Towards Solstice

Towards Solstice

Reaching for the sky,

full of light,

the thin beings

only obtain flight

in death,

fluttering 

and spiraling to 

an iterative task

of fueling a fire,

or the probable

forest floor,

after the green

of chlorophyll,

able to grasp

and knead the rays

into food,

leaves behind

only brown fibers

and the structure

of a noble 

nurturer

to the effectively eternal

towers.

Robert L. Jackson III

Graphene

Graphene

If she desires

then her fingers

can touch

me across any ocean boundary

and leap 

through an empty sky

to the matter

of this distant orbit.

No membrane

can halt

singular energy

from igniting

cascading reactions

to become

the most powerful

force yielded by humans,

able to break bonds

and reform them

into beauty

absent of design.

-Robert L. Jackson III

Giants

Giants

The stars love the burning

and to follow the laws

of waves and particles.

The stars send their light

to other lifetimes,

bending across the universe.

The stars share their fuel,

warming the elements

and the rocks to react.

The reactions create

the strength between us,

the unique matter of souls.

The stars stitch through

smoldering holes

the pitch black blanket

weighting our shoulders.

-Robert L. Jackson III

Thorns

Thorns

I once thought

the small sharp thorns

would dull

or rot away,

but they've only grown.

However, 

the roots have spread

and now I must decide

to either cut them away

with new tools

or to employ them

as talons.

-Robert L. Jackson III

Dunedin Pass

Dunedin Pass

The resilient tides

and singular hurricanes

incrementally alter

the face of my coastline,

until I do not recognize

the channels and currents

that I followed and fought

as a juvenile vessel,

free of barnacles, 

and inching away from port.

Amid the resonance 

of lunar crescents

and dredged sand, 

can there be faith

in the pass between islands

to the open ocean,

and that it will still be open,

when our moorings 

finally fray

and wear away?

-Robert L. Jackson III

Dunedin Pass in 1979.

Near to where I grew up there was a pass, or channel between Caladesi Island and Clearwater Beach. It had strong current and we used to swim across. It closed after hurricane Elena. 

Here is where the picture originated and a little history:

http://coastal.er.usgs.gov/wfla/vft/dunedin/

Drift

I just wrote this today in response to the Poets United Midweek Motif theme of resilience. Due to some health problems I have been thinking about resilience quite a bit. 

Drift

The fuel evaporated

never to be combusted

in the engine,

the ground filled

and covered in the salt

of the ocean,

killing the vines

that never would succumb

to poison,

and the sun emerged,

arousing the world

unevenly.

The local violent heat

must escape

to fill the deadly vacuum,

and drive the wind.

There are always the differences

that pulls canvas tight.

There is always the wind

that returns.

-Robert L. Jackson III

Nurture

A poem written where land meets the ocean.

Nurture

Are we rescuing 

the shells 

from the grinding waves 

and the homogenizing sun, 

or starving he beach 

of milky sand? 

The oceanic currents 

provide a harvest 

of food and thought 

beneath a blurred band of stars. 

Sifting through 

the broken and intact, 

eyes twitch 

for sea olives

(not edible), 

slipper shells

(not wearable), 

silent fiddler crab claws, 

and lion's paws, 

whose fierceness 

dulls with the tides.

-Robert L. Jackson III