The heart of the earth
Posted by Rebekkah Hilgraves in At Water's Edge on April 14, 2012
The heart of the earth beats,
her pulses lapping the shore.
The trembling edge where earth meets sea
and sea meets sky
and sky meets fire.
When at rest, her gentle heart
loves all things, the mother of us all;
When angered, her terrible heart
tosses and breaks, frantic and dangerous.
Her depths in motion, embracing motion;
the flick of a single cell becoming
one with its fellows,
and as one they grow into a force
carrying along everything in their path
until they breach and overwhelm the shore.
The ever-shifting cycle of creation and destruction,
connecting all things,
moving all things,
breathing all things,
feeding all things,
singing all things,
creating and re-creating,
sliding, turning,
living, dying,
changing all things.
The heart of the earth beats,
her pulses our pulse.
Night Descends
Posted by Rebekkah Hilgraves in At Water's Edge on April 8, 2012
At water’s edge the sun’s full glory break,
Audacious splendor splashing over sea,
As Helios’ chariot dances over wake,
In blazing cloud entrapped, now pulling free,
Down Daniel’s steps descending into deep
And setting fire to heav’n upon the way;
While Erebus with Nyx in darkness steep
The far horizon, veiling night from day.
And on the shore the salty grasses sway
In ev’ning breeze; their music softly sighs,
The sweetest sounds from slender blades arise,
The fading light transforming green to grey.
And thus descends the night upon the world;
The velvet darkness sweeps ‘neath wings unfurl’d.
At Water’s Edge Is Magic
Posted by Rebekkah Hilgraves in At Water's Edge on April 5, 2012
At water’s edge is magic:
the constantly shifting line between solidity and restless movement,
between reality and dreams,
The water always in motion, even when calm,
the land quietly waiting,
the water overtaking land, signaling the need for catastrophic change
and other times gently rocking, comforting, nourishing
Water embracing land,
land supporting water.
Sound
and silence.
Calm
and storm.
Slow change or sudden,
the change is nevertheless inevitable.
At water’s edge is magic.
Your Music
Posted by Rebekkah Hilgraves in Working Title: Love Affair With A City on January 10, 2010
It is your heartbeat, and yours,
Your breath,
the shuffling of your feet,
The rustle of the papers in your hands,
A cough, a sneeze, a clearing of your throat.
And it is the restless, constant motion of you, the city,
Your cars and buses,
Construction and heavy machinery,
Bakers’ ovens and chefs’ knives.
The sense of urgency
or exhaustion
or both.
The subway cars coming and going,
Making their mournful rising minor third on the rails,
Or the other tune, the rising minor seventh and then another major seventh,
Singing as they pull away, there’s a place…
and never finishing the phrase but
letting it collapse into a joyful cluster of dissonance.
For we are already here.
It is this place for us!
And this place has a music all its own,
In every atom,
In every soul,
In every brick,
In every chip of peeling paint or scored plaster,
In its ironworks old and new,
In its ghosts and its living beings,
And they are all us.
About the Poet
Rebekkah Hilgraves
