12.12.2005
Because it's winter and I feel hollow today
AND NOW
lying on the grass in an arboretum
watching the shade of an exotic
tree run up my legs
the mountains in the distance
as full of transparent depths
as the Peach Leafed Willow
leaning over the bench
I am not lying on today
today I am a physicist
everything is pure light
always has been
but the density of things
now that I know everything is falling light
everything is as translucent and touchable
as the midday moon
there’s nothing to hold on to
I notice the Willow gone in January
and now if I’m smiling
when I mention this to a girl
I’m afraid of falling for
while we stand in a planetarium after the show
she pauses in her spinning
of the moon and says
fall is another word
for orbit and she twists
the moon again around its axis
I think about how I hurtle
though winter just to come back around
to winter where the ground is slick
I never slow down
everything falls together and apart
and I think now the Willow
must have moved too fast
against the mountains and so fell
leaving a moon-shape
filled by falling clumps of dirt
both particles and waves
I’ll never move fast enough to catch it
now I try to follow slowly
let it take me from behind
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Trista,
I hate trying to praise poetry, because I can never find quite the words I want. But I really liked this one. I'd reallly like to read more of your poetry.
I found your blog through Wendy, btw, in case you're wondering who I am.
i'm sorry that the origin of this beautifully written piece is your sadness right now...i loved it. and i hope you feel better, soon.
Thanks for sharing this. I really like it. I love how the concepts overlap, especially in the second to last stanza, where you have the cycling seasons, physics, and attraction all embodied in the word "fall".
This is inspiring me to try to do some writing.