The Air Proclaims a Union
Inside the inside of the orange. Or inside the outside. Forces elemental rather than particular. The peel, the pulp seen from particles outward.
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My surroundings feel more and more like the manifestation of an exquisite mystery. A tree can be intensely alive while whispering tenderness. All communicates love, saps love from the source. Lost childhood might shimmer from the heat. Possibilities for the heart in a sudden wink of sun.
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Summer stacks oranges where Jesus wept. Tones of wet cheek in yellow sunlight. Swallows for evenings of more love than I can bear.
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The neighbourhood now in singular emanation. Flow of light beyond this or that. Trees pour into buildings, stream into streets with cries of —. I am almost inside what appears outwith myself. Inside, delicious, formless, taste.
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Glowing green, huddling, laughing. Laughing me in. Huddling spring of oranges. Scent so supernal, all forms dissolve.
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Where I sit, the swallows are brightest. They launch the mystery and I sip myself. There may be an opening I’ve emerged from but that’s not important. Whether I release these thoughts or this awareness is also beside the point. What matters is an endless stream of edgeless blending, expressed before I even step outside.
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Flowering consciousness amongst petals. Reality pruned, then buttered. The godflight of insects. All on the vine. Bees, baths, branches.
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As I move, I extend and gather what appears to be. The sun is internalised as ways of knowing, but caught in shades and lush. Movement may be my way of a continuum, the deepest taking part in. To stay in breath for a moment, and without seeing, seen.
Stephen Nelson is the author of Lunar Poems for New Religions and Flylyght (Knives, Forks and Spoons Press). His visual poetry has been exhibited at the 2011 Text Festival in Manchester and the 2012 Maintenant Art Fair in London, and will be included in The Last Vispo anthology. There are two chapbooks of his visual poetry and an ebook on contemplative spirituality available via his blog www.afterlights.blogspot.com , where he posts vispo, minimalist poetry and mystical essays. Recent publication of his poetry can be found at Eratio , Moria , Otoliths, Shadowtrain and Blue & Yellow Dog.