The Windswept Verses Quotes

“lying on rock, drifting with the clouds
— the only constant is constant change—
ripples of flame, patterns in the waves
— paradise and creation are only sensations—
spearing reef-fish, inflating with the stars
— and heaven and earth forever simultaneous!”
― Mark Kaplon, The Windswept Verses

“... in sunshine both space and time expand

where was I? coming alive on my birthday
breaking to pieces on the rainbow islands

and who is she? a girl today
staying and straying on the rainbow islands

from a sunlit sea
see mountaintop to mountaintop arising
hear the crackle of rocks
in the bright light that falls
everywhere into place
forget your knees
to the breathlessness of peaks
and find them again by some pebbles

… seize me, release me, leave me
everywhere in space to be dispersing

and the colors of the wind parade
on the windswept way of the senses…

crunching over the rough-country cliffs
a cold drizzle begins—
inhale huge drafts
of water in the air
sizzle to the sprinkling feeling
of drizzle on skin
watch the surf pour
to crevices it has worn, hold—
and back out the black rock pushing

… whisk her, brisker, drop her
swifter over the crags like swift rains

and the rainclouds and the fierce winds howl
after the raging of the waves…

and to know every foot
of the land that holds you—
and, with soiled-brown hands,
set against the green of the land
and blue of the sky
sign the earth in gentle, rolling lines
loose with your tines
the living, pulsing root
of a carrot plant
bury the plants
in their beds to live
and bury me insensibly
over the earth from your open, rolling cart

lying on rock, drifting with the clouds
— the only constant is constant change—
ripples of flame, patterns in the waves
— paradise and creation are only sensations—
spearing reef-fish, inflating with the stars
— and heaven and earth forever simultaneous!

and the wheeling colors celebrate
on their way without a destination

wandering islands roam until they die—
with footsteps wrapt and dwelling
in whatever kind of weather
we live our lives with the space to be free
find in our eyes horizons on horizons”
― Mark Kaplon, The Windswept Verses

“15

Words wander out
by breath to the edge of the sky
where, with time enough
alone, they range over and there— and
fledglings no more
migrate finally back to fall
effortless, into place”
― Mark Kaplon, The Windswept Verses

“Dear Amnesiac,

Yes, your pyramids were raised
Roughly up at right angles
To exert out loud and bright in the jungle
And obscure in darkness the jungle around—
And how many years is it you're living
In fear of the darkness there created?
You’ve your back to the door and the four corners
You’re standing in a room with walls and a floor
But just the same as any other
You’ve stood in in pictures or places before.
Alien in your place of birth, you pound
An outraged fist into your palm, but are
Too over-tired and too much adrift,
Not at home, grown absent in an absent world.
So— your steam engine roared
Across space and the four seasons,
And from conductors’ hands unloaded
Its surplus even to the farthest hamlet.
Yes, your transportations have taken you
Beyond the known horizon, but not any
Nearer to infinity, nor to eternity.
That is the moon double-paned in the window-glass
But could just as well be another bulb reflected.
Afloat, nowhere, a ghost you have become
You having from many hands vanished.
Your mind will not stop wandering, and all over
These carnival streets is too much noise for hearing.
You have withdrawn from this; are living in fear.
You fear death and the chances of death
So far removed you live from dying...
And waking up you find the day is there,
Existing, all-ready, you can only enter—
And looking to the night you see a frontier that's
Cold, empty, like it's a world you've never known.
You've become stuck in the middle of it, without any
Sense of the horizons, and are all the time crying
Too furious for the ruin of your world.
But every thing in ruin must first be made:
A wildfire only burns, transforms
The wood, and passes. It is not a collapse.
Too anxious you’re striving to build a new day—
Every morning only awaits your being born.”
― Mark Kaplon, The Windswept Verses

“39

Walking in a going gust of air—
and to know the windswept way of the soul”
― Mark Kaplon, The Windswept Verses

“34

I sat thinking in the scattering dusk
of distant coasts and the meetings there
until setting my feet I found myself
in a world of starlight—

the sky'd fallen, all dewy, into grass”
― Mark Kaplon, The Windswept Verses

“36

All week long
been weeding this field plot, planting the bean crop.
It is a shame for me
that I can't keep from watching those moths
who hover, past the rows in the goldenrods
landing in, drinking, and billowing off again
in the direction of cloud-torn, vaporous cliffs….”
― Mark Kaplon, The Windswept Verses

“40

when failure and death and further instructions
finally are forgotten from your senses

when miles are to go, the stones begin to glow,
and you’ve for sustenance only breath

when finally exposure takes you, naked and exhaling,
and knowing is a feeling almost physical

listen… the whole world is speaking— can you hear
those trees, these poems, the sun’s light, the quiet?”
― Mark Kaplon, The Windswept Verses