Selected Poetry of
Richard Harrison
'gravity' 'desert' 'forever' 'swimming deep' 'expansions'
'those words' 'at the shore of a certain sea' 'air'
'treasure' 'rejoices' 'birth' 'hurricane' 'journey'
'karen' 'balance' 'well' 'sleep' 'equinox'
'wind' 'future dreams' 'equation' 'breath' 'margins'
'storm' 'Old Green' 'both sides'
(Please 'click' on a title to go to the poem, and 'click' on 'top' to return here....)
'gravity'
i feel like an apple
and you feel like newton
watching my fall
observing gravity
making calculations on the tide
and
at the moment that i, the apple
still falling
know that my life is over at the end of this last trajectory
you catch me
you hold me
and you look at me as if i held an answer
to an important question
that still needs to be asked
Richard Harrison 1997
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'desert'
i am
words that can describe
and be
pain
birth
life
joy
death
and a love that willingly faces
the fear of being lost in the great growing breadth of me
and you
these choices apportion all i have
every shallow red-black pool of my blood
and every cry
and surgery of this love
pares me down
to the exultant ivory bones of the burning parched desert i am
lost in the wild whiteness of this dream
ben laughed so hard he shook last night
and i saw the red clay on my shaking fingers
in the dark
and i knew
my halting labored breath in this silent nothingness gives more
of the vast ocean
and sheets of greening rain
and yes thunder
than i will ever deserve
for i now know of the joy
held gently in this perfect bleeding heart of the world
and i now have touched the infinite velvet colors
that are you
Richard Harrison 10/28/98
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'forever'
I
a word and a concept
used unhesitatingly
far outreaching earthly nearsightedness
when man sees only love
not clothed in any kind reality
but festooned with the garlands
of the dream of grace
II
what does man mean with these sacred
whispered promises
of the infinite of perfection?
this man who walks is no seer
but simply one whose foundations
by cosmic definition
rest in perfect harmony
with that most perfect Universe
this is man
made in the shadow of tall redwoods
in the fertile belly of the sea
from clay and stones and fire
from the ashes of those who walked
from those who loved fought killed flew
from air love stars black holes and nothing
for this Woman
for this Mother
for this Universe which is space and time and birth and feeling
and the most sacred of unconditional love
measured in light years
by those who think such glory
can be measured at all
III
back
to the future of forever
as related by this man vessel
fired in this kiln of these most sacred of recyclables
where planet opposed planet
and stars agreed on ingredients
through the absence of coincidence
IV
how not forever
how could not this Love
formed from fire and ice in some primordial circular instant
be enduring on and on and on and on
because the last of that singular vast circumference
the last of this pulsating diamond of perfect Love
for this man in this perfect Grace
has no end at all
Richard Harrison 1998
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'swimming deep'
suspended in the blue-green
diving into that sapphire blue awareness
embracing parallels
of grey brothers and sisters
different only in the kinds of puzzles
we choose to solve
and our acceptance of condition
i saw beautiful grey bodies flying
dancing through that water-space
embracing me with the purest of love
and tender curiosity
and all the while those horrific shark bites
those disfigurements born of the wild
of the places of no laws
save nature's abides,
were accepted
understood by victim and Universe
in the same perfection
as those others who soared to loftier heights.
this teaching fell on me
like love falls on unsuspecting victims of understanding
standing face to face with the dawn
dissipating the mist of greener pastures
with this love of radiant cognition
rendering the perfection in all places
into this one place
into this one second
touch me
you are so beautiful
in this One
you with your white perfection
and your perfect broken wing
never to fly but in all ways to fly
ever to make love grow
in all hearts you touch
in all that surrounds you
in your gentle embracing of your pain
you bring serenity
in your quiet hope
you bring forth dreams
in this ordinary flight
of extraordinary courage.
