wind the wind
vi. wind the wind
the bed at night is a life raft
upon the trackless waters of the dark;
i hang my weary hands over the sides
and pray to what i know not.
drifting eventides into thin black air,
upon my shroud of linen,
feeling alone the unremitting ram
of the earth-bound frame beneath me;
living proof that gravity still wants me.
too many successive nights of misery
bestow upon a man a grim and strange gift,
a sense eroding for the invisible,
knowing in such wise as a blind man fathoms water.
wind the wind.
begin to ascend.
reach for whatsoever the air will poffer,
for air is boundless.
a man may climb a weary age
ere he understands climbing and falling
share the same desperate posture.
for thou shalt wind down through the void at last,
and the cold hard ground
shall be the only thing that meets thee,
as it has always met
each high-born thing that rose too far.
the soil run through,
seeping as water enters,
perceiving aught of secret breach;
for thou art a wound-down music box now,
playing a song thou can't not recall hearing,
turning and ever turning
through a melody that has no resolution,
that knows not its own measure.
the portrait has cracked.
the pigment has departed.
and the last sweet thing my soul remembers
i can no longer look upon,
i do but feel its outline in the dark,
the shape of what it was
before the bitter knowing took it.
there is a tree that grown into its own heart,
and then collapses inward,
and from there goes off into the scenery,
into the wider world
that neither marks nor mourns its adieu.
what was once so real now exists not.
the memories depart, and what remains are feelings.
and what thoughts return i sometimes try to resist.
i watched thy face turn to powder in a year.
i watched it go the way all certainties must go,
and there was no tongue to forewarn me
it was happening, or if there were,
the telling did no good,
for some transfigurations
abide beyond the reach of human witness.
and did it yield a grain of good,
having a comrade hold thy trembling hand
through what was destined to happen anyway?
it was the best for all the world.
for all the world, save thee.
☁︎






❤️❤️❤️
ReplyDeleteThis collection is stunning from start to finish.
ReplyDeleteReading about your bed as a 'life raft' on an ocean of dark makes me want to make sure you aren't spending all your days in your room.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful and devastating in equal measure.
ReplyDeleteThe definition of poetry is finding words for things that defy language, and this piece does exactly that.
ReplyDeleteThis one feels like falling and praying at the same time.
ReplyDeleteYou say gravity still wants you—and so do we. Please don't drift too far out into the black air.
ReplyDeleteThis is a massive, epic piece of heartbreak, but I can feel your love underneath the grief.
ReplyDeleteThe rhythm is incredible.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a powerful ending to the collection.
ReplyDeleteThe emotional honesty required to admit that a comrade's presence didn't stop the inevitable is staggering.
ReplyDeleteThe ending hit harder than I expected.
ReplyDeleteSo atmospheric and devastating.
ReplyDeleteThe line about climbing and falling sharing the same desperate posture is so profound.
ReplyDeleteThe poem beautifully mirrors the psychological process of long-term grief, where concrete memories dissolve into raw, ambient feelings.
ReplyDeleteThis reads like a beautiful, tragic goodbye to an era of suffering.
ReplyDeletethe bed as a life raft is such a strong image.
ReplyDeleteevery image feels sharpened.
ReplyDeleteThe cracked portrait and departed pigment flawlessly illustrate the erosion of identity over time.
ReplyDeletei’ll be thinking about this one for a while.
ReplyDeleteEvery single line of this piece feels like a polished stone of grief.
ReplyDeleteAn absolute tour de force. A perfect, heartbreaking, and unforgettable finale to the collection.”
ReplyDeleteThis one feels very intimate, like a private loss being held gently.
ReplyDeleteThis one feels very intimate, like a private loss being held gently.
ReplyDeleteThe imagery of soil seeping in like water to find every secret breach provides an amazing, unsettling vulnerability.
ReplyDeleteThe repetition of 'turning and ever turning' underscores the cyclical, inescapable nature of grief.
ReplyDeleteThe opening metaphor of the bed as a life raft on a trackless ocean of dark is an incredible, universal image of nighttime depression.
ReplyDeleteThe line 'climbing and falling share the same desperate posture' is an absolute philosophical masterstroke.
ReplyDeleteThis feels like an elegy for a period of your life that you're finally letting go of.
ReplyDeleteI’m sorry no tongue forewarned you about the transformations that abide beyond witness
ReplyDeleteThe image of the tree growing into its own heart and collapsing inward into the wider world is a spectacular metaphor for ego death and fading away.
ReplyDeleteThe pacing here feels vast and oceanic—a slow drifting through the void of loss.
ReplyDeleteWatching things go the way all certainties must go is the hardest part of growing up.
ReplyDeleteThis feels like the deepest part of the night, right before the dawn finally comes.
ReplyDeleteThis poem has such a cold, aching beauty.
ReplyDeleteThe ending left me quiet for a while.
ReplyDeleteThe rhythm feels like a clock winding down, beautifully mimicking the thematic elements of the text.
ReplyDeleteThe concept of transformations that 'abide beyond the reach of human witness' captures the ultimate isolation of deep trauma.
ReplyDeleteI love how this closes with tenderness instead of closure.
ReplyDeleteThe line 'the shape of what it was before the bitter knowing took it' ties back perfectly to the title and theme of the entire collection.
ReplyDeletethis feels like being caught between ascent and collapse.
ReplyDeletei love how it widens from the body to memory to loss.
ReplyDeleteThis is a monumental achievement in elegiac poetry.
ReplyDeleteA breathtakingly gorgeous and melancholic conclusion to a stunning suite of poems.
ReplyDeleteThe contrast between high-born things that rise too far and the cold hard ground that meets them is exceptionally well executed.
ReplyDeletei kept getting pulled deeper into it.
ReplyDelete