unknowable

when I wake with fog draped all around

the view drawn close

mysteries emerge from shadows

magic flickers

spirits rub up against me

I wonder if the sun will burn away promises

like kicking covers off of a warm bed

or if this is a day for embracing

what we can’t see

holding onto feelings that never begin or end in clarity

but dissolve from or into a place that’s always just out of reach

unknowable as your thoughts when I reach out my hand

unknowable as any tomorrow

 

 

David Trudel         © 2015

 

 

sepia toned

we woke up sepia toned

not drained of colour but transformed into shimmers

 

light lays flat

yellowed as yesterday’s bloodied sun

slipped sideways on a once upon

 

we call each other asking

“do you see it too?”

and words like apocalypse

like endtimes, like otherworldly

fill our mouths as the sky fills our thoughts

 

later, waiting for the ferry

I walk the beach up to and under the dock

crosshatched shadows feed the noontime reek of creosote

triggering memories of campfires

then all I smell is the smoke of a carbon sink

a million trees candled in the wind

a burning world

riding thermals down every seaward valley on the coast

until each wave pushes another dragon under

 

we try to laugh about how strange it looks

as the sun reddens its shroud

 

today is marked in black

this is the year when winter thins its cool

no matter how golden the sky seems right now

or how wonderful splintered light appears slipping through ashfall

this is no celebration

this is not the same as other years

when autumn slashpiles streamed pendants

 

today is amber

a moment to hold long enough to remember

how startled we once were

 

 

 

David Trudel     © 2015

 

 

threads

each word dangles like a loose thread

from a well-worn sweater

I pull

it unravels

until there is just a pile of rawness

 

 

David Trudel   © 2014

 

 

waiting for moonrise
a heron creeps the tideline
pulling a promise

David Trudel © 2014

stellar

there was a moment when

I had to admit

I’d fallen into your orbit

it was too late

to save me

gravity pulled

I was

captured

 

 

David Trudel   © 2014

 

 

drip

it was like drip

drip

 

drip

 

pulling tree essence

good intentions

into

down there

 

it was like respirations

of the Pacific

travelled in and out

 

drip

 

concentrated into

purity

water of forever

healed into clear drops

 

washed absolution

reconnected to a fresh return

of my own fluidity

eroding rock walls

 

drip

drip

drip

 

not a virtue

but necessary

as rain washes upper stories

into lower

drop by drop

changed by intentions

like I want to reach the sky

 

I express gratitude

causing molecular reconfiguration

I send a wave of prayers

into forever

 

I feel the forest upswell

meet water, wondered into magic

from formless transform

to magnificent

in time for just now

thinking

a wave has me tumbled

or a wave has tumbled

through this forest

to drown me

 

 

David Trudel  © 2014

 

 

 

 

 

rain

rain in the night

louder than heartbeats

pain

hard as raindrops slam slapping

waiting for nerves to sing

in the night

while the rain falls

in the dark

heart thumping

heart beating in time with the rain

in time with pain

in the night

when the heart is a round drum

leading a dance in the dark

truth in each beat

vibrating in rhythm with the rain in the night

louder than heartbeats marking pain

in the night

while rain falls louder than hearts can hear

tonight

 

 

David Trudel   ©  2014

 

 

ambiguous

some days are like that

 

what?

 

ambiguous

 

not quite a total fucking disaster

but not bad either

 

gotcha, says he

 

it’s the middle of winter

but when the sun shines

even a grey day

shows some colour

like a redwinged blackbird

on a fenceline

 

tenuous as hell

 

when its raining and cold

it all gets to be

ambiguous

like that

 

 

David Trudel       © 2014

 

 

sunset

this day there was a choir

singing

as we approached the beach

for real

in a circle

entoning celestial voices against

moist slurps percussively

arriving

 

there was a rock

to shelter against

in the brilliant light

of cadenced winter

 

there was your face

reflecting the wind

the crows paid no attention

as they chortled their way across tideline buffets

 

manicured dogs careen along this margin

we disregard the others

absorbed

in a dialogue that dances into

yesterday

until we enter the present

capturing moments

with precision and obliqueness

 

entering into a realm where colours shift

with each tilt of the head

where land slips beneath the waves

and rocks turn into sand

beneath our feet

 

as dusk purples distant mountains

gulls cry

I look at you

thinking

that sometimes sunsets have supporting roles

 

 

David Trudel  ©  2014

 

 

fogdrifts

fogdrifts

lift and pull

veiling now

then screaming into

forever

 

lights in the distance

haloed

and then whoosh

goodbye fellow traveler

let me bless your journey

into my past

while I blow through yours

 

on a subliminal level

each environmental cue

prompts reflexive jumps

into defensive awareness

 

self-destructive

 

shedding ego I open

my eyes to alternative possibilities

of destruction

involving me or not

 

cases

may be

made

 

 

David Trudel       ©  2014