Richard Harrison 1998
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'expansions'
it was good, this day,
in those many ways
many feelings, many thoughts
came together in a new essence
of the us that is growing
kicking
straining
in this womb
this kiln of fire and art and pain
this loving place
this sacred place of relationship
the commitments of these hearts
have been tested by fire and ice
our fragile fears
have shown themselves
given us their fullest force
point blank
in fatally immeasurable pain
and
we have survived
laughed
wept
and,
somehow smiled upon by Universe
[how could this perfection we honor do else?]
we have gone onward
and in these glorious days
that i will never trade for any others
i have seen angels at their best work
embodied in our emergence
and shimmering in our tears
and together
as if painted from the radiant colors of a vast rainbow
we have been beautiful
Richard Harrison 1998
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'those words'
funny
how those three little words
make this heart skip beats
funny they are so hard to say sometimes
when we need to say them the most
funny how we listen for them desperately through all the noise
of our everyday lives
funny how our total lives
our beings
our essences become
acutely attuned to those words
as deep rivers of joy with those words
in awe because of those words
more full of the future because of those words
more full of meaning and resolve because of those words
those simple
oh so simple
but oh so beautiful
from one Heart to another Heart
binding them together in that most sacred of spaces
those most wonderful words in the All of the Universe
i love you
Richard Harrison 1998
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'at the shore of a certain sea'
this day began in the mystical beauty
of a dolphin minuet
in the soft grey deep of dawn
it was not coincidence that this dream journey
paralleled the hope of yesterday's movie
'What dreams may Come'
a robin williams film about soul mates
and living through death and dreams
and not ever
ever
giving up
i was in that loving spirit
cradled in the arms of a serene sea
when the souls of human and dolphin embraced
on a magical level
and we fell into love
as we danced
eyes locked
for forever
and i knew
that love exists in all dimensions
in the same way as the souls of all true lovers
are painted together in one brushstroke
their beings perfectly woven into the timeless landscape
by the hand of god
and the absolute perfection of the universe
in that one timeless instant
a passage was revealed to my heart
in the way lightning blazes across a jagged night sky
and seeing that sign the other dolphins instantly knew
and moved to us
opening the mystical portal to love between us all
as we swam
with our bodies embracing
the light of each other
we breathlessly watched our souls merge
dancing across that liquid connection
causing me to laugh the delighted laugh of purest love
that i feel when you lean back in my arms
with your smiling eyes
speaking straight to my heart
now i sit breathing deeply
many hours later in this bountiful day
the encounter over in a physical way
but the glow is still yet written softly
over my body and my senses
and painted deep red in the sky of tonight's sunset
and i feel my hands still silently trembling
like the murmur of distant thunder
in that beautiful way they always do
when they hold your face so very gently
our lips touching in that most tender of ways
that makes everything seem so sapphire
and so forever
Richard Harrison 10/11/1998
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'air'
ten thousand silent screams
and as many dull aches ago it was yesterday
a good day
in those physical terms
with smiling sunshine
and all that crap that doesn't matter much
unless you don't count happiness as luck
and see glasses as half full
and think that shit works
and we were standing there
treading water
with a cold war of thoughts between us
a dammed brick wall so tangible
that i had bloody scrapes down my arms
from trying not to scale it
jesus
my head bangs around like an old pillow
as i stand next to you
suffocating in my own silent scream for air
as i wildly look with blinded eyes
and unfeeling fingers
in this viscous slow-motion pain
for the tiny invisible key
that will have your body in my arms
our hearts together
and your laughing face dancing in my eyes
again for forever
Richard Harrison (c)1998
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'treasure'
thinking
those two years ago
about a far flung love
some twenty years before those two
i cast a hopeful net into that deep past
looking for another you
didn't know that those twenty years before
before your emergence
you were elements
air
water
clay
primordial fire
the songs of lonely sea birds
the longing of the earth for a perfect Light
the pulsing of the Ocean Mother
some Greater Being drew these
perfectly intersecting lines
and
these
to be great friends
followed in mindfulness
and
with eyes wide open in this wonder
saw
and knew of kindness
and shared gentleness
and knew of the beauty of this most wonderful Universe
and knew of the absence
of coincidence
and the presence
of
God
to jr........Richard Harrison 1997
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'rejoices'
my soul rejoices
in this season,
this very spring of my being.
under this fallow ground
long awaiting sails are awakened to strain lines
pulling ahead
to vibrant awareness
as i lean into the breathless wildness of this wind.
oh breath
this deep breathing of love
stretching me
as if these lungs had forgotten their usefulness
lying dormant below the surface of being
but suddenly this soul was awakened from that dream
and looked into the eyes
of light
personified
in you
my god
what wondrous mischief
is lighted by your smile.
my heart sings sacred songs
channeled from that vault of joy
that must be the source of the All
and
in the midst of this wonder
we ride the wing of joy
and laugh until tears come
and
o sweet jesu
each shared day
every single word
each sacred gift
we receive
is love
i
can't imagine
a universe
without you.......
