Eikos

Eikos ...dancing with children in the veins of the gutter
...our city is bleeding again

Beirut? Boston? Utopia.

Lonely lonesome alone isolated
– that's the cluster. Shiva says she is lonely.

He compromised and she pushed
For more than he could give,
So he is withdrawing the compromise
On the sound ...from the clarinet...

There it is,
He is drinking coffee,
Watching ...
Complaining ...in his head...
Wishing to write poetry,
Which he is not,
Wishing to go out into the world,
Finding excuses to not do that –
To see Shiva,
To go to the demonstration,
Just to get out of the house...
All this defeats him too soon.

So, as soon as he turns on music this morning,
Before the first clarinet piece is finished,
Pieces of
What is not evidence
Gathered together
In order to draw
A conclusion
Is the way lives proceed
Outside the law
And its courts
Ordinarily
He thought...
What's that Plato and his tribe thought,
Diereisis instead of dialectics?
Not syllogisms

Eikos for diereisis.
His search
Has led him astray
But he must admit
He enjoys where He is –
Lost –or in a new place,
Far from his destination..
Since he sought a place
Far from his origin...

Go out for a walk...

Merismos

This morning
Separating the voice from the sound
Like some ancient dialectician
Scorning
Merismos: a dividing, distribution,
Still attempting
Separation of spirit from soul:
He listens for the grass growing
Two fields over,
Awaits connection via Wi-Fi
To a world,
Not itself silent,
A word, for
Making thought
Of the parts, one beside th'other
Reads his friend's poem
To gather himself for his walk...

Vshîma

So, he goes for a walk
To clear his soul...
Play a game of speed chess
With a beautiful,
Young Hindu woman...
Empty seat across from her.

This, Trimurti, she points him to,
When she responds to his hands together
As he parts, by placing her hands together
In the traditional sign of departure. Bless her.

...and her chess board
And the beauty of her spiraled hair,
Black hair,
Black eyes –
Enough for one game
Before he must,
Away from his attraction
Toward her...looking for Shiva,
The board set up again
As he passes in the other
Direction.

Reminding him
He gave her back her queen
So she could
Destroy him.

His search - your search - Vshîma -
Did not match any documents:
So we made up a name
To replace the one
We could not keep –

Our search for [your search] - Vshîma –
Ended before it began
Since
We were not looking for her
And we were not
Going anywhere:
Which we shared
And parted.

This shows a thoughtful, caring narrator, Pete. There are many images here which evoke the eastern religions. I enjoyed the read.

Les