it’s been a year, my dear,
since I shut the garden gate behind
and shooed the wounded dreams away
to trail mournful after happenstance
and the ungraceful slant of those days
no more than small disturbances now
they rustle upon the edges of my feathers
and along the bending tips of my grass
there are no buzzings of bees here
but life, in cat-soft callings ’round the corner,
beckons of fingers held in absentia
and sings of the raveled strings
the intangible things that keep me tethered here
and bound to breathing
mistake not my thanks for fidelity
for I am adroitly adrift
and drift on I shall as vagabond leaves
those flutterings of a different sort
left me out of sorts and circling then
with all its brass-caged “ifs”
I leave their scattered clamorings behind the gate
I rise, I glide, I shifting sift
like last light’s slow-measured lilting
through branches that waver quavery
in the dreamy greens of settling dusk
a year, dear, and I am softer than the silence
unfolding from the star-tilted skies
and sweeter even than the honeysuckle sliver
of the moon that follows me home
and nests in the corner of my window
© Sarah Whiteley
And wham it came upon me – that urge to write. I think for now the lull has passed.
Ah…so lovely are the images here…thanks so much for sharing these beautiful words.
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oh, thank you, sarah. whew.
and also? shifting sift? waver quavery? dreamy greens? whoosh.
i wanna hear you read this aloud.
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Hmm… two votes for a vocal rendition. I’ve had my eye on a mic for a while and you’ve prompted me to place a bid for said same mic on ebay. We’ll just see what transpires, shall we?
Haven’t performed since high school…. not sure if my vocal abilities are up for it, but willing to give it a shot. 🙂
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ooooooh! *going all shivery with anticipation*
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Me, too! I would love to hear this poem read aloud by you, Sarah! It’s so good in my mind. I can only imagine the poet reading it to us!
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You can add my vote to everyone else’s, Sarah. 🙂
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Well then you will be pleased to hear that I did have the winning bid and not only is the mic on its merry little way to me, it’s just south of Seattle at the moment and I will undoubtedly see it either tomorrow or Tuesday. I must confess to little quivers of anticipation myself…. hoping I am up to the challenge.
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🙂 Look forward to hearing you!
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it is bound to return, that’s what I have learned over my short years.
and when it comes back home, into the heart, the flowers are just magnificent.
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Thank you, Guy, You’re such a lovely person and it’s a joy to me that you come to read my words.
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it is only shame I don’t have more time to visit more often
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dear sarah,
what a splendid images of peace you have written here. i can see them clearly in my mind and now i am haunted by its beauty.
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peace is the thing I have been seeking, and such an elusive thing too! but at times, I feel I have it and those times are blessings indeed…
thank you!
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