We staggered about like new angels, amazed
at the dazzle and torpor of Paradise.
—Christopher Reid, from "The South"
I am yesterday and yesterday's yesterday,
confronting tomorrow
Knowing they couldn't break my brain
with weird, with crazy,
they directed stupid to attack me,
they sent ugly, they sent boring
The dreamer
The one who studies the dreamer
The one who benefits from the dreamer
The one who condemns the dreamer
Imagination powerful enough to create a place of wonder,
housing marvels, treasures, mystery and secret,
which can think of nothing to do with it then but destroy it
Everything you think
about everything you think
about
The ur-poem of consciousness
The toll of the toil
The savagery of the unsophisticated
The non-virgin earth
What criteria does the brain use
to pluck from the day
the few unremarkable bits
it deems worthy for conscription
into dream?
How many species would it take life
to listen to all the silence of the stars?
And then, begin on sound.
Is the universe thorough?
All poems are written and copyrighted by Michael C. Rush.
None may be republished or repurposed without permission.