"cisterns" poems
Dry land,
quiet land
of night's
immensity.
(Wind in the olive groves,
wind in the Sierra.)
Ancient
land
of oil lamps
and grief.
Land
of deep cisterns.
Land of death without eyes
and arrows.
(Wind on the roads.
Breeze in the poplar groves.)
Village
Upon a barren hill,
a Calvary.
Clear water
and century-old olive trees.
In the narrow streets,
men hidden under cloaks,
and on the towers
the spinning vanes.
Forever
spinning.
Oh, village lost
in the Andalucia of tears!
Dagger
The dagger
enters the haert
the way plowshares turn over
the wasteland.
No.
Do not cut into me.
No.
Like a ray of sun,
the dagger
ignites terrible
hollows.
No.
Do not cut into me.
No.
Crossroads
East wind,
a street lamp
and a dagger
in the heart.
The street
quivers like
tightly pulled
string,
like a huge, buzzing
horsefly.
Everywhere,
I see a dagger
in the heart.
Ay!
The cry leaves shadows of cypress
upon the wind.
(Leave me here, in this field,
weeping.)
The whole world's broken.
Only silence remains.
(Leave me here, in this field,
weeping).
The darkened horizon's
bitten by bonfires.
(I've told you already to leave me
here, in this field,
weeping.)
Surprise
He lay dead in the street
wit ha dagger in his chest.
Nobody knew who he was.
How the streep lamp flickered!
Mother of god,
how the street lamp
faintly flickered!
It was dawn. Nobody
could look up, wide-eyed,
into the glare.
And he lay dead in the street
with a dagger in his chest,
and nobody knew who he was.
Soleá
Wearing black mantillas,
she thinks the world is tiny
and the heart immense.
Wearing black mantillas.
She thinks that tender sighs
and cries disappear
into currents of wind.
Wearing black mantillas.
The door was left open,
and at dawn the entire sky
emptied onto her balcony.
Ay, yayayayay,
wearing black mantillas.
Cave
From the cave
come endless sobbings.
(Purple
over red.)
The gypsy
calls forth the distance.
(Tall towers
and mysterious men.)
In an unsteady voice
his eyes wander.
(Black
over red.)
And the white-washed cave
trembled in gold.
(White
over red.)
Encounter
For you and I
aren't ready
to find each other.
You... as you well know.
I loved her so much!
Follow the narrowest path.
I have
holes
in my hands
from the nails.
Can't you see how
I'm bleeding to death?
Don't look back,
go slowly,
and pray as I do
to San Cayetano
for you and I
aren't ready
to find each other.
Dawn
Bells of Cordoba
in the early morning.
Bells of Granada
at dawn.
You are felt by all the girls
who weep to the tender,
weeping Solea.
The girls
of upper Andalucia,
and of lower.
You girls of Spain,
with tiny feet
and trembling skirts,
who've filled the crossroads
with crosses.
Oh, bells of Cordoba
in the early morning,
and, oh, the bells of Granada
at dawn!
5.9k
undefined spine
so close, in lordosis
will gravity win tonight?
swayback
around a fountain
she's curving toward
rebirthing cisterns
about the recesses
of her question mark
(?)
privately electrified
in beautiful confusion
the brain is lost
innately she takes
another drink from my hands
Mar 18, 2023
Mar 18, 2023 at 10:23 PM UTC
I want to descent the well,
I want to climb the walls of Granada,
To gaze at the heart graved
By the dark stylus of waters.
The wounded child moaned
With a crown of frost.
Ponds, cisterns and fountains
Raised their swords in the air.
Ay what fury of love, what a wounding edge,
what nocturnal murmurs, what white deaths!
What deserts of light went destroying
the sand-dunes of dawn!
The child was alone
Wth the sleeping town in his throat.
A fountain that rises from dream
guarded him from thirsts of seaweed.
The child and his agony face to face,
Were two green entangled showers.
The child stretched on the ground
his agony bent on itself.
I want to descent the well,
I want to die my death by mouthfuls,
I want to fill my heart with moss,
To see the one wounded by water.
2.5k
Music sleeps.....
In my un strummed chords
I wait for the touch of skillful hands
To turn it into flowing melody
A lotus dreaming to see the sun!
How long can I remain silent?
Oh touch me, shake me
Wake me from my slumber
Make me into a throbbing rhapsody
Set free this prisoner
To birth soothing chimes
Note after note in tiny wavelets
Let my vibrations carve circles
Growing bigger and bigger
Oh, give me the timbre and tone
Let me sing once more!
