written in the cross torn pages of birth to death
this earthly emptiness
quickly fills
with the clouds
of dream and ambition
tumbling and roiling forms
that are driven together
around
through
beside
and despite each other
and as we hide
in doorways
when the first drops
of rain
drive us away from the street
so we learn
that dreams are the rain
that draws the clothes of our ambition
closer
to the skin of our lives
20 comments:
Dreams and clouds, rain and ambition, and all I can think as I read these words, steven, is that I'm anxious at the moment for my daughter's second baby to be born. He/she is overdue, not by much but it becomes preoccupying.
A very interesting way to look at rain and dreams. A very brooding post to match our equally brooding weather. Storm clouds and soakings a plenty.
This is just brilliant, Steven - the words, the photographs, the sentiments; they are complete within themselves.
if this is so
then we should never run away from but instead run directly into. i'm trying to learn how to do just this. i'm not quite sure why this is no easy task.
xo
erin
Really amazing clouds.
Holy cow, what was going on up there when you took those pics? It's very scary!!
Others have commented on those clouds. Me too. Just amazing. I do not remember seeing such turbulent clouds. What was the weather like when you took these photos?
Yes, Steven, as with your lovely cloud pictures - there will be dark times and light times in our lives.
Amazing photos, and at first glance I thought of Moses and the Ten Commandments! :)
But the lesson you really illustrate is in the last stanza of your words. Truly true, and thoughtful.
Rick
I like the thought of rain as ambition... it encourages all sorts of growth at the same time that it washes clean.
wonderful cloudscapes. It would be a pity to go indoors and hide from them.
elisabeth - they hold hands - the post's perspective and your anxiety. steven
hello valerie!! i suppose it is a brooding post. it's funny that as i write i don't really consider the mood as much as i think about its tautness and then that there are doors and windows to climb into and out of. steven
aguja thankyou. when i originally wrote this piece it was about the place of desire in my life. desire in every form and for every reason. but i saw the words dream and ambition and how they hold hands in a very uncomfortable but necessary and real sort of way and was drawn to unpack that instead. steven
erin you wrote this recently . . . "we must never sit down at the wall. this kind of love is not my love now. i don't care to have this kind of love. and even though i will most likely fail at arriving at the core, i will work toward it. but it is not just love i speak of but being, living aware." my sense is that being available (which you might see as running toward but i being a pre-mature adult see as a more leisurely availability to the moment), to the experience of living and love in all its forms and knowing that love is all part of one great and entire love is hard work! for sure it is. but it's the work of all works available to us in this place. steven
ellen - yes! i thought so at the time. i still do. steven
reya the sky was being torn, and writhed every which way as it tried to shake itself free of its accumulated energy. i spend so much of my summer available to the natural world and especially to the sky. i stayed outside until it became too intense for me. steven
dan - the wind was cold for the briefest of moments and then the sky boiled across from the northeast. what i loved was that the sun pierced through some of the rents and tears in the clouds. the rain came with intense winds and the sky smeared over into uniformity. i love to see the front end of storms of any kind. my very favourite is sitting by a lake and watching the rain or snow come across. steven
hello weaver! yes, and shades of grey and all the rest of the spectrum in-between!! steven
hi rick - this piece has lots to do with the surface of our experience. "ambition" is used to loosely contain the idea of goal-oriented work. "dream" is used to describe that moment of unbidden insight that opens the door or window to the actuality that work of some sort is necessary. thanks for your kind comment. steven
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