DRAWN TO THE ESOTERIC AND PERSONAL
DRAWN TO THE ESOTERIC AND PERSONAL
by Randall Nicholas
A field be-fed by spiderwort, puccoon,
deer in the browsing, crisscrossing redwings,
thunderstorm and rainbow, sense of craft
to the universe taking the edge off chaos
brewing my cup of tea, cinnamon or ginger,
taken with a cube of sugar, slice of lemon,
maybe a dainty on the side, a crescent moon
divested of treetops as I trawl through evening
past midnight in a swamp of stars, nothing
impinging but what comes to mind,
aurora borealis or foxfire, sand under soil,
warmth tinged by precipitation, a breeze,
raccoon chuckles, coyote cries, an opossum’s
lumbering ghost, darkness bordering on clarity,
cup drained, bag tossed, everything pouring out
unquestionably correct just as it is
navigating imperceptibly precisely towards dawn.
The title comes, I think, from a comment Quasimofo made to a comment of mine on one of his poems–about how his poems originate. I wanted to do the same. This is a June poem in my neck of the woods; specifically a fire lane whose blues and yellows by day draw my attention to other things carrying my sensibility into and through the night in an associative stream. The tea imagery is made up; I don’t drink tea, but I thought the natural images that came to mind were “my cup of tea,” so I fished out more from that. I particularly like “a crescent moon divested of treetops as I trawl through evening past midnight in a swamp of stars.” I can see the moon from my window and there is an inland marsh just across the road. I don’t usually write “beautiful” poems, but this is one of those, inspired by the comment and many nature-fed experiences. The “field” reflexively “be-fed” stands for my mind, I guess.
I’m glad you could draw from an insight, or personal reflexion. i enjoyed the one sentence flow and holistic feel of this piece, like that’s all you needed in life at the time, or what beauties in which you are fascinated. My favorite image was “an opossum’s lumbering ghost…”.