Let the music drizzle down
In healing murmurs
Lifting troubled spirits into calm repose
Leading them to a quiet fold
Free of all fever and fret
Let my soft rhymes
Fill the empty cisterns of the night,
Wooing the hearts
Weaving mystical spells
Let it rise and sink
And finally fade into a soft breath
A hushed whisper
A faint vibration
Over a gliding stream!
Jun 20, 2017
Jun 20, 2017 at 9:36 AM UTC
Day by day,
He feeds me the manna of His Word.
Piece by piece.
Morsel after morsel.
Until I find I am craving more.
For nothing else can satisfy
my thirsty soul,
like the Bread from Heaven
of His Word.
Each word...
each morsel of light and life...
nourishes me in my inmost being.
Nothing else on this earth
comes close to satisfying.
I cry out "Lord, I want more!
For nothing else can save me, heal me,
deliver me, like Your powerful Word."
He answers, "Come, my child, you are
invited to the Feast,
to feast on Me, feast on My Word,
and find true life."
Empty from the broken cisterns
of the world,
I come to His Feast.
He feeds me the manna of His Word,
piece by piece,
morsel after morsel.
Until I find I am craving more.
Until He has filled up
my empty soul.
Jul 12, 2016
Jul 12, 2016 at 11:54 PM UTC
#
*Imprinted in to the fleshwall-
linings of my very spirit
resides a photo of you--
(staring at your computer screen)
with a genuine look of shock
and disbelief..
..And before I could even yell Sam
I was receiving by you
the most horrendous, publicly displayed
cock-kick I have ever received.
It only stayed out there for a short time
but online, a "short time"
..is exactly as an eternity;
So I pulled back in self protection.
I had been dickin'-around out there
in a whole 'nother poetic-realm..
playfully finding words and verse comparing
my wildly-passionate virility
to that of a well-honed precision,
high powered performance engine
And two clear babes showed up in the comments
and let me know
how impressed and affected they were
by what it was they were reading.
So naturally, me being a single man..
I responded.
I never knew them before, or ever saw them after.
End of story.*
..Almost.
*Young, beautiful Wildling--
I never knew you even gave two ficks and a ****
Until I saw that picture of you..
staring into your computer screen
in raw, disbelief--
...the wind, fully knocked out of your sails.
So.. clearly you buried yourself
in multiple two-fingered snorts
of your favourite "spurned lover's" little helper happy-juice..
and once you reached the intended goal
of full-blown, *********
You performed some of the most Machiavellian-shit
I have ever seen in my life.
(But it fell short of its intended goal.)*
Nothing can remove you from the love of you
that I feel in my heart.
*What you thought was destroyed,
was immediately forgiven
Solely because of that picture of you
that is now, forever mine. Solely.
There is a dream, beautiful girl
..And nothing you can do
can make it end.
(The restoring of you back to you
is such a central part of that dream.)
The restoring of you, young beautiful.. You.
Mm.
Shhh.... listen..*#
Jan 21, 2023
Jan 21, 2023 at 8:47 PM UTC
I heard the trailing garments of the Night
Sweep through her marble halls!
I saw her sable skirts all fringed with light
From the celestial walls!
I felt her presence, by its spell of might,
Stoop o’er me from above;
The calm, majestic presence of the Night,
As of the one I love.
I heard the sounds of sorrow and delight,
The manifold, soft chimes,
That fill the haunted chambers of the Night,
Like some old poet’s rhymes.
From the cool cisterns of the midnight air
My spirit drank repose;
The fountain of perpetual peace flows there,—
From those deep cisterns flows.
O holy Night! from thee I learn to bear
What man has borne before!
Thou layest thy finger on the lips of Care,
And thy complain no more.
Peace! Peace! Orestes-like I breathe this prayer!
Descend, with broad-winged flight,
The welcome, the thrice-prayed for, the most fair,
The best-beloved Night!
1.9k
Along the river's edge
a figure bends
to dip his earthen pots
into its vital flow
they sip the precious liquid
shimmering and crystalline
like diamonds floating
above the eclipse of the sun
they become transformed
from dormant vessels
wearing the dull
pallor of mud
to vibrant cisterns
radiating the glow
of polished jade
they breathe away
exhaustion
in frothy currents
rushing
past swollen lips
to join the constant stream
till he bows low
and receives their treasure
suspended from a wooden frame
with frayed and twisted rope
solidified not yet petrified
soaking yet and squeezing still
the moisture dripping
from their fill
he lifts the wooden frame
upon his shoulders
and keeps its balance
with his arms
his back strains
his legs straighten
as they raise their heavy load
he looks up
with eyes set deep
beneath his furrowed brow
thick parchment skin
and thistled hair
are all that shield him
here and now
he sees the road
that he will take
this time around
and sets one foot
before the other
away from solid ground
he goes to bring
to those who
find him
the lading
in his care
he goes to meet them
in that place
past faith
past dreams
past hope
Feb 19, 2010
Feb 19, 2010 at 11:04 PM UTC
Providence summons
Natures purchase,
Beyond prosaic
Utility, toward
Communion.
