Elisa Maria Argiro

Elisa Maria Argiro Sep 2015

Through translucent eyelids,
the light increases.
Wherever we are, this is so.
Time zones delineate regions
where the light has been,
and where it is heading.
As some stretch slowly in
morning beds, dusky birds
across the world sound
soft evening songs.
Rambunctious, small boys
outrun their mothers,
somewhere in between.

Plenitude is with us,
in all this abundant life.
We can create an end
to the rampant, senseless
tragedy, to the desperation
looming hard upon so many.
It is what we are here to do.

For the Syrian refugees, and all those everywhere in need, and for the people of the tiny country of Iceland, and all those everywhere who are reaching out to help.
©Elisa Maria Argiro

#humanity #plato #plenitude

Elisa Maria Argiro Sep 2015

Noctilucence

In this nearly empty
sky, one luminous
weaving of ice
and light
hovers,
above the darkness.

Looking up at you,
my rib cage
tightens, slightly.

In your knowing
eyes, is everything.

©Elisa Maria Argiro

#life #clouds #noctilucence

Elisa Maria Argiro Sep 2015

Murmurations

Murmurings of words
so long unspoken,
now sent out across
the curved expanse
of our spherical home.
Murmurings of all our
voices and languages,
coalesced into one.
Winging out into open
space, like the nimble
murmurations of birds,
never quite touching,
yet deftly creating
virtual shapes,
markings recognizable
only from a distance.
Do birds' own souls
unfurl and unfold in
these undulations?
Starlings find aerial
corridors, travelling
together swiftly, so
to stay warm. Do we?
These murmurings,
our word-murmurations,
fly out into the space between us,
swiftly curving back, and then back again,
before dipping low, then nesting deeply,
so very deeply, into sweetest sleep.

(My deepest thanks to Dylan Winter for his phrase "aerial corridors".) ©Elisa Maria Argiro

#space #patterns #globalfamily #poet-tribe #murmurations #murmurings

Elisa Maria Argiro Sep 2015

For My Father, Nicolino

A small boy with dark eyes
grew to dream, and invent.

Toys for the children of the
world, and for us, your own.

What began as a limp
took over your whole body,
robbing the light inside you.

Before it did, one winter
evening, you taught me
to ice skate. Around and
around we went, on
the small circle of our
frozen swimming pool.

My mother called us
in for dinner. Usually
obedient, I pretended
not to hear. Something
told my young heart
that this would never
happen again. Around
and around we went,
father and daughter.

You gave us your
native land, and your
vision that invention
could create a life.

The last time I saw
you, it was to feed
you a favorite dish.

As I turned back
from the open door,
your eyes met mine.
A steady, direct
unfamiliar look.

It was good-bye.

There was nothing left
unfinished between us.

©Elisa Maria Argiro

#love #father #toys #invention

Elisa Maria Argiro Sep 2015

September, Now

The days are getting shorter.
We see it first
in the color of the light.
The moon is waning.
It's time to dream
other dreams.
Or maybe eat a fried egg.

©Elisa Maria Argiro

#moon #dreams #eggs

Elisa Maria Argiro Aug 2015

The Ten-Thousandth Lifetime

The first thing I remember is breathing under water.
And what do you remember, dear and distant friend?

Lifetimes, braided together like blessed challah bread,
are intertwined, one into the next, sometimes glimpsed.

Living so differently, in music, through earthquakes and
tidal waves, we visit from one time into another,
to learn, to see life through one heart, our one unbounded
mind, the one universal soul that inhabits us all.

I have heard it said that after our ten thousandth lifetime
we can go home to our limitless beginnings.

Are we ready, dear, and distant friend?
Are you? Am I?

#god #challah #breathingunderwater #tenthousandthlifetime #lightofconsciousness

Elisa Maria Argiro Aug 2015

Reverence

First light, and
a chill mist.
Low bird calls.
Small and quiet,
the eldest child
zips her way
out of the tent.

Gathering
wildflowers,
she sips a bit
of mountain
water.
Reaching
up, she
offers
her flowers
into the
crook of
a plain tree,
bowing down.

#nature #mountains #reverence #timelessness