Tuesday Poem

The Transcriber

It happens
as if stirred by some
deep prompting rising up
out of a common soul,
a voice in search of a language
to write its existence
across the pages
of a passing mind.

The soft morning light
pooling beneath hurrying feet,
the cypress trees
along the foreshore time frozen
in their wind bent posture,
the motion of waves
withering into a slow soak
up the beach –
all seem to have something
to say.

I have felt a pen press
upon my mind, struggle
to find a space free
from the cramp of my self
on which to record
the shape and sounds
of a joy or give form
to a longing freed
from the grip of shadow.

I have felt the cry
of things trapped
in the hollows of words
like empty sea shells held
to the ear and tried faithfully
to transcribe what was said.
In my solitude I have
called out hoping
for a reply only to hear
the sound of my own pulse
punctuate a terrible silence


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