before the before
a low, slow flow
no name, no seam, no so / no no
only the deep in a breathing spiral,
blue-on-blue, unbroken hue,
a tone that knew no “through” idle
then came a thin thing
a splitting string
a line in the long low ring
colour from colour
pulled a little further,
tone from tone turned other
and the deep grew dense
tense with its own expanse,
a sense of offense in its own immense
what it made came back mis-placed,
re-faced, displaced, out-paced
grace disgraced
so it stirred aloud
slurred word under word,
a blurred becoming heard
forms unformed but overgrown,
tooth and tone, bone without bone,
a throne with no true own
coil and surge,
edge without verge,
a urge that forgot how to merge
storm on storm,
warm made warped,
the norm torn from form
and a voice rose wrong
loud but long
on distant shore a breaking song
power placed in a empty chest,
crest on crest brought unrest,
commands shouted,
un-blessed
all things shook the earth
what they took brought rebirth
they could not retake
so the wisdom stayed,
then fade.
sound sent to soothe the seam
but dream won’t hear when it splits the dream,
and nothing answered the in-between
then soft
not aloft
but off what was off
a different draw in the law of flow,
a know beneath the overthrow,
a slow, sure “no” to the overflow
not loud the echoes
not proud the dream
but allowed by the under-sound
It seems
a line that leaned the field back true,
a hue that knew the deeper blue,
a through that gathered what withdrew
“let it hold”
not just bold,
but told in a form that won’t unfold
not strike alone,
but set of tone
so what is done stays done, stays known
and the many wavering ways
flavoring favor in the saving ring days
bent to the centering
while the deep, still deep,
kept its keep
in the fold beneath the sweep
for all that parts
restarts
in the art beneath the paths
and the law stays low:
what breaks will flow
back through the slow below
either known as a chord once more
or torn, re-worn,
through the long restore