Tuesday, November 24, 2009

As I Stood at Twilight Edge

via This Isn't Happiness

I took the long road out to the edge
Nobody told me
It would be shorter coming back
Nobody mentioned the rows of headstones
Like footprints in the snow
Nobody told me
My spacesuit wasn’t designed
For this outdoor life
So will I set these still-lives free?
Send them home for moon and me?
And will I have the eyes to see
That seeing in itself won’t set me free?
These jigsaw pieces form the skeleton key
To oxidised locks time encrusted
Bone chests contain
Somnambulist compositions
The awful weigh of pages torn
Freehand from sentiment’s thesaurus
Oh ghosts of chrysalis husk
Why regret the winged release?
Why hold forth in waves of light
The night that holds me yet?
This rigor, this mortal skyward finger
Of a past that holds no purchase
For the fisted digits that patient tap
A Morse code catechism -
An almanac of wasted days
On wooden top crematorium
Dust from smokestack skyward sent
Messages sketched in sand
Await approaching tide
Nobody told me
It would be shorter coming back

13 comments:

the walking man said...

The distance to and from be the same but with the sleepwalking induced by the traveling to, the way back seems shorter. Being asleep after the journey is necessary to preserve the sanity at times.

Yodood said...

The return trip is shorter because the distance assumed in the going shrinks in arrival's realization of so little difference between.

Garth said...

Walsking Man & Yodood: It all depends on what you are using as your unit of measure - I'm using time ;]

Unknown said...

If someone had told you, would it have made a difference? For me, the answer is usually no.

Tom said...

why does it work that way? i guess the anticipation factor must be applied. Did Einstein have a formula for this?

Barlinnie said...

You've excelled yourself here my friend. The photie is also the cherry on the cake.

Harlequin said...

this is such a great testimony to the difference ( or not) between there and back....
and I will be thinking on this line: ... pages torn from sentiment's thesaurus... for days :)

Mariana Soffer said...

Reality is never completely proportional. Part of it's magic is given by it's imperfection and by its impossibility to reach it.

Garth said...

Longest Road: you make it all sound so simple :)

Tom: I think Einstein would have said "it relative"

Jimmy: yes - I love the photo too - follow the link to "This isn't Happiness" for more of the same quality :D

Harlequin: I'm glad you like that line - what came to me first was:
"pages copied freehand from sentiment's thesaurus"
and it formed the seed for this piece ;]

Mariana: The magic of reality is that it is so hard to pin down :)

ArtSparker said...

Can you hear me, Major Tom?

Garth said...

Major Tom has left the galaxy

Laura Tattoo said...

i really like yodood's statement; i have experienced that so often with trips i've had to make again and again.

i also love that photography site, "this is not happiness"! over 15,000 photos, wow! and each one unique, some so funny or so ironic, i split a gut! (is that the saying? kind of disgusting...)

anyway, i also like the photo display A LOT and hope to check out that tumbir site to post future photos. ron's been looking to post his for years; i need to get him started. he's an ace photog.

have you thought about taking some of your own photos, pisces? i've been discovering the joys of photography on this trip; was always a terrible photographer unti recently--was blind but now i see? i bet you could do some interesting things for your blog.. :>>)) xooxox

Garth said...

Laura: I have dabbled with photography for years but have never developed more than an eye - technically deficient :)
You can see some of my photos on "The Far Queue Gallery" link on the sidebar.

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