To Karen with all my love---rh
Richard Harrison 98
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'birth'
this day was blessed
with the laughter of children
learning to make a difference
in a world where few care to make any at all
i saw them
eyes wide with excitement
as they registered each other
signed
voted
and talked of the process
with their friends
and with the parents they walked in holding hands with
and who had always cared what kind of world
they would inherit
-parents who now knew
with gladness in their hearts
that the process of claiming ownership
to this vibrant garden of promises
had this very special Tuesday
most radiantly begun
it was a good day
for all of us
for those green growing beginnings
for the turning of seasons
for this carpe diem
and as we grow
you and i and all the young and old children of this world
now share the secret promise
that for every sunset of this dance
every stumble in our stride
there follows a brilliant dawn
painted in the embracing colors of conviction
on the deep infinite sky of promise
Written on Election Day, November 3, 1998,
in reference to Rotary District 5000's far-reaching,
state-wide 'Kid's Voting' project......
Richard Harrison 11/3/98
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'hurricane'
i cannot i feel
i cannot live anymore in the strangling shadows of your black need
as i exquisitely am drawn as moth to flame
to play my part of the constant death in this place
retched mind games and tangled ego so oppressive
it tangibly feels like a cold grey blanket of liquid lead
oh for what divine purpose do the gods always forsake us
in this slow airless hour of taking
like a yellow bruise of suffocation by slow degree
a lost breath
a vacuum of a great shrieking sound of marrow
being sucked alive from these bruised bones
is there any kind power
left in this vast cold universe
that will draw the lost out into a light of hope,
is there any light in my eyes that you can still see
in any small clarity,
like you once felt in your youthful loins
in the resplendent bright years of our dreams
is that single ray from our abandoned star still sending its radiance
through your suffering
and somehow wandering the labyrinth of your sorrow
into your heart?
what then my love
when you see that one ray
will then this hurricane of your pain and my deepest longing
find its center
will then this flash flood of seeming destruction
have run its muddied and turbulent course
and at last grow its purest light
gathering in the last belief of my heart of hearts in its broken arms?
for i think in some perfect way never was there planned such suffering
without also the gift of a hidden mirror of reciprocity
the self-god's potential for the equal ache of freedom
for in that way never are there so many tears-
my love my self my dreams my very child
if we will but only believe
-that the eyes of our souls are washed clean
and finally
at long last
fused by some ancient flame birthed
in the silver dust of time
we are brought to soar separately together
as did the fearless gods of the myth
wings spread and touching and white flashing and breathless
into the indigo blue
of the rising dawn
Richard Harrison 9-22-98
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'journey'
a deafening silence
lies in this place tonight
with the old gas dryer rumbling its round and round
with the buttons of life's necessities
punctuating this night's cyclical loneliness
in this grey stillness
i listen motionless to every pressing murmur of this sunless day
hearing dark voices
in the rain blackened sky
while a listless silence leads me
with tear-filled eyes
to the crying heart of the world
i quietly weep
feeling the dead all around me
pleading to be released from their walking hells
and i wonder at the restlessness of the sea today
that violent wave that crashed hard on the stone beach
and made me wince
wonder at my planting of the plumerias
and monkeypods
sweat running into my eyes and onto the ground
in the hard effort birthing these new trees
with pick and shovel and cuttings
the day before this long trip
wonder at this afternoon's message
out of the blue
from a long time dear friend in a town
where we will go next week
wonder at this vast connectedness
this perfect intention
and wonder at this immense love that ties it so perfectly together
so that never is there a doubt
never a raging pain
or never a perfect sunset
that wasn't perfectly planned
and completely necessary
from the very first Light
of that very the first magical Dawn
Richard Harrison 1998
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'karen'
softly sailing
came you into my life
walking down that dock
full sail
dark hair shining in the summer sun
tall graceful
broad smiling face
you
became my confidant in that crazy time
between boulder and the calm pacific
found my soul
in those downhill runs
away from it all
and towards all
downhill
and full canvas
towards a new life
you who hated children
god had a joke for you
when you thought
you couldn't laugh at yourself any more
he gave you life
and you wondered
how you could have lived
not laughing so
look at your radiant face
laughing eyes
standing there
in your crisis
of long happiness
if only
you would
look in that hidden mirror
because for you
seeing that mirror
you refuse to see
says what all who know this woman know
and those words are
saying so joyously
that you are
beautiful
and are still
proudly
leaning into the wind
Richard Harrison 1998
