all material © August Hoerr
Aubade
One hurried kiss while time is still seeping,
This moment is yet inseverable.
Our salt is spilt in wasted weeping,
Trying to cheat the inevitable.
Which is worse: the silence or laughter?
Which is worse: knowing while, or after?
Soon, like the Sun, we will have ascended–
Subtly, subtly, subtly, subtly–
Your mouth of ink, now golden and splendid,
Singing the waltz that we lended.
The Horn
In the forest lies a thicket, lies a clearing, shifting, shattered,
Sunlight, and my thoughts are like a bowerbird nest, blue and scattered,
And my tongue lies on the ground, my hands lie on the ground, my spine lies
On the ground, my feet lie on the ground, while my eyes float out to the sea.
Heavy is the crown of waking,
Opt for repose, affor- saking
This haphazard mind of monkey,
Scramble, and I recall when she
Whispered: the past is not the past,
Murky layers affixed in wax,
Time is concrete, time is shadow,
Time is incised, my eyes float out to the sea.
In the forest, in the thicket, in the clearing, breath aflutter,
Sunlight, and my thoughts are like a bowerbird nest, blue and cluttered,
And my tongue lies on the ground, my hands lie on the ground, my spine lies
On the ground, my feet lie on the ground, while my eyes float out to the sea.
Bloody thistle, epistle, writ by a layman,
Milky thistle, pistil, petal, and stamen,
Retread on earth that is already covered,
Alas, wisdom must be borrowed or suffered,
Blackout, freakout, seek out narrative structure,
Drunk from the fount, the horn, keratin tincture,
It is bitter? Not yet, Fernet and Absinthe,
Suck the spicy blossom, cardamom, hyacinth,
Royal jelly, honey, frankincense, amber,
Lemon, benzoin, cayenne, vetiver, camphor,
Coffee, catha, coca, gritting the teeth for
Pennyroyal, hemlock, chloroform, ether,
Jasmine, my sin, hide me, blot iniquities,
Float in the dark river to antiquity,
Sirens singing spirals, combing the swirling
Curls within curls, endless unfurling to the sea.
Mtiuluri Cloud Void
Grey light through the northern window
Rendered baroque by the Delft hand.
Silver sky, silver pail, mottled and galvanized
Cooling water by the nightstand.
Driving up the winding mountain
Parking near the dented railing.
Stretched ahead, the ridgeline footpath
And below, the apple orchard.
Trees awash in bluepowder lichen
And the sound of black-throat warblers.
Clouds of breath: thine gift to winter,
Dissipate in hostile splendor–
Like gloomy gods indifferent to offerings,
Or letters marked return to sender.
Clammy steps along the mud-rock
Slowly through the craggy forest, moving.
Tire tracks collecting, cradling puddles:
Somber water silently thewing.
Mark the threshold crossed by Freidrich,
The murky glory of the stratus.
Suddenly, upon the apex,
Forest opens into meadow.
Cumulus hiding sight, but not the sound–
Sweeping valleys echo below.
Standing before vast white cloud void,
Gazing into mist infinite–
Far away, the fragile droning
Of the world, and all that’s in it.
Nervous
Furtive glances and defensive stances,
Your eyes make me nervous, but I’ll take my chances.
Furtive glances and defensive stances,
Your eyes make me nervous, but I’ll take my chances.
I don’t have no sister, though I dream of interstate
Miles and that face of yours, the allure, as it were,
I am common and you are so noble,
I’m inarticulate, I cannot vocalize
But you surmise my state, and surprise me when
You call my name.
As you walk up, I chalk up a point against silence,
You talk with your mouth, but I hear your eyelids,
They flutter and droop, and my thoughts derail,
I long for the rasp of your nails, they’re polished so well,
Raking my back from the blade to the tail bone
Oh to be known in the Biblical sense
So I make the pretense of being calm and collected
I’m not so smooth, so you’ve probably detected:
My furtive glances and defensive stances,
Your eyes make me nervous, but I’ll take my chances.
Furtive glances and defensive stances,
Your eyes make me nervous, so nervous
So nervous… So…
On Listening
I.
Weightless in listening, afternoon Górecki;
Heart of the world from the living room.
Wrenching on the rise, and delicate descending;
Debris that beauty leaves in its wake.
Golden skull: headphones!
Golden smoke: testify!
Golden tone: sound wall!
Golden Bough: feel it unify!
Agitate the ears, night of Penderecki;
Friends of the inferno are gathering again.
Rigorous standards rotting like a tree house;
The balance is precarious, the view is unsurpassed.
