)))solstice)))

IF YOU WALK IN ON THE SUN

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This isn't a Good Night for Walking - Arches

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IF YOU WALK IN ON THE SUN

as it fertility-grasps the buried hand of earth
awakening the unbarren memory of her seeping bosom
her perpetuating loins
with the hazy shake of muffled promise –
be sure to give thanks.

and if your taut, startled flesh
comes swimming crude stroked
to the dank surface of night
and your story goes stuttering
like wounded wings
your visions all sullied dim
with slag and soot
if mourning comes as bone spurs
frosting up from earth’s dizzy body
her fractured lungs wheezing
gasping for the damp, recurring meal –
then go on
set your body faltering down
cover the beached fish muscles over
writhe the sleepless static
mumble wet the dark smoke dirge
wail the body unbroken
and once you’ve stared down
that cold horizon
viridian emerald pear tangerine
limp hands cradling at unseen waters
eyes unscaled
voice unfurled
be sure to give thanks.

{mal waldron} & {cold horizons}-{ten}

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japanese island - mal waldron
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atomic energy - mal waldron
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it would seem that mal is on the move here at !!crescere!! i hope you'll agree that this is a very good thing. he is fast becoming a new favorite of mine. many thanks to bacoso over at o.i.r. for this session as well as "reminicent suite" which reaped the beast that is "black forest." i posted that one back in february. on both of these recordings, mal is supported by a full on japanese backing band with no repeats of personnel from one session to the other. this one finds mal working in a trio, and like josh, i do love me a smokin' piano,drum & bass trio. these two tracks will tell you why.
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also included in this post is my last {cold horizon} poem for this season. i have thoroughly enjoyed this experiment and intend to pick it back up sometime early next winter. i hope you've enjoyed it also. this one was written days after the earthquake/tsunami struck japan's coast, and was definitely provoked by it. i had hoped to get it up sooner then this. all the same, enjoy:
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{cold horizons}-{nine}

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hum-dono - joe harriott/amancio d'silva quartet

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{nine}

all the noises in the world
have found there way in
become the noises in your head
and you seem all smothered
you’re surrounded you say
hemmed in by all the things
of the groping void
so that everything
just dulls into an all pervasive nothing
and there you lie
lost & stuck
in a hundred different ways
retreating inward
reaching out
for the slow-motion floating refuge
of the dark womb
of God’s love
to be unalone & silenced
dreaming the nothing dream
growing into the warm bliss
of the soft tissue embrace
entranced by nothing more
than the gentle hum
of the Holy Spirit
& the muffled world to come

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{cold horizons}-{eight}

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Pharoah Sanders - Upper Egypt & Lower Egypt

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{{{eight}}}

along with the world

i watched the protestors in Tahrir Square on the television set

as they bravely huddled together like pigeons

and began to rage against their diminishing cages & coops

they looked so unlike a crowded people all mashed together there

faces as free as a migratory flock

with their unrelenting wings beating in unison

against the current of their cold horizons

i sat there in my looking silence

i watched them fly a great distance

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{-}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

^^^BLACK FOREST^^^

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black forest - mal waldron/terumasa hino

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traversing the black forest,
nevermind what's behind you…

...a high coo moon

^^^^^^^^^^^^

{cold horizons}-{seven}

{utopia & visions} - {don cherry}

{{{seven}}}

when you rise up, quietly sing the humming wordless song that lights you - strum strum for the dancing curtains of the wintry morning - for if we’re to live for all of eternity - wheels that keep turning - pulling us further & further until they’re worn into nothing but a vanishing memory of time - than we should say so

go out - walk the treeline - feel the sun - cast your shadows – mutter afresh the story and listen – for if this day you can walk as you do - flannel flag flying free in the pink edges of an orange sky that is pink edgedly orange in just this way, never to be repeated - then you should say so

and if i – today - can tow with ease this chain of glinting thoughts & sounds as they unravel from me endlessly in just this way - churning & bobbing within my dome only - here & gone as quick as they came – than i should say so

for if we are immortal as we sleep in our tangled dreams & cotton sheets - if we are fixed in the sky of God’s good pleasure - a fixture of His golden gaze - set free to shine in ceaseless stardusting reverie - if we are loved - not merely tolerated beneath a pact of unspeakable bloodshed (holy & worthy of perpetual praise) but actually & truly befriended – invited – pursued – embraced – wanted – then strum strum - ring the bells - and let us say so!