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'balance'
you walk such a dizzying high wire
that you
with your strong heart and hands
have connected solidly to the granite walls
of this wild wind-swept mountain canyon of your life
that you have made beautiful
despite its rock filled abyss
and cold hard raging river
seething below
in this dance of your life
you walk calmly on with strong quiet purpose
balanced by your love and your spirit
in spite of the pain
and in the wake of your singular curving flight
all of us who behold you
and truly see you through our tear filled eyes
are lifted into your courage
and onto your wings
and through our eyes with your loving light to guide us
we see at last for the first time
in the way we see
when we first lay hold
of the dawn
for hl....Richard Harrison 11/1/98
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'well'
walking the past tense of me
through the sterile urbanity
of the politically correct seeds of pure white gristle
these gaying nineties have spawned
feels long and bleeding going in
like the steel bayonets of another war
sliced to the heart of any further rusty discussions
of the child-warriors ever growing up free
i dip deep
into the troubled waters of hope
looking for myself
between hidden grains of welling truth
any shaking self would do
any self not leaning so far into the abyss
as to lose its tentative fingernail grip
on the mocking air i breathe into this skin
and fall screaming into the thick blackness
of yesterday's transparent dreams
what then this happiness
why has this rainbowed joy
replaced the veil of mocking tears
that pressed down so hard
-where did your body touch me
to open the seed of my light
to the soft rain of your laughter?
i am inside of awe
in your smiling eyes
you laugh and i swear this place greens
and the sunset promises colors
that will be invented
in the forever of tomorrow's dawn
why me
why me i ask
but the pounding waves never stop to reply
and the sunset keeps its silence
in its changing dress of reds and golds
and i hold you close
and finally know that the answer only lies
in living the question in the quiet song of these burnished moments
our heartbeats softly bound with rays of love
to the very source
of the perfect light of the stars
Richard Harrison 11-9-1998
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'sleep'
memories
are like lost feathers we find
some fine and radiant
others matted and soiled
but always they come alone
without their birds
solitude is like that
falling into aloneness without sound
following the crooked path of awakening
from this withered garden
watching for the golden flicker
of wings
through the leaves of trees
Richard Harrison November 10, 1998
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'equinox'
alone again
in the accidental darkness of nostalgia
brittlely walking through the broken glass of yesterday's empty passions
i am suddenly in the middle of a housecleaning
getting this shit out of here
working on the mold of all of those narrowed museums
of forgotten aloneness
those pretty picket fences
all white and standuppish and defining
which kept the static order in life
like prozac
are falling powerless and smoking
before the volcanic lava
of these enchanted crossroads
of our relentless seduction
these green days
are like no others-
despair and pain both knock at times
but like good guests seem to linger only long enough
to spawn understanding
and then vanish into these golden moments of whispers
and weightlessness
this season falls into us
tumbling in an equinox of white crystals
and you become silken incandescent touch
far above the flash point
of my flammable blood-
a burning transforming spell
of sensuous soft greens and reds
of lips and eyes and breasts and heartbeats
that parts the curtains of aloneness
and with an aching fluttering of your soft beating wings
draws me into the endless center
of your awakening cries
Richard Harrison 11-11-1998
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'wind'
leagues down this fluid path
i am yet swimming
through the infinite liquid tunnel of your creativity
through the raging white rapids of changes
and the gripping waves of adventure
we in ecstasy share
on the igneous shoreline of our love and our dreams
i stand humbly
as your opened eyes bespeak of your dance of light
and i remember distantly as from an ancient history
certain hands finding some brooding fragrance
from a long ago dark age
of electra's accidental flower gardens
and in that awakening drift of space
the weeds of cosmic change grew wild and free
in our soft nest of glancing green
those shapeless moments
that grew and bore that strange fruit
have blurred through light years
into their own deep indigo
leaving these good hearts and the most tender of touches
standing tall as the soloists in this symphony of whirling abundance
and again in an immense perfect harmony
the curving white sails of our youth
filled so many years before
with the raw healing power of the wind and sea
lean smiling and strong
once again carrying us
wet hair streaming back
into the teeth of the freshening wind
Richard Harrison November 11, 1998
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'future dreams'
breathing slowly
here or maybe there in the slight past tense of tomorrow's future
lightly running before the winds of time
the silent falling stars of angels
gather tumultuously in the grey-silver eyes of clouds above me
and ask
what is for this man
truly beautiful?
