right storm

right storm
       for Keikei

Just the storm was needed…. a Weathercat snap

we met
at night
to go
and see
a beach
in storm,
though we
did not
know it
it was to
be in such
a storm,
that
evening
just the
storm
we needed
to turn
the land
around behind
us while we
rocked into

vesper bird

vesper bird

Silk scroll painting of a blackbird from the Edo period, Japan, circa 17th century; the artist is not credited here. Image sourced from art.com.

a blackbird
was tying up
the evening sky
the very last
of the light
in twists of
whistling
knots that
slipped
and told a
history
of the ear
a beauty
eyes had
not seen
of the day
nor the
ear heard
in the thickets
of word where
no song
rests.

midnight, 20 august 2013

Copyright © 2021 Peter Le Baige. All Rights Reserved

The music is from Le Merle noire (The Blackbird), for flute and piano (1952) by French composer Olivier Messiaen, performed in this recording by Kenneth Smith on flute & Matthew Schellhorn on piano; taken from the album, ‘Messiaen: Chamber Works’.

hymn of the soul pearl

hymn of the soul pearl
to Robbie Louis Stevenson, inspired by his story
‘The Beach of Falesá’

I shall make for the islands…with a sun’s fall remaining…Image sourced from Literarytraveler.com & attributed to Andrew Moore on Flickr.

i shall
make for the
islands when
my days are
only afternoon’s
cloud banks low
on ocean.
only there
with a sun’s
fall remaining
to the hour
shall i find
calm faced
on all points
of desire’s compass
with a vastness
of equal measure
to the unknownness
of this self,

a little land
in a great sea.
enough to gather
sticks, dry leaves
of outlived seasons
to burn in
dreaming flame