Poems - JP Melville

Funny Thing About Independence 17 feb 1988 jp melville

Constellation 5 June 2020 jp Focus is an art…   (says he who is notoriously not…)   How not to be distracted by constellations so everywhere above and at our feet…. Wherein we are ourselves a constellation.

After Long Days of Travel 5 June 2020 jp After long days of travel A night passes And I open my eyes in this strange abode Rain… Distant thunder… Dog sighs… Drops pattering on roof… Glass distorted wetness… Wind rustles leaves… Contented aloneness In my mind’s emptiness Awaking with dawn From sleeping on the floor Of a wooden shed Dog sighs again Rain patters some more… My skin cool with solitude Caressing my weariness away.

  I Whisper in Your Ear 5 June 2020 jp I whisper in your ear… “Away with confusion, haunting, loss…” For I am here with you, Listening to the rain… the wind… The silence   between their voices…   Knowing they will tell you so.

From Where I Stand - Iqaluit 5 May 2020 jp I look across your bay I see horizons Of ice and rock and distance and even eternity. I look down I see yellow blue silver walls I see blue silver red rooves Down far enough away, houses like a toy set. I took my first trip there years ago Now   I see not much has changed So much nowhere people to be seen. Sure a person wanders by In a dimension not yours I am invisible Reach out my hand to touch Worlds and words so far apart my fingers disappear in the aether. The gossamer soul dissolves before my eyes. Even my own people, a loose definition White, educated, speaking English only We have colleagues to reach toward, embrace But the bones crackle if you squeeze too hard Skin slips away if you get too close Their dimensions are denser at times Then dissolve like tinkling broken stars falling through darkness And now I remember not one name with whom I   then worked ...