Letter to a Friend

There are no words

there are no words that I can say
or could say
perhaps even should say

there are no words that I can say
yet for you, who touched the poet
wandering long, lost in a labyrinth of sea-caves
dark, catacombed, with no entrance to the ocean
filled only with the echoes of water dripping
from unknown places
falling upon smooth, damp rock
for you
for you, I must try:

Tears form brackish pools when communed in darkness
their rivers die, hearts encased in solid stone
but my heart now takes a new lover
long denied, yet I have always known
of dark cliffs
where my earth embraced her ocean
wave upon wave now rushes against my chest
phrase upon undeniable phrase

Song of spirit upon spirit of song
cutting through fissures in rock as the harpoon
of the hunter seeks the heart of the humpback whale,
his loincloth carrying the woodsmoke of many fires;
resonating through my hollow passages as his words of praise
would mingle with the lifesblood of the whale
and together reach across a thousand paddlestrokes of ocean
to awaken the hungry of their people;
and returning in silence…returning in silence…
as the hungry would kneel, giving back to the ocean
all that the whale had given them.

Flesh surrendered by spirit as sun seeks solitude of night
and night opens to sun after a long, nourishing sleep.