Still Light

a robin alone

stands well below the frail oak

stripped bare of bark

fallen branches

it's tortured memories

this cloudless moment

closes itself

from nowhere starling crowd a loud field

and a robin stares still

still alone

in still

light

JPPestana

Still Light

2.23.2024

The Glow

it is here he believes

the hard jagged corners that hold

the coldest of shadows beckon

darkened shapeless things

crumbled steps

ceaseless wind

a smiling man (bearded) walking by on large hands greets

his cheer lingers inspires

from nowhere a gliding choir of crow surround glisten

he loses himself in their precious invitations

then unseen kicks over a bucket of discarded words

harmlessly he races away

chasing them

crying out

in his

dis-

believing

glow

The Glow

jppestana

2.8.24

 

What Passes For Eternity

you who know

you alone in your own thoughts 

should know again

I was with you all along

when blossoms rained down

turning a clouded earth to cherry

when we in tears that never dried 

hugged our sorrows until their begging surrender

when we sipped our thirst away from cupped hands

kissed in the dancing pool

of a lost spring 

and you splashed at me crazily

shouting out what pain remained

watching it drain away in 

the last rays of a sun 

struggling alone 

in its own un-

known 

 

No Regret

is this long repeating talk of robins in dogwood enough

he thinks the sound of it is more than enough to echo

into the hollow of his soul it is more than sweet enough

to end this very moment

reasonless the wind saws away in pine taller than the sun

it is caught up in long branches torn

in the back and forth of sawdust clouds

it blinds one eye

you still see it for everything it is

it celebrates his sightlessness like some drunken actor

singing an ancient Irish song

in a dark and

vacant hall

and more than morning robins calling to each other

more than the hollow persistent drum inside of him

more than the word of her that lingers like

a combing breeze in long fields of lavender

when every sound somehow becomes one

he retreats to his pleasing emptiness

with little more than

no regret

JPPestana

No Regret

May 31, 2023

 Did She

did she say all blossoms are songs
each one written then so easily erased in a mist
languishing without reason
she stayed with me when the last fell darkly pink
from the oldest tree
a spring abandoned in a clamor of sameness
a chorus of tears
was their more or less of her before I became this
I don't remember if I am now
or when
if ever

JPPestana
Did She
16 April 2023

 

The Tremble

this listening wind is all this is

no stranger than anything else it follows me to here

then there back again

this is the between of me

the all or nothing

the unremembered voices tremble

elude the pursuit of old what was once new

relentlessly searching

held ever so lovingly

squeezed sweetly

until utterly

completely

alive

The Tremble

1.26.2023

JPPestana

 

Her

it isn't enough to see listen

the gulls cry wildly above

stealing bits of cloud daring thieves returning

on currents of bright air

do they now return what they have stolen from me

it is all the ring and chime at once

merging this other place this other time

a craving sun worshiping sea as far as the eye

witness to this dangerous orchestration of wave upon wave

crashing desperately

onto a shore

less certain

than

I

JPPestana

Her

12.15.2022