Solitude Raga
1
drop by drop water
incessantly dripped then splashed
overflowing rain
so disconsolate
flat stones skipped discus-like sank
a fate for stones
courage, do not weep
though a million cells break
life strong tea will steep
though glass slivers glint
cut jewels flash with each beat
broken hearts still bleed
a pot full of chocolate
crimson sphere dashed with gold
a crystal ball
a candle-lit table
of varnished oak
a glass carafe of red wine
reflections
reflected by darkness
outside un-curtained glass windows
that owlet she raised flew
from fence to barn roof
rust dusting her talons
moon over Kielder
purple bloom above crag edge
climbing above Roughside
flag stones after rain
puddles stained with kerosene
drying to grey blue
drop by drop water
incessantly dripped then splashed
overflows again
a field mouse
floating in that metal tub
left out under the downspout
no company for some days
except short-eared owls
quartering the moor
2
so particles traverse the universe
strange sounds like water dripping from gutters
we play those signals back in reverse
forensically hoping to derive
some good rhyme or reason why we're alive
or revelation of why we were meant
what purpose if any do we survive
to receive these signals this testament
this old testament of events in time
whose ripples arrive carrying signals
of far begettings with clear signatures
from which we surmise others are out there
as yet unfound just more shards of knowledge
to log no patterns more than Orion's edge
3
cosmic waste pipes drip and splash
between two sounds
drip splash
little sound to measure
distance between things
pipe rock
twelve feet between
sound waves spoke out
through air dampened by drips
radiating
from origin
tick tock
pipe rock
between that noise of things
an essential silence
of movement
of limbs
before noise
warmth at center
towards which air swirls
warms rises cools
& always evening when
noise warmth light
then dust brought
then warmer faster
then breeze wind
in your beginnings
wind myth myth carnal
bee rhythms
stem sway wing fall
mulch
feeds the sycamore tree
but one wing
wing of myth
with bones joints thumb
let go forego the primates
thumb indulge
in chimerical incunabulum
4
quick! chirps a night bird now that it is dark
quick! quick!
thinking again of her gift
drawn with charcoal on thick art paper
a nude silhouette
concentric ripples
like a grenade was dropped
a trout erupted
took a dragonfly
it’s natural for waves to travel
it’s what waves do
so should we believe in that Big Bang Theory
or opt for one that explains cosmic plumbing?
impact
consequence
that gift was an event in time
whose ripples still reach me
with a signal of perturbation
Orion in view from the front door
Venus shining
what breaks that sound
that falls on stone
that sound
of water splashing
in between
two songs
one hand on a taut drum
damping percussive effects of crowd
the other on cymbals
achieving silence again they play
weaving meaning
on a thousand-line octave
©Dick Russell, 2015
Revised December 2018
