I have weathered wolves and deities, fought horrors dreamt and real,
kept my word and my identity, though the system bade me fail.
I have championed my brother, taken succor with the weal,
sourced my secret tides for good and ill, borne my pain beyond the pale. Continue reading And Weariness Is My Name by Ron Sanders→
It’s so easy to rejoice in times of celebration
and to turn smiles into boisterous laughter
But how do we rejoice in times of sadness,
exchange mourning for the oil of gladness,
the spirit of despair for a garment of praise,
and the ugly coverings of sackcloth & ashes
for a crown of beauty?
Outside my mind, his breath is shallow;
I see him gasping for air,
his emaciated chest rising and falling.
Some days—no, many— I let him in.
I feed him, clothe him, let him soak in the bath.
I would not want him to suffer.
And yes, some days—no, many—
I let him spend the night.
You might think this would satisfy him,
rekindle his desire for independence,
and sometimes, it does.
Then, I am satisfied, my good deed committed.
I have saved a life.
as darkness turns
changing pain
like the razor’s edge
Careful now
she sets in quick under a bright sky
when I want them to fade quickly
Not to play the victim
or take one little fall
between spaces where
human traits reveal themselves
where pride falls to the floor
nothing to separate us
from the weak
The sun is crackling
now on granite boulders
piled in disarray
as frozen in mid-shift
as molten immobility
and heat is oozing up
to drive the cave bears
rumbling out
from fiery crevices
to claw at stones
and scorch their paws
then roar in helpless rage
at the inescapable
They slice the air
to swipe at me
and miss
me seated on the flat
and only mossy stone
out of reach
for only now
Snakes are seething
on their bellies
pissed and breathing
spit from hell
fangs bared
for taste of flesh
dripping honey-venom
they look at me
with threatening eyes
a hint of death
trembles in my spine
There is no turning back
Wish what I will
there’s nothing for it
but to bear the heat
thread the needle up
up the path serpentine
and trust in possibility
of blue-skyed Golden Sun
Only the dragon
rousing underneath the rocks
cocks his ear in pleasure
at the mounting fire
knowing
(brother to his sister Phoenix)
flame is fuel
to wings that would be spread
And as I remember Icarus
the dragon tells me
fire put to proper ore
with heavenly alchemy
creates the glowing crucible
kindles rising pressure
tempers diamond
from the coal
______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Greg Bell writes because he must. A critical illness finally roused him to publish in 2013. He’s since placed work in literary journals & anthologies and was the 2019 recipient of the Kowit Poetry Prize. He’s the author of the hybrid poetry collection Looking for Will: My Bardic Quest with Shakespeare (Ion Drive, 2015) and two award-winning plays: [1] Says he, ‘We are the witnesses, the Jiminy Crickets, the agents of change’; [2] let’s go!
Image Credit: Diamond-cut wallpaper abstract [itl.cat] spanning colors to symbolize the red hot stress of adversity to the cool blue of hope
To understand the ocean
I would have to lie
on the sand and
let it scratch my skin
until it was smooth
then I would bury my arms
and let the sandweight
take my bones and
knit my flesh to itself
my legs would grow holes
and turn inside out
my chest would sink in
to the deep moist layer
where treasures are kept
my ears would dissolve
and say hello to my eyes
my nose, curious at the change
would scent danger
then wonder when
the fog would come
from across the world
when the tides would visit
and offer me to the moon
when I would wash from the shore
blink with my big new eyes
at the waves
my tender gills
learning to breathe
once more
a creature
in a new kind of school