Look North:
Into Darkness
A Work in Progress
142
Dark space ahead
recesses
if entered where exit
stone troughs out of wind
where eagles shudder
hard here
hands burn when stones touch
while wingbeats shatter cold air
out there I will tell you
what moves you
move my words infesting
your brain echoes in your brain
Fire And Shadow
I have named each eye
& to left
and to right
cold now
trying to stop heat loss
seal in warmth
I speak words warm
named DUST ASH
CINDER
named ghosts
named terror
fear friends enemies
dwelt here
to her I gave
names that are secret
who walks over wet leaves
sodden twigs that still snap
lay half awake
a spasm shook me
liquid trickled from my anus
a kind of dysentery
if I turned in sleep
another spasm shook me
sweat on my forehead
exhausted as the wasp
with sagging abdomen
flesh I'm coupled to
crippled by
hollows in hard stone
gravel like millet
I reached out in the dark
she flinched
she went away
cold now
alone
who names these things
fatherless childless
who hears
who moves
in this dark
who alive in this hole
where eagles shudder
no need to describe
the wind hits harder
stone troughs out of wind
where wingbeats shatter cold air
blind poet of the sacred
guide me out of the maelstrom
men moving in spheres
in songs of themselves
make me timeless
like bright flames blaze
in a black sky
I sang to you then
of tree's qualities
of logs
of riverside raft making
of berries of blaze-making
all the virtues of wood
at midnight
sang songs of the sun
I have named
DUST ASH
CINDER
named ghosts
named terror
fear friends enemies dwelt here
time glides forward
its eyes on the dying
i have named
now they are gone
wings beat patiently away
my bruised flesh
clings to the bone
broken by stones
by crawling through passageways
tunnels no higher than a dog's head
in these caves
ants acidify in droplets of carbon
tendrils of brain
in chambers of limestone
hard here
hands burn when stones touch
sting
like acid
in my eyes
tears
I crawl on
I cannot stay
timeless my songs
murmurs of oxygen
between waves
when the sea leans back
to rush forward
you are deep
you are silent
no flood of water
can drag me back to you
born
gasping
still not free
brands blaze in the darkness
a long line of shapes
flames flickering in a chain
came to destroy me
resting in my dreams
of Earth turning
moon turning
sun falling
in shadow
bright flames in a chain
carried over the hills
there were thirteen
& the night mare
cantered to meet you
with words I held you
killed you
with words
who alive now
who alive in this hole
here in my fastness
while the Earth still turning
you crawl on
you cannot stay
there are white stars
and beyond them
a dawn a brightness
there are black stars
and beyond them
an emptiness an absence
we crawl on
into absence emptiness
she stooped
lifted me
dripping
wet to her breast
nursed me
cradled the Earth
in her arms
as it shivered
grew heavy
slipped
slid from her arms
& to left
and to right
cold now
trying to stop heat loss
looking for warmth
looking for heat source
for food for fuel
for creatures that move
I speak words warm
timeless my songs
murmurs of oxygen
but words won't warm me
nor stones
nor cold
I heard you when you moved
forever and ever
you moved to explain
& I heard you
buried you
Orion
had swung
west
Dick Russell © Richard M Russell
2026
