Reanimated Lavender Granola Switchblade Nun rides again.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Dolphins

The dolphins came out of the sea,

And from the corners of the eyes of giants who lay weeping and unconscious across the lazy heavens.



It rained dolphins, their bodies as smooth as dogwood blooms.

They smiled as they fell, they were fog, they were everywhere.



In those times, you could put the sun where you pleased--

It could rise in the south,

At midnight.

Who cared?



I live in a paper house which is always on fire,

I keep dying until it bores me;

I lie down on the smoke like a cat in a streetside window,

And the disused milk chute with the rusty catch holds the stupidities I cherish most.



Now they say,

Dolphins are really birds--

The sun is nailed up like a tin sign on an empty barn,

And no one is coming to save you,

To kiss you,

Or even to bury you.



The dogwoods are dead and the sea floor has fallen in,

Revealing God in the magma,

Chinamen in the paddies,

And you,

Falling,

Like a feather into the flames.

_____

18 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness, such brilliant lines, I can hardly stand it! The dolphins leaking from giants' eyes who lay weeping across the lazy heavens, for example. Beyond inspired. Love "like a cat in a streetside window" and the rusty chute where the stupidities are kept. Your similes are always so unexpected and make my mind leap into a more rarified atmosphere than it generally inhabits. Fantastic writing!!!!!

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  2. frick yeah...this is the best dang haiku i read all day...seriously shay, you write like a siren luring us to our deaths with smiles on our faces...a paper house always on fire, a sun tacked up in a fog of dolphins...your imagery is beautiful...the depth of emotion unfathomable...i really liked this i guess is what i am saying...

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  3. Those must have been the days when they were founding all the religions. They just put things as they wanted ;-)

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  4. your images are beyond brilliant!

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  5. oops...for a minute i thought it read "Revealing God in the smegma" *blush* *double blush*

    you are brilliant. i love your work!

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  6. Fireblossom--The last stanza was especially moving. The ocean floor falling in, to reveal God and Chinamen in the paddies...and then the simile---"like a feather into the flames." What great images!

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  7. I would be depressed about all of this but wait..."there's dolphins!!!"

    and then you breathed life into haiku...
    and it was bitchin'

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  8. Time cannot quench not custom stale your infinite variety--or however that went. I would be selecting forever if I picked favorites here, but the second and third stanzas are just exquisite--"...I keep dying until it bores me..." may be the best line I've read in months. Thank you, Shay, for making reading poetry such a continual amazing pleasure.

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  9. This is like a Dali painting. That is good.

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  10. even in the depths you are exquisite.

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  11. It does seem a bit like a Dali painting.

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  12. 'Like a feather into the flames' .. gives me chills

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  13. holy begeezus, this is incredible. Like hedgewitch said, so much to love, but I am particularly fond of the sun as a tin sign stanza.

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  14. I can't stop reading this one. This verse was born to be recited aloud, committed to memory and alternately whispered and shouted at unexpected times.

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  15. The flow of this piece is beautiful with very vivid images. Well done!

    Pat
    www.critteralley.blogspot.com

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  16. So many incredible images!

    I keep my stupidities beneath my bedside table in case I need them during the night.

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  17. Wow, Shay! You really knocked this one out of the ballpark with so many evocative and rich images. I'm hard pressed to choose; so I won't. Suffice to say that I love this and think it's truly a fine and stunning piece.

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Spirit, what do you wish to tell us?