Vortex

As you return, I sorrow in my heart
To know I will not be there when you come
And yet that sorrow cannot make me part
With my deep joy, which fills me with the hum
Of my ecstatic knowledge that you are
Once again returning to my shore
Once again not quite near, but not far
A time zone out, but now that and no more.
I thrill to think that you and again
Are close to one, and growing closer still,
Looking toward the nearing evening when
We will achieve it, and we know we will.
So though I wish in sadness I were there
It cannot blot the happiness we share.

Weight

I wait for her return
Not passively, but slow;
Patient in my turn
Since it's her turn to go.
I look at little screens
And from them take relief
Observing little scenes
That beggar past belief
As words from her appear
Despite the distance crossed
Almost half the sphere
And yet none of them lost
As I watch, I write
And so we pass the night.

Lunch Break

Where are they all gone
The people, busily
Going on and on
So other folks can see
Their total industry
Their go-getting supreme
Their growing property
The crowning of their dream?
Didn't they just teem
A little while ago?
A seeming endless stream
Of shuddering ego.
But here I find none left
Not that I'm bereft.

Snowstorm

I look out onto whitened street
And feel the cold within my bones
As every footprint creaks and groans
With moving snow beneath my feet
Complaining even in retreat
Of my indecent haste in tones
Beneath my notice, but whose moans
Still make unpleasant even fleet
Excursions out. And so I sit
Inside, and ponder having gone
To places distant, where the dawn
Warms the sky, and won't admit
Such cold complaint; and there you are
From cold and me both far too far.

Past

Let the sky become the endless stars,
The sea expand until the ocean roars
With here be dragons. Let the nears be fars,
The fars be nowhere, as horizon soars
Into the infinite, and then beyond.
Let every inch become a country mile
And every foot four furlongs. Let the space
Between each atom in a lattice be
Unbounded by the distance you could trace
In aleph-countable infinity
And still, despite that separation, I'd
Search and find you, to linger by your side.

Hearth

The night is dark and cold
The moon, invisible
And everything feels old,
Creaky, wrinkled, full
Of half-forgotten things
Throw half away, and dropped.
The nightengale who sings
Has just abruptly stopped
And all is still. And dead.
But yet my heart is light
For in my soul I've fed
On sun, and so despite
The gloom, I can renew
By contemplating you.

Full

I look up at a full moon in the sky
And think that you might somewhere watch it too.
I wonder if you'll also stop and sigh
Staring at it beaming down on you
And think back to the day you thought you knew
Finally knew that we were meant to be.
I think of it, and keep its orb in view
As best I can, so that, persistently,
That loved and much debated memory
Floods into me, and makes my insides warm
Despite the freeze outside. I hope you see
The same moon in the same full, floating form
And in the heat, amid the palms, think of
The time that we discovered such deep love.

Turn

Happy New Year say we all
Winter though has just begun
And the dreary end of fall
Still weighs down on everyone.
Snow still lies upon the ground
Or, newfallen, clogs the way
Everywhere with cold is bound
Even through the cool midday.
What if in July instead
We began a sunny year
Not when all is dull and dead
But when we are full of cheer?
Ah, but then the days shrink fast
Now they just begin to last.