all around me in this soft raining forest
future dreams abide in the choices of violeting orchids
and flames of destruction
and fertile return
to the deep black earth of the mother
the all
stands naked before this man
as he stands shaking
before the universe contained
in this waxing moon of the finest of silver
and as the laughter of the liquid breeze
commences to flow into these metaled bones
the silent music of love
begins it's sweetest note
Richard Harrison November 13, 1998
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'equation'
i wonder
if there are really any prime numbers
in anyone's heart
if there are any of us so cold and equation free
we don't have any other number than one
that we
multiplied by some other determined integer
equal ourselves
in this indeterminate universe
governed by powers of ten and two and god
any fixed point decimal will work to define us
if we don't get too picky further than a few dark places
to the right of that powerful point
that separates whole from part
then again
we may be saved by those fractions
that take the failures that you and i and the system of decimals have left behind
or just ignored
and express the sum total of the mystery of radiant light
as the ratio of some 'a' over some 'b'
two sort of disinterested refugees on vacation
from nuclear physics and bean counting
where 'a' equals and means and is
all that pours down from the vast ultramarine window of the sky
and 'b', well 'b' comes from an importance
not coming from it's second place in the list of letters
but stature
made of distance and air like bits of broken glass
that divide that sky into as many parts
as there are rays of light from all the stars
passing through the dancing window of eternity
perfectly encompassed in the fractional outcroppings of love
seen on a raft tour
floating down river canyons of perfect starry nebulae
and so
or rather 'therefore' i postulate
following the wind driven laws of mathematics and physics
and things that only can be dreamed
these two numerical rascals
seemingly from the everywhere all at once
take brush in hand and hand
and so joyously paint the defining ratios of perfect clarity
onto the canvas of the infinite series
of all the light of love that radiates to forever
from your laughing eyes
when they touch me
Richard Harrison 14 November 1998
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'breath'
filling to the very edges of this fog-laden lichened morning
amorphous thoughts drifted in white robes
endlessly searching for an anchorage
like lost ancient ghost ships
foundering in invisibly tumultuous grey morning seas
along the cold wet basalt shoreline
of an infinite solitude
i felt poised
floating above some vapor
above some gigantic ominous fog of ponderous proportions
when the jolt of the earthquake slammed into me an hour ago
with adrenaline like lightning leaping through the frozen ground of my every cell
sending burning sparks from that electric key
arcing hot into my pale and silent lock
i wait breathing slowly
long after the shaking
as the quiet swirls
of winter snowflakes of gods long past
glide ghost-like across a white november
pouring out jagged emptiness like nearly frozen milk
across these barren fields of aloneness
in this eternity
what spirits i cry
are creaking in this naked arctic frailty
like shrieking snow-
what chaining cold holds these hands
suspended
unmoving?
breathing slow
i wait the long wait
for answers that do not come
with punctuation
and sound
for answers that do not come
from easy platitudes and the quickened pulses of sometimes lovers
but i wait for the answers that come from pain bravely endured
from moral paths blazed in love and sweat
from mothers raising sons
and sons raising fathers
and from oaks growing tall through years of fire and drought
all speaking in an opalescent murmuring echo
as secretly silent as the breath of clouds
Richard Harrison 22 November, 1998
To kh and hl and sd and all those who love and win against the odds: you are my heros...
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'margins'
passing through the perceptions of sometimes reflectionless places
my unseeing chromosomes cry out for a circumference
different than what i have seen in past lives
as the same and same again
repeating dark flooding torrent
of colorless tomorrows
in this new enchanted place that i would dream
i would have my sun be that special green
tarnished like a flat bronze disk
after years of close acquaintance with the sea
and my hands would show their weathered appreciation
of the enterprise of keeping sails properly tended
in the teeth of crackling winter gales
each day i would wake long before the venerable dawn
feeling the earth and sky in my fingertips
and walk strong and swift watching for meteors and other new stars
and always
each second
from anywhere in the known universe
i would feel the pull of the laughing tide of your eyes
it is strange how the dream and the conjuring differ
how quietly in the flickering margin of my life
with all the uncompromising silent seduction of flowers
a gathering happiness is slowly invading the day-to-day blur
an invisible enigmatic relief of simplicity
is lifting the gritty weight of the endless torrent
and with a beautiful infinite slowness
is transforming the most deadened weary commonplace
into accidental crystalline treasures
before my joyous tear-filled eyes
Richard Harrison 23 November 1998
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'storm'
this grey flat morning
the electronic planet
delivered immeasurable pain
and human anguish
with the news of a horrible tumor
in a loved one's brain
my mind screams silently-
there ought to be a three-strikes rule here
some kind of time-out for lives spent in love and nurturing
for there are to be no carols for this christmas
because there is no pain more wrenching and limitless
than seeing the children you have raised at your breast
facing terrors far more black and terrifying
than the most loving and protecting of parents
could ever ever imagine
oh god!
