Poetry

Polyrhythm

38 Comments
Photo by Elan Mudrow
Photo by Elan Mudrow

Our bodies move between layers

Like leaves, who dance beneath

Aggressive heat….waiting….

For the bite of upcoming chill

Who consumes, as it always will

Our cycle of touch and thought

Bending our tired sinews caught

In ignorance of the ground

Soon to lie upon.

Clinging to a self-definition

Initiated by our budding

That first feast….consummation of light

 

With dry edges we seek to extend feelings

Of old sparking petals who love stealing

Shafts of pounding earthly bound sun.

We are aware from first dew milk dawn

That we know, all life is sandwiched

Between larger vacuums of cold

And upon completion

When knowledge plays its last card

Our bodies, without consent

Refuse to stop dancing

 

I see the leaves swirl violently

With their skeletons

More fiercely then they did

When juicy bodies of greenest complexion

Took in all elemental surprise

To drink the sun with the smoothest of hands

Loveliest of faces and shapely skin…Now

Twirling brown, far into new year’s play

When snow melts for the aggressor’s return

Many have been paved into soil.

Beaten into pulp by the very planet

Who supplemented their synthesis

Becoming the very ground they never knew

 

Awareness isn’t everything

Life doesn’t necessarily use it

All of the time

Neither does love

Even though we think they should

 

We are dancing now

Within our own selfish lovemaking

Applying our eternalness

 To the world

Wondering why no one else

Can feel the strength of our sprout

I choose to lay underneath you

For my body is glistening with

A hope I have no name for

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38 thoughts on “Polyrhythm”

  19. A splendid poem, worth repeated reading. Are you familiar with the drumming of Elvin Jones? He was considered to be an innovator of polyrhythmic technique. Your poem evokes Elvin’s wild solos.

    Liked by 2 people

  21. I like Art Blakey. Jazz is all polyrhythms. The drum set we now take for granted is a polyrhythmic machine. Like the flatted fifth, rhythms pass by us without our realization of their complexity. There is a bit of this in the poem. Thanks Arthur.

    Like

  23. Powerful! And it hit me exactly where I am most sensitive today:
    ” Applying our eternalness

    To the world

    Wondering why no one else

    Can feel the strength of our sprout

    I choose to lay underneath you

    For my body is glistening with

    A hope I have no name for”

    …I’m feeling a sense of genuine eternity, as you say. I’d never believed it possible. Somehow, illogically, I am certain. It seems you are too. 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

  24. the spatial – almost physical – movement of this poem is utterly enlivening; you can almost feel the poem sprout and bud and blossom with the stanzas’ right-ward drift.

    you write so beautifully.

    Liked by 1 person

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