echoes of stillness





I follow the receding fingers

of the tide as it returns to sea


shells and pebbles on the sand disappear

as they spiral their good-bye's


I hear the soft sound of the water's retreat

as the far horizon comes forward to absorb me


and then, left stranded within myself

I begin my vigil to wait for you


my image stretches to surround it all

for I am the feelings of past existing


released from the invisible fire

I brush the ocean's deepest crevice

and the mountain's craggy summit

with my fingertips


and I veil the moon

with my wings


my reason for being

is seared on to my soul

by the endless sorrow of night


my reason for living

comes from my eternal quest

to escape the dark


in the great granite halls

I whirl among the alabaster statues

of the immortal gods


where the sounds of my passage

curse the lingering echoes of stillness


as I explore the vaporous rift

between your dreaming and awakening


I find...

that you are love


so now knowing this

I escape the solitude

and quietly the tide comes in

to carry me

to home

again




From – Of Light and Reflection

ponart

Copyright 1992

Patrick M. O’Neil


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Full image plus a craggy summit from a Big Pine backpack

Torrey Pines sunset, 2011