Moat Creek

Hold the world close

Like a hymnal to your heart

Stand against the seashore

Like a Cypress, arms outstretched.

When passion stabs you over and over

Go back to the spot with a mouthful of words

And the entire chapter to rewrite

Still bent on rendering everything into language

It is a mercy that all life is a mystery

So you can sing instead of speak

So you can climb the rock face that has been silent for centuries

And submit to that very concept until all images

Grow so old you also fall dumb –

So you can lie in bed with another and submit yourself

To them thoughtlessly, and be cut open by love so that

You can return to Moat Creek a year later

And see how loss has made you into

An exquisite and fierce creature

Howling against the grain of time.