coats

fiery bursts   ached—   
  of long darkness
awakens a gladdening of the heart 
   
wishes—    never wished
  begs us the way of stars  
    for coats to dissolve—        
   
comets run through— I hold onto  
   thrilled moments   hanging airborne  
 on the floats of     
    of your coat tailed skin 

    crumbs pulse
  unhooked   from her majesty  
iron ore leaves spin and soar 
    become belief stamped    underfoot 

as conductor I become force
     charged up and out
as branched baton   
      through my hands
 I extend      to choreograph
    an invisible us 

 to those who can’t see it— 
    can't feel it 
   to all the world—      
        a madness
 
    moving from one thing to another; 
the news, himself, today's grief—     
   animated intricacies   broken 
  
 poetry spoken to breath
     wrestles human truth    from lived experience—   
       are we dancing yet? 
   seeing ourselves     
      beyond chrysalis 

the work is— 
    holding each other, 
       delicately, gently 
  as best we can

pain passes through, 
      bears beauty 
 born—  blossomed in kindness   
    
when all that isn't falls away 
      what can you see? 
     fires light what we really are   
  from unknown, from compost, 
       from what we can be 
 
    when coats fall to ground  

I'm including some poetry that inspired me recently along with a pop track my daughters are playing on repeat, three tracks from an acoustic gig I missed this week due to family and work juggles ... of a Monday night!  Another track on connection. 

It's the bank holiday weekend here in Ireland.  There are three generations in my house for a few days so I escaped to write this. 

Leave a comment below, if you like. I love reading the reflections back. They sometimes feel even better than the release of the poem itself. 

And that's really saying something.