Michael and Me (Ekstasis Editions, 2023)

Cover of Michael and Me (Ekstasis Editions, 2023)
Year: 2023
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Synopsis: Each poem in Michael and Me offers its own nugget of meaning that links to the overall narrative — the physical events that intensify then burst into spiritual insight and flashes of clarity. The personal tragedy of Michael's cancer, his premature death, and ongoing spiritual presence evoke the universal themes of love, loss and faith. The poems gently move from the wisdom of the natural world to other realms and a broader vision of what is.

Testimonial(s)

“Through the power of its poetic artistry, Michael and Me gives luminous, intimate testimony to the power of love, “the breath of the universe.” A mother’s efforts by every conceivable means to save her son from fatal cancer, though ultimately thwarted, lead on into braided connections beyond life’s end. A sense of doom assailing “the defenseless heart” is countered by “a golden shimmer” and the blessings of family life and solace in the northern woods. Each poem’s finely-sculpted stanzas form a stage on a soulful journey that persists unflinchingly, moves ever-deeply, and soars, hawklike, to visionary heights.”  ─ Allan Briesmaster

 

The Defenseless Heart

Faint light drifts away. Fog-like absence
              descends, step by footless step,

gathers up a shard, pushes it
              into my pocket, shakes

and spreads a cover of woven thorns,
              crumbled bones, day's night-demons.

Brokenness emerges from the folds.
              Eternal mourning,

relentless as jackals gnawing the haunches
              of a gazelle.

Longing unanswered chokes
              the defenseless heart.

Heart resists, searches for respite,
              finds his glint amidst 

tears of absence
              how they fill
                                  how they fall.


 

The Portal 

It's true. Michael did share ethereal perception
thread by luminous thread: wisps of wisdom.

Mystery was unpacked, placed in my palms —
a crystal ball awaiting wisps of wisdom.

I pulled the pieces to my heart, presented them
to night's baffled sky — wisps of wisdom.

Energy blown from above infused dance, drum,
sea-grasses scattering wisps of wisdom.

I rolled vibration from throat to belly's hum,
down legs to land's core, to wisps of wisdom.

Third eye revealed the wondrous cosmos,
ancestral links to earthly wisps of wisdom.

Detached from glitter, quagmire, and pomp
I stride on tightropes, floating wisps of wisdom.