<{cold horizons}-{six}>

{six}

reaching
for the solitary cloud
of the crystal morning

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wayfaring pilgrim - ola belle reed
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<{cold horizons}-{five}>

<{cold horizons}-{four}>

{four} such a fond short flash the way we kept the little birds warm all thru the night - new hampshire to virginia and back - if those birds knew just half the words that gave heat to their feet i reckon we’d both be flying by now

<{cold horizons}-{a mixtape}>

{three}

at the prospect of the coming months
i rub my feet together like two sticks
i should probably strip the tree of tinsel this afternoon
toss it’s dead, dry body into the shallow snow beyond the plow drifts
maybe clear a path to the barn
but it’s likely i won’t
i can feel the weight of that tree just looking at it
can feel the labor of it in my heart
once again the cold horizon calls to me thru the curtains
as the old furnace issues another cough
the house creaking

rattling from one end to the other like a shiver in the spine
man is wood tough!
oh God how i wish i was as tough as a tree
strong & upright
i feel like a bent birch
cold & heavy like a snow bank
dark as night
there’s time yet i suppose for me to take up my tree
it would likely do me good to get out
walk the length of the road to the mailbox
let my eyes tear up with wind
take in the cutting air like a winston
sure as sundown, it would do me good
and surely i’ve got a mind to do it
but i’ve minded these things before

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man climbs out of the winter - cotton jones

la chaleur - bertrand belin

january 4th - wixel

raisins & almonds - yusef lateef

migration - the innocence mission

mellow my mind (neil young) - j. tillman

i'm so depressed - abner jay

ramblin' man - hank williams sr.

high time - the grateful dead

young bride - midlake

snow - real estate

things in life - dennis brown

a message from the underground bunkers - psychedelic schafferson jetplane

texas 71 - magnolia electric co.

if i ever needed someone - van morrison

mykonos - fleet foxes

look out the window so they won't see you crying - bobb bruno

solitaire - wilco

Lord, i'm in Your care - the carter family

go down, moses - padang food tigers

<{cold horizons}-{two}>

{two}
abiding in the contemplative silence of what it means for me to love within my own reach – to walk beside the fearsome death loitering in the foreground of all our unspoken queries as we sense the gaze – to live & breathe alongside those who live & breathe in that long lonesome wait for the clapping praise that never seems to come - one good word can carry a woman thru fire – can raise a man above the treeline – how seldom we are free of it – keeping silence I hear it so loud in me – silence is for the brave or maybe the ignorant - i am neither

the static – when it settles - what fortress does He hold out for me that I’ve not yet reached for - not begun to grasp – what refuge reserved – what rest?

<{Cold Horizons}>

hope some folks are up for a bit of poetry during these long winter months. i've recently been inspired to begin a series of poems to get me thru this season. i have a bad habit of gettin' the blues, especially this time of the year. once the holidays have passed, it's a long haul here in the backwoods of new hampshire. perhaps a few of you know where i'm comin' from. adding to this, i've been feeling the need to push myself into a new place with my poetry lately. getting overly analytical & critical (conscious) of what you're writing can be pretty debilitating at times. i've been rereading kerouacs "mexico city blues" collection recently, and just read his mini philosophy on writing called "essentials of spontaneous prose" (here). i've loosely tried my hand at this before and always get stuck when it comes to editing (kerouac is anti-edit) and end up frustrated. for this collection of poetry, i'm goin' for it. if i don't edit - alright. if i do edit - it's cool baby, it's cool. if editing robs my poetry of the purity of essence, than put me down as non-essential. i'm in it to have a good time while attempting to purge myself of the winter blues. hope you guys enjoy looking in on the experiment. if you haven't figured it out yet, i'll be calling the collection "cold horizons." here goes:

