john douglas porter @ blogspot
You’ll need this map. Take the scenic highway out to Trembling Fern, then turn north on the dotted blue line. They don’t show this road on modern maps, but you can see it in satellite view. Go to the very end; then you’ll get out and take a dozen photos, none of which will be good. Believe me, it happens every time.
(2025-07-08)
Would that I were her pillow
to cradle that sacred head
and blot away her sorrow
in blesséd teardrops shed
(2025-07-07)
looking for a place to coagulate my mind
stir a steady precipitate,
form a sedimented state,
a firm cemented solid,
from elemental factors
mental extractions,
abstractions, distractions, excitations, ablations, ablutions, absolutions, dissolutions, dissipations, pollutions, collusions, illusions, diffusions, confusions
(2025-05-09)
"Go to your happy place!" they say
But my happy places all make me sad
Galleries of all I have lost
(2016-02-22)
"It's never too late to become who you were meant to be."
But my fear is that I already have.
(2016-02-22)
No matter how fast I drive,
I can't escape from the grief.
it flies beside me as I travel;
it lies beside me when I sleep.
Grief is but one of the company of phantoms that dog me.
Grief is a golem I conjure with my own hands —
hands of desire,
ego of expectation.
The dark highway before me
will be washed clean by the deluge of my tears,
and a dawn of understanding will break over me.
(2027-07-03)
I wonder if you ever found the note
I left in our flat in Somerville
folded beneath the sugar jar.
Beloved Aine,
I’m sure it began
(2025-07-02)
Take the last train out to the highest mount
Remain three days
Eat lichen and shrike eggs
Follow the flocks through the gorge of grey rocks
Trace to the source; melodize with the spring
Then you will receive word -
Latent history foretold
Abide ten thousand years til next Spring
Larksong -- too high, almost, to be heard;
Swallows swinging low over dolomite lake
And diving into cathedraline crevices
Hear the frozen mountains' tongues proclaim
your name in the chatter of new-thawn streams
Moraine-enciphered rumors dispelled
शृणु - Attend! La baguette du dôme céleste
touche le bol doré terrestre!
