Tag: environmental

personal, poetry

Cold Water

jacqueline gordon

perhaps my hands, too, 
could disappear into the mist.

as a child, i dreamt of flight – 
fairy wings to burst through

my shoulder blades – fins
to sprout from my feet.

there’s a piece that wishes
to be weightless, high above

the ocean floor, high above
the shore, high above

this pale blue dot – until i see everything,
bathed in sunlight, the dollhouses

i get to play with. another step out – 
another step from shore –

and the pins and needles
forge my limbs into ice blocks.

your sea foam hands envelop me
in freezing, exhilarating here.

you here – salty and breathtaking
and ceaseless and fleeting –

you keep me heavy.
higher and higher, 

you grow with the moon –
and before i know it,

i’m up to my neck in you,
my wings frozen shut.

you hurt me.
but you hold me. 

personal, poetry

The Best Life

jacqueline gordon

When I find myself on the cliffside,
the seagulls having their way with me,
I imagine that last sunset we watched together.
At least here,

there is something to be felt.
Their many cries, some kind of chorus
of violence. All a part of earth’s cold order.
Not endless – nothing is endless –

but something
immortalized, nevertheless. 
If a tree falls in the woods
and there are no birds left 

to remember it – all its wailing
washed away to the seas –
it still made its sound – it’s last
gasp for air, last grasp for footing.

All of me wants all of that –
something left to give to the land.

poetry

Orange Country

jacqueline gordon

it seems you got your wish.
no june bugs left to bother you.

their crusted bodies
dissipate, spreading like spice

across the earth.
spice in the dirt.

spice in your hair.
the remnants that circle

in galactic dance,
onward towards andromeda.

i dare you to look to the sky –
that jaw-dropping sunset

every single night.
if you strain your eyes,

you might see mars
and venus. stargaze on the hills

to escape the rising sea.
where can i go

to watch my city
burn – the clementine fields –

the amber-dust beach –
mandarins crystalizing

between my teeth.
i grew up

where birds had voices –
where they sang

all through the day
and all through the night

and never took no for an answer.
migrating geese

battled ducks to the death. 
the trees prepared for winter – 

the sky, a gentle blue –
birds with purple eyes

if that is what you’d like.

Uncategorized

Sermon Notes for the End of Days

jacqueline gordon

come to the trees, dear brothers, dear sisters,

let us worship what we fear

where have i been?

burning with el dorado – that golden city glow

over the event horizon.

Fire stretched over it spiraling in eternally

light to may not escape, but god, how good it glows.

You are here, the most beautiful thing i’ve seen –

You are the graveyard full incarnate

how could anyone look upon You

and not believe in god – 

this You 

who turns all ninevehs to feathers –

who drags rome to its knees in a heap at Your feet –

even phoenix songs die in the dust

for we all knew this day would come

this orange flood to cleanse the earth –

thank god

we’ve lived to see it –

what shall we say to the god of death?

i say when,

you say now

now

now

now

poetry, Uncategorized

Marine Snow

jacqueline gordon

spring forth
from open ocean –

stretch out
your fins.

there come
soft rains

of whale bones – 
a waste

that will sustain
abundance.

gold mine –
all mine –

neptune caught
in a fisher’s net –

in the name 
of a hunger

as deep
as the marianas.

filled
to overflow

of marine
snow.

there come
soft rains

pierced
by echoed prayers –

prayers
to the older gods –

neptune turn
into open ocean.

miles to go
to reach the depths.

sing perhaps
a little louder.

there will come
soft rains

and endless seas
of snow.

personal, poetry

Moon Walk

jacqueline gordon

see there –
seas bear

forward.
gently tugged tides.

tied together.
sonic sunrise.

blue azure loving.
crestfallen. cozy up.

gray unseen.
levitation, backwards plain.

listless sunscape
scorches. ice cap

savings. coddled
in the craters.

sweet dreams
to orbit into.

silent bullets.
silent flames.

silent sun
beams. burnt –

kissed –
planet x.

planted feet
in the ground.

poetry

The Petrified Forest

jacqueline gordon

the excavation began
one make-believe eve
beneath starlight
and black satin sky

they prodded the earth
with little sand shovels
demanded it reveal
its fossilized scandals

the children dug down
all the way to the core
and stumbled upon
the forest beneath

underground
lives eternal autumn
where red trees sing
sweet forlorn spirituals

banded together
petrified pines
beg the children
to please keep quiet

but the trees
remember
when they fled
metallic thunder

they saw brothers
stripped of clothes
replace brothers
ripped from roots

above they still hear
storms slay oak warriors
they can’t find us here…
they won’t want hard wood…

children please say
we are safe below…
but the children
are bigger already

they abandoned the woods
since grown-ups don’t recall
make-believe eves or
laments of last fall

the stone trees weep and
hard leaves rustle in fear
but hush… sing softly…
the thunder might hear…