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Glass*Soul
03-23-2007, 09:04 PM
A Kiss Beneath A Flowering Catalpa
(8-7-02)

Without substance
fragile and secretly mourning
as ephemeral as my own infant memories
existing in the proposed interaction
between is and is not
I engage in a kiss
with an altered being
Milk on his lips
Milk on his tongue
watercolor
pale to whiteness...
by my own pale magic
I form the rain of is and is not
into a rain
of catalpa blossoms

The catalpa rains
The locust hums
I touch my fingertip
to my own heart
stilling it in the instant
of the little death
in the little valley
in grave imagined communion
with all that he has become
I clutch the slippery ribbons
and bear
the weight of him

Now I take up my brush
...hush
this part isn't real...
and paint upon you
spilling sea foam to your feet
in a single release
without beginning or end
careful of the almost fatal reflections in your eyes
Turning you on the page
liquid creature
shattering those lights
out of the parting waters of your scars
shivering them down the backs of your legs
winking them out
and drowning them
one hand on you
one holding the brush

This is the secret
this much of me
is safe in you
and not obscured

This is the secret
this much of him
is safe in me
and not obscured

The weight of my being
reasserts itself
I possess no faculty delicate enough
to possess his kiss
once I have opted to be...
my brush dissolves
the kiss resolves
I release him to reality
the locust still humming
of is and is not
I gather up a few abandoned blossoms
shaped like tiny orchids
altered beings
androgynes
broken away from the seeds
so pale is my magic
I can float them
for a day at the most
in a bowl of water

Glass*Soul
03-23-2007, 09:06 PM
Catalpa Blossoms (http://www.museum.state.il.us/ismdepts/art/collections/sadorus/001-100/031catalpablossoms.jpg)












...by the way, the poem is my work but the photograph is not. I just wish it were. :)

gomichan
03-23-2007, 10:05 PM
That is absolutely beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing that.

Catalpa have always seemed like magic trees to me.

ravenscape
03-23-2007, 10:06 PM
Wow.

That's some incredibly powerful imagery. It demands to be read out loud.

Have you published? You should.

Glass*Soul
03-24-2007, 01:47 AM
That is absolutely beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing that.

Catalpa have always seemed like magic trees to me.

They're trees as drawn by children! :)

Last Spring the owner of this place had all but one of the Catalpa trees cut down. I was broken-hearted. Then on April 2nd, a freak storm took down the last one.

Glass*Soul
03-24-2007, 02:05 AM
Wow.

That's some incredibly powerful imagery. It demands to be read out loud.

Have you published? You should.

:oops:

I haven't published any of my writings.

I have done a book cover and an illustration inside a book. That's the extent of my claim to fame.

(I didn't get paid for either. :))

protinus
03-24-2007, 12:41 PM
Incredibly moving and powerfully rendered...thank you.

I spent a lot of time in catalpa trees growing up. It was mainly to get "catalpa worms" or the caterpillars that ate the trees leaves for fishing.

I hadn't remembered the beautiful blossoms until now though.

Glass*Soul
03-24-2007, 01:52 PM
Incredibly moving and powerfully rendered...thank you.

I spent a lot of time in catalpa trees growing up. It was mainly to get "catalpa worms" or the caterpillars that ate the trees leaves for fishing.

I hadn't remembered the beautiful blossoms until now though.

(((Protinus)))!!

There are special caterpillars in catalpa trees!? I didn't know that.

protinus
03-24-2007, 01:59 PM
(((Protinus)))!!

There are special caterpillars in catalpa trees!? I didn't know that.

Oh yes!! They only eat catalpa leaves!! We used to gaurd our trees because all catalpa trees become well known and other fisherman would sneak in and steal your caterpillars!!

Also, if you wouldn't harvest the caterpillars, they would literally strip the trees of their leaves.

Michie
03-25-2007, 12:22 AM
Incredibly moving and powerfully rendered...thank you.

I spent a lot of time in catalpa trees growing up. It was mainly to get "catalpa worms" or the caterpillars that ate the trees leaves for fishing.

I hadn't remembered the beautiful blossoms until now though.

We have them on our property.

We use the worms for fishing too.

Tricky to hook though. *ick*

UberLutheran
03-25-2007, 11:04 PM
Well, you incurable romantic, you!

LOVE the poem!

Danhalen
03-26-2007, 09:26 AM
Very, very nice. Thank you for a view into you. Never let anyone tell you you are not beautiful.