My Desert

My Desert

A Poem by Vishuddha

I am returning
Back, to my desert
Back, to my own space
To my internal silences
Where clouds do not linger
Over my head
Watching my every move
And, the long strands of time
Are spun out of expansion and contraction

Enchanted, unable to stay away
I am going back to where nothing
Except myself
Is reflected back from the empty earth
Where the blistering fire of sun consumes the day
And, when I look away
Darkness is subsumed
By the hungry, hollow ground

The desert is just like I am
When you look underneath
There is nothing but hot, red dust
Wishing to be something else
Dry liquid, contradicting itself

If you come to my desert
You will be welcomed
But then, you should really move on
Because you will find
It is full of trapping
Energy zapping
Kidnapping
Warping of minds
Commitment of all kinds

You may be unable to get away
Be charged with keeping the clouds at bay
Your dreams may be stolen
The way mine were
When I went astray
When I came to stay

You may become
As I am
The unwilling keeper
Of secrets and faults
Charged with keeping the keys
To underground vaults

Someone entrusted to guard the nest
Gather the children and never rest
Watch the seeds
Keep track of deeds

The world is full of poor souls
And, entities, unrepentant
Unrelenting
Under the dust
Must, have been
Here since the Great Overturning
Nightmares burning
Sunk in the sand
Entities
Without a hand
Without a footprint
Without a shadow
Rapacious ripples everywhere
Invisible
Running along the thick, dark
Underground veins of the earth
Along side smoking lizards
Shaking rattlesnakes
My breath takes
A long break
Nowhere ready to leave
Don't even try to deceive
This is my reality
This is the battleground
This is the range
This is where the colors of the wind change
I am willing to be here
Because I want to know what is happening

The sounds of the shifting sands
Are summoning wheezing bones
Secret whispers
Sunset moans
I am holding darkness apart from the light
I am a part of the fight
Afraid to take flight
Infusing the circular altars with ire
Wishing to triumph in temples of fire

At dusk I will take off my sandals
Gratefully light my candles
And, yesterday's Rembrandt glow
Will show
Neither the corners
Nor the center
Of the crystal ball
Running under the soft footfall
Running underground
Under the chapel
Through secret chambers
Smoldering embers
Over the abode of demons
Dancing with black-light scorpions
And, shaking the feathers of vultures
Desiring destructions of cultures
Their thoughts restrained, contained, for eons
By the words of spells and burning pentagrams

The moonlight is breaking
Untouched by spider webs
Merrily drunken on mescal
Jumping over jimson weed
Laughing at scorching sagebrush
Cold and heat
Refusing to retreat
Refusing to be concerned, at all
With our fall

We are being gathered up by gravity
Depravity, leeching, reaching
Screeching at the ashes of those already transformed
Still concerned with their return
Escaping the burn
Wanting to know
How does it go?
The invisible battle
Between the conflicting wills of the gods?

I am concerned because of the here and now
And, the vast continuum of life
Which tries to forget the silence of skeletons
Tries to run as fast as the multi-colored lizards
The flying sun
The shadows of the flying birds
The thoughts of the shadows of the flying birds
The eloquence of the animated sky

The night, cloaked in cold
Is whispering under stars of steel
Stripping me down before the dawn
Teaching me how to compete
How to be complete
Without any movement
Without any breath
Companion to death
I will give up possessions and aggressions
I will disconnect all my wires
I will discard all my attachments
And, disavow all my desires

Left with only my barest essentials
Only my entrails
Only raw survival
Only the vast, dry spaces
The lizard's skin's lacework places
Shimmering between cactus thorns
And, the sand dune's moaning tunes

I will be spent
And, content
To inhale phantoms
Confused by collapsing sun spots
And, drifting dust devils
Driven by dreams
I will think in circles
Converse with mirages
Fall in love with visions
And, spend my time
Watching eyes that do not exist
Except in the instant
Of the thunder's crash
The lightning’s flash
The sand storm's slash

After I have given up, as well
All of my impatience
I will stand naked, empty and still
Waiting for the shadows to begin to move
For the stars to burn up the night
For the night to devour my sight
For the light to strike my spirit
When I am sighing
And, desperately trying
To remember the way the breezes used to feel
When I was still alive and real
My desert may give me the sudden illusion
I know what is going on

When the vortex of my mind
Aligns with the sky
It will realize
The universe doesn’t need me
Has no reason to feed me
Doesn't know where to lead me

There are no roads to transverse here
In this desperate desert made of fear
Where I have tried to hide
Where I have sighed and cried
Where dreams have died and dried
And, mummified
Before the introduction of the sun
I already, now,
Have come to know how
To take the wind out of the sky
To let it travel
To let it unravel
To weave it into a map
With the edge of the border left open
So, the gods can come and go

Moreover
I know how to play the odds
I know how to follow the gods
I know how to speak to the 400 stars,
The 500 stars,
The 600 stars,
And, I think that one of them may even
Someday, answer me
May let me see
May set me free
May tell me why I am here
And, let me know how the battle is going

[April 2015]

© 2015 Vishuddha


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Reviews

Driven by dreams
I will think in circles
Within the vision, during a dream, each revolving cycle attains new perspective of the multidimensional reality. Most peer, through a keyhole, into this realm and then turn away thinking they know all there is. It is refreshing to encounter an open mind and willing heart, who soars beyond the cracks in the roof, to retrieve the full vision and translate the nether words for the minds of men.


Posted 8 Years Ago


Vishuddha

8 Years Ago

Whoa! Whatta review. I really like your multidimensional dreams. Can I use that some day? I'm curren.. read more
VALORMORE DE PLUME

8 Years Ago

I didn't invent multidimensional, it is just how I perceive reality. Nether Words,(words that lay be.. read more
What a poem, it's more like a story about what the desert is. So much and beautiful and still to be feared. Like I said of the first poem about the desert this is also one you have read and reread to catch everything. So well done, I like it very much, Lily. Thanks for sharing this beautiful poem. :) Rudi

Posted 8 Years Ago


Vishuddha

8 Years Ago

Somehow I managed to write this without ever mentioning I was thirsty so I didn't catch everything e.. read more
Rudi J.P. Lejaeghere

8 Years Ago

I will, I will. :)
Part 2 of the last review, I was writing to fast and was so excited I guess I pressed the enter bar...]

Anyways, I so enjoy your work, please keep sending me review requests, as I learn so much from each. Read of your poetry.

Posted 8 Years Ago


Vishuddha

8 Years Ago

I'm not sure what you could be learning but, I'm flattered anyway.
Wow! The expression you put into words

Posted 8 Years Ago


Vishuddha

8 Years Ago

Yes, I was pretty obsessed with this one. I'm figuring I started this poem in 1984. Of course, I was.. read more
Holy Poems Of Poems! What A epic epic piece so detailed and nicely penned and the imagery. I would have made 10 short poems out of this just so everyone got a slice of this big cake!

Posted 8 Years Ago


Vishuddha

8 Years Ago

Yeah, it just wouldn't stop.
(You would have had a hard time turning any of this one into the.. read more
andrew mitchell

8 Years Ago

yes i would lol

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Added on April 27, 2015
Last Updated on May 25, 2015

Author

Vishuddha
Vishuddha

A Looking Glass Land, FL



About
I am a romantic, born into an unromantic era. I am a restless wanderer, always seeking, in love with nature, in love with life. I am a native Floridian, with one foot in the Everglades and one foot on.. more..

Writing
Killer Killer

A Poem by Vishuddha