not of kind

not of kind
29 September 2022
for Big Cat

A foggy rainbow dawn with armfuls of Big Cat, picture by Keikei

their joy in
recognition,
companions,
not of kind,
those that weave
around our steps,
those we stable
with us,
what is it that
rips our heart
when we hold
them broken
in our hands?
we know that
likely we shall
hold the orbit
of their life,

ocean beach

ocean beach
sydney, july 1998

A day & a man at the beach by Kay Kei, the Weathercats know him well.

such blue
lifts into green
a clearness
as if to make
you think
you can
see on into
the heart
of the sea

you never do
when the white
bucks up
against it
foam clouding
over the sand
a sense no longer
than the turning wave
that you’ve grasped
it are right can be
that simple
answer only
to the wind.

Copyright © 2022 Peter Le Baige. All Rights Reserved

Click on the link above to hear a reading of the poem.  The accompanying music is from ‘Chanson de Nuit’ Op. 15 No. 1 by Edward Elgar in his arrangement for small orchestra, performed here by the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Boult.

bird of breath

bird of breath
for Keikei
august 23, 2022

‘A Moonlit Night at Sea’,1885, by marine painter Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky, image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

waking
in midnight
at your breath,
you well asleep,
not aware, your
breath a whistling
bird in the landslide
forest of rain, a
thread dyed and
drawn from
air meandered
through this
labyrinth in
which we came
upon each other
to fit our spaces
together in
midnight
raining
to the
hilt

the
bird of your
breath