Wake

[ampoule]

Wake

The owl, alone, I watched
as I crunched through the brown debris of fall,
watched him alone.
He looked not at me, but watched
far off to another place, no daytime sleeping,
watching all alone.

The dread I felt and then I knew, it was she,
the shot heard earlier and she was down, his lady owl.
I cried out and fell sick to the ground, thrashing.
My lover's eyes and hands led me 'round the tree,
two lions, not breathing and I was dead,
unable to breathe, tears, unable to see, a lump, unable to talk.

My lover's gentle boot touching them,
one awoke, the male, and soon his roar
stretched through the kingdom, his cry, his wail.
Taking her by the tail, he dragged her off into the trees,
and I wanted to follow this funeral to see where he would lay her,
to be part of the procession, such sorrow, I did mourn.

But where is she, the owl, and looking back over my shoulder
I saw him, wings outstretched, flying after his Phoenix.

ampoule, November TwentyFifth, TwoThousandNine

[PrinceMyshkin]

Where (and who) is the director who would present this as the vivid movie it already is. How strong and passionate!

[qimissung]

Love never dies-how achingly beautifully you have presented this idea, ampoule.

[firefangled]

This reads as if you opened a vivid dream you were having and invited us in. The poem is so in a present moment, not a recalling of the dream, but the dream itself. Thank you for extending such an invitation.

I did not want to Wake when it was over.

[Buh4Bee]

It brought tears to my eyes.

[ampoule]

Thank you for reading. Tern made me do it.

[firefangled]

Thank you for reading. Tern made me do it.

Likewise it was the vulnerability and intimacy of your poem Reading Poetry that inspired Even When.

Many of your poems are inspiring to me because they often begin as though something has just occurred, and end purposefully unresolved.

Thus, there is always a mystery as if passing outside lace curtains with a glance into a scene, then turning away; or overhearing intriguing words of a conversation that haunts us as we continue on our way.

[hack]

This is amazing. I did not know I could remember the close presence of such grief till now.

[ampoule]

Thank you, hack. I hope Wake served as a poultice for that remembered grief, to draw it out and then heal it.

[~Sophia~]

My breaking heart raced from the forest to the Serengeti and back. Beautiful imagery!

[ampoule]

Thank you ~Sophia~. I value your comments.

[Bar22do]

Ampoule! it feels as if you were the Phoenix's beautiful song... and its own healing tears... his ashes from which you reemerge...
She or you, the owl follows your essence even while leaving, for you are of the same essence... so I sense.
It is an incredibly deep moving song, touching so many chords, thriving on so many scenes brought from the highest levels of imagery... and it all concludes that --- we are naturally unable not to love...!!! Thank you so much, ampoule, it took me a while to absorb and go through what I felt almost an initiation...

[ampoule]

Bar22do, your words have touched me deeply.