Austere terrain,
Ice crystal, Dust –
covered
Haunt.
Divine disclosure,
Epiphany;
Ourselves -
Carnal cisterns of spirit
Enfleshed
Skin; merging
Luminous,
Savouring,
Design
Ordered by love.
©2012 W.S. Warner
Aug 5, 2012
Aug 5, 2012 at 1:26 PM UTC
~
Corrosive elevation
Metabolic creation
At the mouth of cough drop falls
Trails of caustic, nomadic influence:
Coffee lips
Decaffeinated tongue
Resealable groove
Reusable embryo
White hunter
Melt snow
Hang fire
Black crow
Mechanical peak
Summit on a stick
Chiseled grey
The smoke ascending
They call "day"
Lovely shade of sadness, this
Wandering endocarp
Hidden in caves, hollows, crags, cellars, and cisterns
It came naked
From out of the acrid woods
And said
"The locust are upon us..."
~
Apr 3, 2022
Apr 3, 2022 at 1:50 PM UTC
Hall, how you are full of ceiling!
It goes where the flooring is
Land prepares for giant flooding
and drinks the palms of oases
Hold the things before they will fly
Today's swirl isn't mute
Get tied down with endlessly high
torment to your inside root
To your cisterns of claims that die
being pecked through liver's shell
by fierce eagle which would **** dry
the water, drinks, pail as well.
Oct 28, 2015
Oct 28, 2015 at 2:44 AM UTC
*God.
Creator of all things.
So Glorious and Beautiful that
not even the angels can look at Him.
The seraphim fly around His throne,
two of their six wings covering their faces.
They stir the Holy Waters into swirls and eddys of translucent rainbows. Then they sing and sing and sing of his Glory and Majesty. I believe not only because they were made to do so... but also because they glimpse His Shekinah Glory between their feathers!*
**Accolades to the Most High.
The river of life, The Fountain of truth,
where wisdom dwells and love is alive.
The true physician, salvifically laboring
to heal warped characters of
despondent creatures.
Will you drink from the eternal spring
and be revived?**
***There are many springs,
there are many wells,
from which to draw.
But they are empty holes
which cannot fill.
Broken cisterns...
which cannot hold water.
Will you come to Him?
To the True Well of all wells?
To the Fountain of Living Waters,
Who alone can quench your
soul's thirst?
All praise and glory be
to the One who alone is
The Water of Life.
All praise and glory and honour
to the One whose voice is like
the sound of many waters.
Will you come to Him?
That you might never thirst.
Again.***
SoulSurvivor.
Jamie King.
The Faithful Dreamer.
Sep 7, 2016
Sep 7, 2016 at 4:34 PM UTC
Grey stone buildings jumble on the promontory.
White cliffs fall to the sea like a bridal veil,
merge with the blue waters of the summer season.
The land lies still, wanting, waiting.
Change of season late in coming.
Cisterns are dry, roses wilting.
A black clad woman walks the garden.
Dry leaves dance suddenly along the paves.
Her tongue licks the faint movement of air,
storm clouds gathers in the East.
After Vespers and Compline
the young nun enters her chamber,
opens the window, pushes back the heavy panes.
Sea fuses into obsidian sky.
Starlight dims behind racing clouds.
She sheds her habit for a white muslin sheath,
beds down on the narrow cot.
A slight breeze rolls over the window sill,
continues though the room, playfully
caresses the woman’s feet, licks her cheek.
A stronger gust follows,
pushes under her sheath,
waves up her inner thighs, caresses her belly,
rustles the stubby hair of her shorn head.
Her toes curl, knuckles turn white.
The storm comes suddenly and strong,
carries dried leaves of roses,
the scent of salty seas, fecund fields.
Her sheath pushed up around her waist,
an offer to a pagan God.
Window panes clank in protest,
waves crash against the rocky shore.
Clouds shed a load of steady rain.
The ****** sleeps, limbs askew,
until the hour of Aurora and Lauds.
Oct 22, 2012
Oct 22, 2012 at 6:20 PM UTC
This bleak existence
reeks
of cisterns,
it peeks it's leaky head
above the gutters.
Shuttered **** tight.
Death is the meaning of life.
Sylvia knew it best,
resting under home,
bone heavy
and sleepless.
