance
of what I saw you in
that passes in the road
or on the screen
or in a passing thought–
still shies away,
seeks haven in any other thing.

But there are so few
that have not you
within them for me:
You were that important.
No.
It was that important
that you were there.

I write it now, revealing
in this space where you
will never come
will never see or know:
I would not share this now with you
no matter how for me I wish you knew
because I still believe
that where you are,
you wander still
lost in a greater pain than mine.

April 2011 CL Redding

Who?

I look for you
your sweet face gleaming
on the very edge of dreaming,
I seek you, yearning
to believe,
to know
that you are real…
that we are in a world
together loving,
touching, laughing,
waltzing 
on a harlequin ballroom floor,
chequered black and white,
smooth and perfect
in a forest glen,
beneath crystal skies
and lit by
dancing fireflies…

2005 CL Redding

Too Late Too Soon

I believed you’d live forever,
though I know it can’t be so–
I’ve always known I’d lose you,
though I felt you’d never go…
There’d be time some perfect day to speak
the long-unspoken word,
To tell you all I needed to,
to be sure that you had heard…
That there’d be time to listen,
to show how much I care
To be sure you know I love you,
before you aren’t there.

But I have been so busy,
and believed you’d always be
within my voice’s reach,
and where my eyes could turn and see
that you are waiting, smiling, until my moment’s best
for attending to your moment,
all those words and all the rest…
But time grows short–the leaf, it fades,
falls drifting through the air
And it will touch the ground and still,
before I can be there.

Sorrow, for the incomplete,
the tales and songs unfinished…
Guilt, for all the chances passed
so both our lives diminished…
Loss, for opportunities that knocked
time and time again…
Anger, that you left too soon,
and never warned me when…
Shame, because it is my fault,
for the things I never gave
because it was so much easier
to believe you’d never leave.

2004 revised 2024 CL Redding

Bitter Grapes

Wine was once upon a time divine
but now, somehow,
the elegance is soured
as it’s taken and devoured
what I knew of you
and thought was fine.

You sleep it off, unconscious
that the sabotage is done,
today, tonight are gone,
tomorrow spoken for
with stumbling tongue
and eyes that will not wake
to see the morning sun
and all its brightness shines upon.

And do you miss me, in your sleep?
Or miss the time together
when we keep each other warm and close?
the time we shelter here together
in the center of the storm?
It’s not the love that’s lacking, only care
It’s me out here and you asleep in there
It’s walls and hedges,
thorns and stones and chasms
holding us apart.

Your choice is always yours
and this among your choices
is the one you always choose.
I wonder what it is you think you gain
that’s worth every thing you lose.

It doesn’t matter that you cannot lose my love–
You can, in fact, lose me:
My best, and worst;
the games we play;
Companionship and passion;
Laughter; Challenge, too…
I cannot say for sure I’m such a prize,
but I know the look of sunlight in your eyes…

To cherish what you have to lose,
whether to reality or to booze,
could be considered foolish
so perhaps you’re wise
compared to me remembering
the sunlight in your eyes.

1995 CL Redding