(Make the commitment to sinking in the water.)
Golden skull: headphones!
Golden smoke: testify!
Golden tone: sound wall!
Golden Bough: feel it unify!
II.
Make the commitment to sinking in the water.
As the surface closes,
Bubble and a ripple.
As the surface closes,
As though you were never there.
Golden skull: headphones!
Golden smoke: testify!
Golden tone: sound wall!
Golden Bough: feel it unify!
III.
Darkened face and heart aglitter / Summer tongue and feet of Winter
Balla balla / Zingara Zingara
Zingara Zingara / balans frumoasa
Sour Grapes make for a bitter wine / No time, no time to be saturnine
Bella bella / Zingara Zingara
Zingara Zingara / aşa frumoasa
Lapis Armenus and Black Hellebore / Purge all black bile on the dance floor
Bara- bara- / baraj baraj
Zingara Zingara / aşa frumoasa
Dansa dansa / acuma acuma
Dansa dansa / dizolva dizolva
Dizolva dizolva/ aqua regia!
Dulceaţă / balistică
Balla balla / Zingara Zingara
Bara- bara- / baraj frumoasa
Jasmine, lavender, amber, Tiger Balm / High five, high five, high five, facepalm
Lovi lovi lovi lovi / palmă palmă
Balla balla balla balla / bella bella bella bella
Zingara Zingara aşa frumoasa
The Scent of Sun
The scent of sun on her skin
The opulence that lay within
The wistfulness of summer lawns
The balmy ghosts that linger on
The fold of fabric eight years past
The future fields, the road of grass
The things we say before we die
The endless ring of love’s reply
To the light that protects us
To the darkness that connects us
To the miles that vex us to sing
Saudade saudade saudade saudade
Saudade saudade saudade saudade…
The golden leaves that crown her head,
Gathered from our autumn bed.
Venom Hush
Black licorice, whip through your hair,
Sanguine adrenaline, shadow puppet,
Backlit by fire, flicker on the screen,
Smoulder in your mouth, heavy heavy breathing,
Tenebrist hands, long in tooth and shadow,
Give yourself over, give yourself over-
Due for a rogering around the rosie,
People can be nosy when they smell the posies.
Black licorice, anise, fennel, tentacle,
Sambuca slithering, without center,
Wine turns to vinegar, flowers turn to rot,
Love turns to sorrow, pleasure is a toxin,
Dirty dirty sparkle, mica in the mud,
Feather and a hiss, Serpent versus Ibis,
Venom hush to the thrush to the pull to the lull,
I will set your blood on fire, fire, fire.
Take my hand, there’s no way
Take my hand, there’s no way
Take my hand, there’s no way
Out.
World Eating Mind
The phrase “World-Eating Mind” is from the novelette A Colder War by Charles Stross, and used with permission.
http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/colderwar.htm
Rolling clouds, rolling clouds, rolling clouds.
Disparate elements rise and condense, like
Anarchist collectives reaching consensus;
Soon, Thunder Soon.
Rolling clouds, rolling clouds, rolling clouds.
Drops of malaise, the foreboding feeling,
Concentric rings of stain on the ceiling;
Soon, Thunder Soon.
Soot on the walls incite pareidolia,
Hinting at Dürer, Doré, and Goya,
Scintilla of approaching despoiler;
Soon, Thunder Soon.
Rolling clouds, rolling clouds, rolling clouds.
Shadowy wisps that evade the glance, as
Cognition is regarded askance, so
Soon, Thunder Soon.
Rolling clouds, rolling clouds, rolling clouds.
Dustceawung soil, evasive yet resonant,
Joints move to stiffness, muscles are hesitant,
Soon, Thunder Soon.
Animate vapor, phosphorus scented,
Moving unseen but not undetected,
Edging the dreaming of the elected;
Soon, Thunder Soon…
Thunder Now! Thunder Now! Thunder Now!
Celestial thresholds silently open,
Unfurling onto sky, earth, and ocean,
World-Eating Mind.
Thunder Now! Thunder Now! Thunder Now!
Hovering above sky of Tunguska,
Rumbling microphones at Juan de Fuca,
World-Eating Mind.
Decades of CGI ill-prepare the eye,
True jamais vu, there’s no point of reference.
Thousand wings flapping–yes it is happening–
Righteous and wicked given no preference,
Ice coloratura freezes the spectrum,
Awakened by an infernal plectrum,
Assured thy capture, dark is thine rapture,
World-Eating Mind.
“The shores of Attica respond in song to the waves of the Aegean.” – Lovecraft, Commonplace Book