That jar of hers;
irksome,
thirsts on monochrome
bleakness;
needless, overblown nerves.
Smash it!
Crush it!
Whack it!
Mush it!
Classic glassy mess.
Break it!
Fix it.
Tape it.
Place it.
Back now on your head.
Dec 6, 2016
Dec 6, 2016 at 5:37 PM UTC
(A realization of otherness)
Frenzied shaking has taken my soul
I am crushed by the burning of gold-brined teeth
My unclean lips draw back in a grimace
As I rest my head against the beam of
Some ragged torture device and get
Splinters driven into my constricting scalp
Take a spike and drive it through my temple
Into this piece of time-worn timber which
Is saturated with skin flakes from my victims
(The reception of the sacrament)
Shall I not raise my filth-clotted hands up to
This presence which is like smoke and fills
My lungs with the kind of fear true power brings?
Let there be flesh to envelop my quaking body
Let it be caught between my teeth and drape
My skin in a new raiment of priesthood
Let there be hematic torrents rushing down
To clean out the wounds and make them imperishable
To be better drink from well-dug cisterns
May 18, 2025
May 18, 2025 at 6:49 PM UTC
Eat the womb of your daughters,
And drink the blood of your sons,
Drag your spouse into the woods,
And whip them with thorns;
Prepare the cauldron,
And play the requiem,
Be drunk thirsty fellows,
Gladly fill your cisterns,
We shall fill the streets tonight,
As the righteous falls,
Creep into their childrens bunks,
And wait for the master's call;
"Waaaaake uuuup, waaaaake uuuup",
Quietly we will whisper,
And afflict them with sorrow,
And sink them in despair",
Do not cry dear parents,
When your children go astray,
It is us who have done it,
Yes, we desire it this way,
We run the final lap,
So rejoice children of the sun,
It will be over soon,
Then will our battle be won.
Abide by the letters of jupitar,
Do not trespass,
Read out with boldness,
Happy Ex- Mass
Jan 7, 2017
Jan 7, 2017 at 5:22 PM UTC
I climb the limestone stairs
through an arch in rock,
into the earth’s womb,
pass through to a surprise:
George loves Lisa painted on a wall.
I wonder, did he ever tell her?
Did she ever know or think of him,
raise a brood of screaming children?
Did they kiss near wild ginger
above the stony apse?
Did lady’s slipper orchids
adorn their meeting place
where deer drink from rocky cisterns?
Did their love wither like maidenhair fern,
delicate as English Lace?
The symbols have outlived the moment.
There is only today, only
the murmur of water underground,
my finding one trickle into a pool.
I never knew this George or Lisa.
The rock bears their names in silence,
names the stream forgot long ago.
Jun 9, 2015
Jun 9, 2015 at 7:40 AM UTC
a broken vessel
and bailing water is drowning
out the ability to drift back to shore,
it’s always calm before the storm
but when a breeze disappears
the chance of moving anywhere
flies away like the seagulls
laughing in cocksure,
the water seems so thick
like drifting in ink that draws out
abstracts of stagnancies
and ever time I row,
the boat rhymes in harmony
with the singing current
and cisterns will begin to cry,
I can’t travel alone and
I don’t know how to swim
but at least the sand below
will be softer than rock bottom
MJB
Aug 22, 2016
Aug 22, 2016 at 1:20 AM UTC
Cisterns full of brine.
All day long we slave away.
But we have forgotten.
We lost our recognizance.
All we have now is routine.
Routine
will save us all.
ROUTINE FOR GOD.
Apr 27, 2013
Apr 27, 2013 at 6:30 PM UTC
Dry cisterns hovering in space,
a neediness beyond the MACS0647-JD,
if we knew about those other galaxies,
we'd be gone in flash.
Jan 2, 2014
Jan 2, 2014 at 1:53 PM UTC
Birch: paper moon bark shakes lightly in a twilight breeze. sheds like antlers, Gaia’s horns. whispers shimmer, overlooking crumbling banks and silver tarns
Choke Cherry: wheel-turned silver bark, popcorn spotted. red rotted hearts they try to hide with arching height and pucker punch. too proud they sharpen sunshine lances that in time will fell them
Dogwood: gothic outline cryptic, cracked and ancient even young. rigid fingers yet outstretched lifting jade-pooled, budded gems. a flower or a piece of skin, raising pale veined, dimpled petals
Maple: tissue paper mast, thousand layers spongy under the high crown. breeding dust motes under the rusty flakes. sweet budding lips in spring that wait for fawn-spotted, sugared kisses
Oak: knotted roots, the mealy earth that beneath a ponderous trunk. acorns ground to flour, crescent slivers cracked. oxidizing leaves shield the undergrowth’s small creatures
Pine: needles spring mattress below solemn peaks. silent cathedrals, pillars marking lost spring houses, crumbling cisterns. warm winter guardians of bronzed turkeys, heavy in sheltered branches
For more information, walk. Touch the pebbled hides and trembling skin. Examine the stained glass roof laid in patches. They sigh and speak, shout across oceans. Be informed it is not the wind.