oh god!
why are these leaden steps leading us
into this ominous blackness
that asks us all
to no less than believe in a miracle
and if there is no miracle
to save the touch of her beauty,
asks and expects us to go on
not crumpled and defeated
but walking on in the embracing steps of love?
perhaps the answer to this enigma
lies in the equationless coexistence of this love and pain
where the only sweet blooming rose
that can ever thrive in this barren garden
is that lying enfolded in each and every slow-moving second
of this terrifying thunderstorm
there is also one equally long second of living healing rain
that can be expended in love
and if we do choose love
in one magnificent electric second
we can find more light
than in an entire lifetime spent fearing the thunder
For hl and her family.... Richard Harrison November 24, 1998
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'Old Green'
The drought broke,
when after nine days of watching like anxious sea wives,
the tenth came into existance with the bright and weightless discovery
that the spinner dolphins had finally returned to the Bay.
With a rush we piled fins and masks and our buoyant hopes
into our battered but proud green jeep pickup that Dad
had bought brand-new in 1970,
to haul his appaloosas and our youthful spirits deep into the Rockies.
I was thinking along the lines
of that long dedication to joy of her 8-cylinder heart,
how those greening mountains we grew up in
were still both near and surrealistically far from us now,
as we slowly navigated down the bumpy beach road
around potholes and sleeping poi dogs,
and parked Old Green in her favorite spot in the shade
under the spreading monkeypod overlooking the Bay.
I attempted to ponder this
and another miracle that happened in your arms this morning at dawn,
and then crumpled altogether in the face of an infinity of blue,
and lept into the compelling present tense
of azure herself.
I swear it was with an audible chuckle,
that the old girl watched us whooping as the sudden cool water
invaded the bubble of our sleep soaked bodies,
and after that brightening, with only the lapping
leeward wavelets to sound the chorus,
we pushed off from shore launching our quest for cetaceans,
not quite knowing that we were really in search of another piece
of the puzzle in our hearts.
The answer comes double as two grey streaks
arrive in a flash of silver bubbles head on into my soul,
bank into a long left curve,
and return together doing a laughing dolphin mambo,
through pristene water that is as clear as the memory of Karen
doing her daily swim a decade ago with these same deep creatures,
who saw and rejoiced in that growing baby inside her,
watching with their sonar and their hearts as easily as I stare mesmerized
at lazer ripples of sunlight
lancing into the emerald water
writing the dancing lines of the poetry of our lives,
onto their grey velvet backs and on that fine white coral sand
four emerald green fathoms below.
Now, in this day of silken dreams,
night has fallen with the simultaneous teeter-totter rising of the almost-full moon,
which has seemed, over the last week of clear nights,
to be playing cat and mouse with Jupiter,
who the astronomers say, is in opposition to earth,
but today I feel no opposition from any quarter,
and feeling a certain pregnancy in the moment,
I stop, and hardly breathing, expectantly scan the star-rich sky
for another show like the Leonids gave us two weeks ago,
and even though no meteors decide to fall
as I watch on this cool clear night, I am anything but disappointed.
Richard Harrison November 30, 1998
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'both sides'
lightness
has again arrived in its simple white cotton dress,
and the laugh of Renee's harp and flute fill the ether
with a sound not like sound,
but more on the order of the happiness of multiple infinities
of oxygen and nitrogen
and all those rarest of gasses,
being compressed and expanded,
initially according to the staid laws of physics,
until fired in this kiln of light,
where with the complete joyous abandon of the whirling dervish
they break away and spin together
in a oscillating dance that weaves all our past
and all of our future
into the embracing infinity of perfection
of the winged flight
of one perfect shining drop of rain.
...for Renee and the music of her life....
Richard Harrison December 11, 1998
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