{ONE}

taking me by the hand
she leads on to the smooth majestic elbow strokes
meandering knees
& God knows what else
creepy wonders marvelous & alive!
& all this awe purely from the outside
but in me
the shame - oh God
of the small shallow vision that I carry

}(this body)}

when this sickness finally goes

rises up from my bones like dross

i'll flee this place for another
divide the night like a freight train
i never have been too good at staying in one place

restless mind always telling my body how it should be

as though it knows

i'll step to the edges of untrodden heights
scale unclimbed trees
sing unsung songs

when my mind is better
better than this
i’ll be long gone
gone like the flipside of a full country moon
gone for good
there is a woodland where the water is quite mute
and not so swift in the flowing

the rain falls soft & slow there
sinks down deep
exalts the ground
trees & greens
doesn’t leave you quite so wet
i haven’t been sleeping

but once I've rested
i intend to move on from here
to the nourishment of fruit bearing a new hue
sweetness unfamiliar
i was on the porch this morning
with tea – but I was dizzy
time will tell it
downy tree shade that is dark
but not dismal – not daring
before too long
when this spell has finally lifted
i will inhabit a new dwelling
i will not care for this body there
i will plant no flag
carry no memory

orion no. 8

( this here's the last of the orion poems ~ hope yall enjoyed them)

orion no. 8

save the sound of the wings
fluttering backward thru my mind
i heard nothing
there was only rest
the rest of soul sleep
the rest of womb dreams
the rest of subway cars
floating empty
through silent tunnels
coming & going & knowing no enemies
only open passages

orion no. 7

my eyes are shut
but i’m wide-eyed awake
with the money i can’t make
& the strength i can’t fake
& i can’t help
but to speak to myself
here in the dark
about my will to break
and this step to take
of faith in a GOD

who bled for my sake
and so i pour myself out
with these words that unravel
these thoughts that time travel
thru the trees
& the breeze
& the clouds
constricting
& expanding
& thru the atmosphere
& thru this weightless air
i keep breathing
i breathe is all
again

& again
unto HIM

orion no. 6

orion no. 6

not one wish for today
from waking sun to setting sleep
i will seek the silence of rustling leaves
& eliminate all thoughts
of if
of when
of why
i shall not laugh
i will not cry
but will abide in the cleft
between life & death
while ceasing to try
seeking only that silence
that breathes deep & intrepid
with lungs full of now & thanksgiving

orion no. 5

this one received a bit of editing

just grammar & word use

nothing major

-it needed it.

orion no. 5

we are mesmerized in motion
marching ~ vibrating ~ pulsating
our small hearts clutched in our little hands
thrust up & over our heads
held like scalps of war

we are dizzy with private thoughts of
genius, grandeur & glory
leading us in shackled feet
to the base of the mountain
whose birds fly crossways
above the tree-line
declaring,

there is a way that seems right to you
........but it’s path ends in humiliation
..............it’s path ends in confusion

....................path ends in vexation
...........................ends in isolation
...................................in degradation
.......................................destruction

... !! ... go no more this way ... !! ...

orion no. 4

orion no. 4

when I stepped down from the bus
trailing endlessly into the night
the outermost edge of the sun’s resurrection lit into my mind
& I spoke plainly to the desert bush & the lonesome crow
I spoke plainly to the outer rims of the universe
& saw plainly the path set before me

orion no. 3

orion no. 3

thru clouds dense
i emerge
forward i converge
with winged things
in migratory formations
& though i hesitated
like the breaking signals
of radio stations
i am nonetheless resolute
full of the stuff
of the life
of the heart
& mind
that i deem vital
& sense
that i will never
inwardly refute