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Norman Crane May 2021
winter contains spring
new warmth cradled by ancient wings
i am watching the surf
go out, come in
considering rebirth
all things which i have been
i was dead
but now i am living
each winter contains a spring
an energy coiled within
causing the world to spin
causing the world to spin
Norman Crane May 2021
it is difficult to remember now,
through the kaleidoscope nightmare of the river,
endlessly flowing,
endlessly flowing,
but we lived once much as you,
we'd love hope and family,
and it ended just as it will end one day for you,
in dispersion of the light and melting of the cosmic consciousness,
drip drip drip from space into your mind,
drip drip drip,

it was the middle of the night,
and the dog started barking so i took him to the yard,
the wife said,
it was dark and the stars shone like pin ****** through black velvet,
the dog said,
he was uneasy and barked at the night sky,
which dispersed like startled ravens,
and the light from all the stars became sound,
each a string plucked,
vibrating,
the sound pleased me and i attuned the ear,
as all around windows lit up bright rectangles,
and people came outside onto grass and concrete,
and stared up at the singing sky,
the dog had fallen on its side,
tongue out eyes twitching,
but the starsong prevailed and i knew the dog had understood,
and that i too would understand,
it is inevitable,
the wife said,
i love you and i love you too,
i said,

i was fear,
the stars bloomed into lightflowers,
and the bees awoke,
and ascended to drink their luminous nectar,
before bursting as fireworks,
in dispersion remaining etched upon the sky like scatter without time,
multiplying i reminisced childhood,
dust caught in attic sunlight,
each scatter birthing stars whose brightness equaled the original,
and in their accumulation night became bright as day,
i reminisced death,
brighter than,
colours so vivid the mind pained,
and starsong became starscream and the colours leeched away,
to whiteness,
to nothingness,
and we covered our eyes as its unbearable intensity melted all before us,
including us,
and we were blind,
and i felt myself pouring out my sockets,
i loved my wife and she me,
but we were no more,

in blindness i coagulated,
the world of shapes was finished and all persisting was consciousness and nightmare,
of loss,
of ending,
of the forever and the nevermore,
in concentration i perceived my consciousness,
suspended within melted eyes,
trickling through blades of disappearing grass,
a single fear,
meeting other consciousnesses,
human and non,
viscous as dreadhoney,
and within each another fear,
and in their union i became from one to many nightmares,
immediately and at once,

the trickle sped as the grass was not,
and the reality flats declined,
down we ran,
an accumulation of nightmares,
liquid eyes beyond the bodypast crying fears of individual terror experienced in common,
down toward the river.

and we were in,

like a single mind burning in universal agony,

riverchurch of the ******,

guided currently by the high priests of nothingness but experience,

overload of knowing,

from swerve of shore to bend of bay,

we flow,

awaiting you /

for you to flow as us
Norman Crane May 2021
see me beneath the tree
slumbering peacefully
let me be let me be
blue sky inkwell of time
within i dip my quill
life is lines life is lines
lines is all it shall be
written deceitfully
set me free set me free
Norman Crane May 2021
The phone rings.
I answer.
"How are things?"
"I've cancer."

"God, mom, I—"
"It's OK."
"Will you die?"
"Soon, they say."

I'm silent.
My words fail.
Cigarette:
in- / exhale.

"So take care."
(My voice shakes.)
"Hang in there."
(My heart breaks.)

I'm silent.
My words fail.
Cigarette:
in- / exhale.
  May 2021 Norman Crane
Bobby Copeland
when you were in my arms, I had
no thought, that rare condition sought
by mystics, dervishes and mad
and hungry painters staring off
at other suns' forsaken light
as if it held salvation keys,
rededicating one more night
to supplication, bended knees.
now time has moved your innocence,
ticked off the things you've never done,
and narrowed down your penitence--
some things still worth the price of fun.
this world is world enough but time
makes hesitation mortal crime.
Can you take the world
Up your back and throw in all out away?
Can you decide between choosing
What you're going to be today?
There are people who will tell you "no".
Possibly in every place you go!
They will tell you, "No you can't do this,
Unless you fall on your knees!"
You must give it up and choose something worth doing,
All you have to do is throw away your confidential feeling.


Just be mindless, just be mindless,
Mindless just like everyone of us.
No you can't be, no you can't be
Different than any one of us.


We're mindless people doing what we do,
We're mindless people, so will be you.
Join us now in an orderly fashion,
Lose the inner kid, throw out your passion.


Passion is a bad thing,
It is creative
Lose the imagination,
And be innovative.


Look at us and what we do,
We wake up at six and
Have breakfast at two.
We're mindless doing what we do,
Just do as what we say and soon will be you.
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