how porous the permeable membrane
that shuts us from the elements
that opens us to the elements
she
in whose skin we are
in whose ear we are drum
in whose eye we are retina
who
emerges thru our silence
our speech
in the desert
by water
up mountain
where ever
light bursts to prism
violet first then blue green orange yellow red
whenever
energy fans into form
her forms in the moment of
( a rose breasted grosbeak
whirls chirps settles on rafter
all the impetus of spring string
in its beak)
the moment of
making
©Penn Kemp
apantomancy, they call it, & this turtle
chances upon me deliberately
on the margin of marsh
-bubble clusters bead the surface
he breaks for air
gold eye at swamp level
black pupil hollow
to ancient telling
turtle, do you know the way to centre island?
comfort me, speak - he says nothing
tho his mouth cracks open like a smile
to snap bugs flitting
sun lights upon water
reflect/ refract pattern
he enters obliquely
at angle of incidence
his denser medium home
-flippers push thru seaweed strands
turtles wear their home upon their back
familiar with deep div(in)ing
i follow slowly sluggish with change
to-unclean green brackish water
rolling off our great horn shells
first i thought how awkward
to manipulate that weight
but swimming of course we're light
-amphibians adapted to both
between sleep & waking
we surrender to the littoral manifold
where elements meet
©Penn Kemp
we are all your surrounding whose form is
of necessity feeling encoded in landscape
creak of red-winged blackbird chittering tree
what need to art/iculate we trance scribe
i hear you lady in your element the lowlying
frequency of silence where thought stops clean
the senses fold in from the quarters fold out
from the body 2-way currents consume me wholly
till your forms start up again in the more or less
corresponding characters of a different tongue
concerned friends intrude i am they say spaced
blown thru & out the other side of reason by past
question & concept: how are you? what are you
doing? what have you done? what will you do?
i need not reply in person for all so apparently
I'm here in the continuous pattern of response
©Penn Kemp
wait for the moment
when ocean recedes
when the sound of ocean
recedes
sky opens
enter the elegant spiral of seashell
enter matter
climb the double helix
see the light at apex
where
out there
sand or shellwall cloud the gap
how to pierce trancelucence
lady windows promise light
but bar it
wait
opacity will clear
the coils will spin
slowly
without sound
open
©Penn Kemp