Feb 20, 2016
Feb 20, 2016 at 2:29 PM UTC
in the town of Jerusalem,
my home,
my warzone,
my heart's stone.
i set off from home,
with weathered sandals
and broken eyes
i sought for treasure,
not gold nor wine,
oil and water
a feast for two
and i
walked past a building.
a wind past trees,
light through holes,
and i felt a
strange sensation
in my heart.
it stood like a castle
stripped of it's
false gold.
i stopped to see,
among your disciple, was
a man with a robe
tied
around his waist
and he had
eyes with
a million oceans in them,
and had a fire within
so bright.
washing their feet.
and i wondered,
was it true, Jesus,
that you only acted humble.
or have you
hoaxed entire kingdoms into
believing your God.
divine encounters
wine skins and
calling the dead out of slumber,
and here,
you've ordered a counterfeit vine for
your branches.
the hope of you being real
was seeping into the earth,
like
depleted souls
desperately looking for its
own grave.
but i took a second,
a third look.
5 blinks and a breath,
isn't that you.
i looked again,
and i saw your arms like trees
reaching towards
empty mouths,
i saw a wine stained
robe, and
whiplashed skin,
i didn't know what it meant.
you invited yourself
stripped yourself of heaven
and lowered yourself to
wash the feet of those
who follow you.
oh, the awe.
oh, the sheer weight of
love that swept into, above and through me.
my ears starts to tear up
despite the drought inside me,
and i was filled up,
even though broken cisterns laid
bare
within me
and the world looked
just a bit brighter.
and life finally
felt like life.
and not
empty pots and
eyes that bled pain
nor is it a heart stabbed by its own
mother.
at that moment.
within this...
second.
glimpse.
bleep in eternity.
i knew you were God
and you are real.
Mar 4, 2020
Mar 4, 2020 at 6:26 AM UTC
Tears streaming down my face
as volcanic emotions rupture the seams of this frail earthen vessel
and as molten fears roll down hardened cheeks
they remind me of broken cisterns
trying to carry the burden of
precious water to thirsty souls
Tears streaming down my face
flow from a place dark and cold
beyond the surface smiles
and feminine guiles
lay a pain waiting to explode
it’s been brewing for years
and the threads of this patched soul
can’t conceal these putrefying sores
anymore
And so they flow with the passion
of rivers on a quest to find the shore
seeking answers mystic as ancient folklores
corroding tightly concealed dungeon doors
waking painful dreams untold
Yes these tears stream down my face
and this time I’ll let them go
let them flow upon diseased waters
bringing purity and wholeness
like HIS Blood that has saturated ***** sheets
I'll let them caress this pain
rain washing this soul clean
I’ll let them remind me of where I’ve been
my tendency to sin
the hope i can only have in HIM
I’ll lay myself upon HIS brazen altar
pour these tears upon HIS throne
Allow this cistern to be remade whole
sweeping away the dust and the cold
I’ll come home
to that place of rest in YOU
May 11, 2015
May 11, 2015 at 6:43 PM UTC
Deep under ground
Through these channels
Communication of a life
Longing led
Bleeding out this medication
Permutation of the rain
Water ever flowing
Through eroded cisterns
Joy and pain
Ever dimmer
And the nowhere this is going
Through the ground i did arise
Only to find the blackest night
And through the clouds i did escape
Only to find the void of space
Back at the start
Plans demolished
Polishing my motive
Over drawers
Filled with empty inkwells
And words on paper jotted
This nightmare slowly rises
Feeling uninspired
Quiet, new horizons
Bleed out into an open sky
This earth feels far away
This is all I have to say
Simplicity, this final right
Long awaiting, this endless night
Aug 17, 2017
Aug 17, 2017 at 4:30 PM UTC
It's what some people pray for,
Others pray for it to stop.
At times when there is a drought,
Welcome is every raindrop.
At times when there is a flood,
Sand bagging often you'll find.
When rivers are near flood stage
Will damage be far behind?
Rain is found in thunderstorms
And fills cisterns when they're dry;
At times rain is unwelcomed
When the rivers run too high.
When it's cold rain turns to snow,
And can turn to sleet we know.
Apr 19, 2019
Apr 19, 2019 at 1:11 PM UTC