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Council of Stars
If you don't believe in miracles,
then you've never heard
the hiss and crackle of eons
or seen the color of stillness
between the rage
or felt more than one
universe watching you through
rambling, holy eyes.
I found them
in their place of comfort,
their dreamless, beating drums
all around
and I knew what magic was,
and I knew my sacred mission
was to do nothing
all night
and be dazzled,
and of course,
I could only get it right, so
I said: here,
here are the branches that
lead to the ceiling of
chattering light,
here are the two moons
that are the raccoon's eyes
in the dark, and here
are the voices from the
book of the beyond—
some delicate tirades,
priestly fits,
a few crystal proverbs
I can put away
for tomorrow's pain,
and here is the wealth
the world hasn't stolen yet.
Sprinkle of millennia,
flock of stars streaking
through my one pure moment,
you are just words and
the blinding heart
of everything,
and in this space so close
to all the answers,
you are everything
I need.
Patricia Joan Jones
Everything i need... right
Everything i need... right here in this poem... just soul reaching gorgeous!
Don't let any one shake your dream stars from your eyes, lest your soul Come away with them! -SS
"Well, it's love, but not as we know it."
I'm thrilled that this poem
I'm thrilled that this poem found you and you found so much in it. Coming from an amazing wordsmith and a radiant soul, it means more than you know. Thank you!!!
"hiss and cackle of eons"
.
At 70 it is the roar and cocophany of eons. This is pure poetics. This is the clash of now with aesthetic. Well said!
Coming from such a gifted
Coming from such a gifted poet, that means so much. Thank you for making my day!
Re-reading this, I find it
Re-reading this, I find it even more thrilling now that I am a bit more familiar with your work. I have to revisit this poem ever so often, because I always get a rush from it.
J-Called
I'm thrilled that you
I'm thrilled that you appreciated this so much. Countless thank you's.
I was going to send this
I was going to send this comment by private message, but then again, your greatness is such that, in my eccentric way, I think other readers need to hear the reference. I don't know if you remember, or have ever seen, the old science fiction series, Outer Limits, from the early sixties. As well as giving a very poetic interpretation to its science fiction tales, it also ended each episode with a montage of photographs from, I believe, Mount Palomar's observatories. Much as I loved the stories in this series, I loved the closing montage even more. As the credits rolled, I watched with awe these photographs of the cosmos, photographs which were, at that time, the cutting edge of astronomy (although well surpassed, now, by the Hubble's pictures). I said all that to say this: reading your distinguished poems, all of them written in what I call the PATRICIAN style, brings to me the same awe, the same thrill, and the same sense of "Not nearly enough, I want much more," as when I, as a little kid, and as a high school student (during Saturday afternoon reruns), felt each time I could watch that all too brief montage.
J-Called
I agree, those montages were
I agree, those montages were very enthralling. I can't thank you enough for your amazing feedback. I am humbled and forever grateful.
“...my one pure moment...”
I am screaming in rapture over here - at every daring image approaching and shelving the sublime. Now, about this book of beyond... :D ~S~
Thank you! Such an amazing
Thank you! Such an amazing comment from a poet l greatly respect. You made my day.
This poem contains another
This poem contains another key to your overall poetic accomplishment---to interpret the voices from the book of beyond.
J-Called
Thank you for that wonderful
Thank you for that wonderful comment. Appreciate you stopping by.
I think the
I think the collegiate/academic world of higher education needs to demand that students of astronomy/physics/cosmology be required to read your poetry during introductory courses to those three topics. Hawking may have been anle to describe the cosmos mathematically, but you describe it poetically---which is a higher calling. I have long believed that we are here to appreciate the cosmos, to give it expression as its mouthpiece (for lack of a better term): you demonstrate, in all dimensions, how that vocation is to be carried out. Had I read this poetry when I was an undergrad, back in the days of the dinosaurs, I might have signed up for the astronomy courses there.
J-Called
Thank you for that inspiring,
Thank you for that inspiring, thought-provoking feedback. I always appreciate your deep and eloquent reflections-- they keep me reaching higher.
I just had to come back
I just had to come back to this, to admore the individual phrases that you compose so well and so memorably. Shucks, I am aiddicted to your poetry anyhow, so you can expect me back again and again. Rarely has postpoems presented a poet as brilliantly skilled as you are.
J-Called
A thousand thank you's for
A thousand thank you's for being a bright light in my day and for blessing others with your own impressive works of art.