full moon
thirty degrees

in Aihara

warmer

notes from f a q penultimate

Beethoven String Quintet in C Minor, Op. 104 (1817)


1st mov. - summer
                 a steep lawn near the university
                 string quartet playing

                 a sparrow

2nd mov. - ⤴︎ lifting
                  s o l i t a i r e

(a story of)
collaborative enhancements
remembered transitions

3rd mov. -  harvest wheat (scythe)
                   potatoes
                   apples

4th mov. -  voyage
                  great lakes
                   s h o e s

--------------------------------------------------

⿱ sutra
⿳ river rapids


---------------------------------------------------

⿸  b e a r (in Kansas)
           
where
⿺   irby / burroughs

there wrote

---------------------------------------------------

Shostakovich String Quartet No. 7 in F-Sharp Minor, Op. 108

s o r i e s

s h o e s

seamless

1 ----
2 strong
3 loss

-------------------------------------------------------

Brahms String Sextet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 36

" Bringing darkness to G major"

1st mov. - warm and lively 
                 stories of romance and exuberance

2nd mov. - rain on a summer day
                  dancing inches

3rd mov. - melancholia

4th mov. -  hope returns
                  change
                  renewal

-----------------------------------------------------------

taking your own hand (holding)


                  

hi .

called
to say
she's unplugged
and
her water's broke

spoke to her
epidural's
been
mentioned

his tire's
punctured

going there
getting him

to the new hospital

where we'll wait
like weeds in the field

--------------

one day later
at ten
then

a c section

baby's turned face up

mother's a fever

my son standing near
deer in the headlights

night's been a long one

none of the chairs here

are comfortable

moon waxing gibbous
shines
scrubbed clean

sees
through
regret

earns
peace
and
quiet

(lit)
a sightline

midnight

strong
rains
change
to
hail

changes

to

seven am

white

that 

sound slow cars make

driving  uphill

through it

shush? slush? slosh?

1   a   d r e a m

in the wake of
waking
an image of
jury-rigged
partitions
separating
supine/standing stones.

2   a   d r e a m

working with a
necromancer
who looks a lot like a
mouse.


3   a   d r e a m

alongside
streams
night advances
intends
to
tell
who went into
who
got out
who
was
executed

what depths
you see

rubble
twisted metal

were signs to

where?

a meteor over Michigan
I saw it
bright bilge
break apart
sink


shipwrecked
pieces of it
on the earth
under the sky

chuck close
can't remember faces

paralyzed
neck down
hungry

he's  spent
years
feeding
young women
to
his
ghosts

can't remember their faces

likes to play
with his food
say
pussy
or
touch
lightly
like
a

but can't remember their faces

he's
left them
stunned

those
delicious
girls

write poems
some
come
to teach you

alphabets
reassemble as
an island
or
a continent

without us
they ask
how can
you know
anything?

Eridanus

has changed direction
place
on earth

in the sky
always lies
(in the north)
south

up near Orion's
Rigel
begins to

slip
loping
down

around
its mouth
enter

(under earth)

far
Achenar
where

(burnt hair)
my
son's
buried

     © Stephanie Longo 2018

three days in january

Thursday


It's fifty,
mild,

waning crescent.


I have soap

tea

a warm bed.


Saturday


Wind chill?
Minus twelve.


The morning sun!


I walk 1.4 miles

remove my shoes,

dance.


Monday


It's twenty-one,
snowing,

new moon.


A King's birthday!


I have coffee,

boots

poems.

this comes
will go

what 's done
is so

forenight
white wolf

(sleepless at sixty)

slunk
among river birch

looked through
an owl's eye

fell asleep at dawn


dreaming.


mudras
her paws
make them.

you
here
near
me

sun

one

sees

at noon

leaves 

bronze's 

black ice

blinking

(melt)

furred blur

underneath

a tree

we (me)

housed

the brood

of us

absent

inside.

"success is so often found at the end of our own arms."

carried work
as wiser
to fruition.

sotāpanna

this stream

the source of stones 

dropped

one by one

flow as though

they'd never

been

thick

I've been as careless as a cloud
wandered through


been
ground
down

burnished



may

yet

shine

wash
broom
soon
walk
many
one
done

You will suffer soon enough, when it arrives; so look forward meanwhile to better things. What shall you gain by doing this? Time.   - letters from a Stoic, Seneca, Trans. Robin Campbell

r e m e m b e r

"intellectual life is a form of spiritual survival" Krista Tippet, On Being w. Maria Popover

five days

o n e

deep breaths
300 seconds as one breath
slow


go outside
walk northeast


20 minutes
moving


still
stay near
touch
this
bush refuge for
sparrows


I heard a bird
in this bush
chanting:
sunim
stay and pray with me


t w o

you observe you
deeply

ask:

"What should I do so I carry no regrets at the end of my life?"

out of your middle into stars

something of bones and blood before they flee



t h r e e

five gratitudes

1
l i g h t
brilliant day, full moon

2
heat
-19C, warm house

3
resilience
I remain, because of

4
purpose
reconstruct, resurrect
at core, this

5
friendship, kin
begin again
love


f o u r


kindness and compassion

I have socks that say 柴犬
I walk them

today a gift to you
to walk you through
this year

clearly, today, the weather isn't
but our hearts are





f i v e

My brain was cluttered with numerous open files. 
I was pushing life away.
- Dr. Amit Sood

kitchen
well
seiche plashing

white sky
cold

told
myself

do
less
best

turn
inside
out