© Steve King
All rights reserved
Through the open door the starlight shone,
stirring empty shadows with a glow
of dreaming, though I heard clear the click
of sharp heels speeding on their way,
prelude to a distant journeying
nothing like a dream, not then to you.
Each small shadow deals its own story,
no dark center fit to hold them all;
and I hear the singing lines echo
from that other sphere where you orbit—
where your other lives are well eclipsed.
Those echoes ebb and flow:
stubborn tides
to measure and fill each pliant mood,
though reprising rarely; taking form
only when a certain solitude
gathers in the still familiar place,
seizing, with surprise, an old hostage
who waits for such dreaming to attend,
happy to stir starlight now and then.
A new poem to be shared with
Hey Steve--first this has such an interesting and arresting opening with starlight shown through the open door rather than shone--it stops one, and actually sort of shows the starlight in a more vivid manner--then the click of the heels comes very sharply, and honestly, it is quite to tell whether this is dream or waking--a real person walking away into their own life (or lost life) or the imagination of a person--or maybe not person--the door becoming rather like a portal--I also found the line about sufficient silences intruding to be very compelling--as again it is a kind of oxymoronic usage--(is that the word?) unusual usage that stops the reader--but of course, even though it is not silences that usually intrude, we know exactly what you mean. Super well done. K.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Karin--the "shown" vs. "shone" was a gross blunder on my part. Copy-editors are important!!
DeleteThis is very beautiful, Steve. I especially like the "prelude to a distant journeying"...and the "old hostage, ....happy to stir starlight now and then."
ReplyDeleteYou capture the distances involved in intimacy, the separation that makes the burning bridges so piercing and also so uniquely exquisite. As always your language has both musicality and precision--I love this entire passage especially(forgive me for the long quote):
ReplyDelete'.. prelude to a distant journeying
nothing like a dream, not then to you
Each small shadow deals its own story,
no dark center fit to hold them all;
and I hear the singing lines echo
from that other sphere where you orbit—
where your other lives are well eclipsed....'
A pleasure to read, adding its savor to enrich the beginning of another day.
Mystery and stories lurk in the shadows and the starlight calls!
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of stirring shadows~ I love these lines:
ReplyDelete"and I hear the singing lines echo
from that other sphere where you orbit—
where your other lives are well eclipsed...."
Wondrous!
I admire the tides & echoes ebbing and flowing Steve ~ Lovely cadence when I read the words aloud ~ The nuances of your verses in the second stanza are my favorite part ~ Wishing you happy week ~
ReplyDeleteAh, that 'stirring of the starlight!" I love the play of light and shadow in this. You write with such depth and nuance, subtlety of rhyme, and with a metaphoric feel that always leads me deeper into each passage. I love the third stanza, most especially:
ReplyDelete"...an old hostage
who waits for such dreaming to attend,
happy to stir starlight now and then."
Reading this was a perfect way to start my morning! Have a good week, my friend!
This is just beautiful, and the middle stanza speaks right to my heart. These are the stories of life.
ReplyDeleteHi Steve, So sorry that I did not see this earlier. I thought I subscribed to your blog, but these things don't seem to show up properly.
ReplyDeleteA beautiful poem that reads almost at times like a sestina--there is this sense of interweaving lines images and homonyms-- or near-homonyms, a stirring of all these elements and sound that is like the stirring of the starlight or memory. I especially liked the clicks and the eclipsed, and the fragmented narrative of the shadows. Just lovely. (Too mild a word.) Terrific. k.
Thanks, Karin. You did get to this one earlier and offered some constructive thoughts that caused me to make a change...I'm the one who's been negligent. I just got back from my annual bicycle tour of the Erie Canal (Buffalo to Albany in eight days) and I haven't posted at all, not even comments, for a couple of weeks. Thanks for visiting again.
DeleteAh --nice to return to this--it feels so much like a poem written in maturity--of course, that's clear on the surface, but on a deeper level too--one suddenly sees the "lesser" stories--maybe consciousness is more fragmented or distractible--but there's also room (in the clutter) for ambiguity and details--I am thinking back here for example to a marriage that didn't work out or some other event that certainly had a central darkness for some time. Thanks. k.
ReplyDeleteHi Steve--this is a lovely poem--it is lovely to return to--I think of the writer as the old hostage--a lovely couple of words together--and am happy that there is a resolved feeling to it. Most of my old hostage moments are rather wretched! Thanks. k.
ReplyDeleteThis is very beautiful, especially "happy to stir starlight now and then."
ReplyDeleteJust got through reading the fine poem you posted in your dVerse interview--this one above seems to be an example of the lines:
ReplyDelete'...it is all of me and all I know,
the silence and the song and the regret.
There will be song; there will be silence yet..."
Your work continues to evolve, to absorb and refine elements of structure and form from traditional 'classic' poetry, while becoming keener and more contemporary in what it expects of itself. I have somehow lost your blog from my subscriptions---or have not looked in the right place(equally likely) so forgive my absence while you've been turning out these gems.