6 x 36 Nocturnes


series two, #1-18


On plane from Boston to Phoenix, August 2000

i.

Morning. Resurrection.
The least thought matters.
Morning. Desire.
Slim lashes of flame. Possibilities.


******


ii.

Night trips into today, unfractured
  by the light, night unsanctioned in
this wild free run, night frail &
  fabulous, there is something must be
      done, a choice, a truth, a magick in
  the night's new rampage, a gleam. A way.


******


iii.

The collecting & scattering continue apace.
No assignment to instruct or contain the soul
Fecundity is the depthless meister
Fecundity growls & glows with wisdom


******


iv.

Origins. You wish to learn the first notes
        of fowl & tree. Must existence mean
      something to be beautiful? Must words
bead around its heart? What if meaning
          glints from texts of water?


******


v.

She pulses. All that is, pulses.
Yet she pulses singular—why?—
Much unknown. Much troubling.
One feeds upon sunshine & girl.


******


vi.

Something from the past
careens on yet shimmer-bright
& desert-deep—a chiding energy,
a whipping-hunger—the hard fluid
of awareness & regret—child-high
with hope—sometimes greedy—
damning—nihilistic—jittering fool—
a cave, very deep, called Creation—
unsentimental seed—bullets for
the She-moment of first light—
thickening at the breach into new day—


******


Black Rock City, Nevada, Aug-Sep 2000

vii.

The desert receives her freaks in a ragged
    metallic procession, with quiet cries of
greeting, with a merry trickster wind
    with a language of dust old freaks
know—& new ones seek to learn—


******


viii.

The Voice said: Go home.
I said: I am.
The Voice said: You're burning up.
I said: Tis my plan.

The Voice said: this Festival means you ill.
I said: what rages in the cities is real sickness.

Kill the radio
Joy is flaring here, now.


******


ix.

Not a sequence so much as a tribe
  of weeds, weed-songs, live, inevitable,
wisdom pulsing from starlight

music permeates, music eludes

trusting not because the cosmos
    is safe but because it
        is home

music dotted with clues but perhaps
  the answer must be pursued
      to another dimension, through
  death, past the loss of all that
is familiar, all that can be possessed

Not a sequence more a fire of vibrations
  a dozen fires tonight, a hundred anon,
      a thousand thereafter—

The tribe is gathering, some giving away
  starlight again, some bouncing with
glee, many with plans, fecund with belief—


******


x.

Fuck it—just write—the music
  manifests as mountains, the deep
love twists to be close but free—

a long time ago watching the
  earth revolve around its clouds
this morning watching faces
  crowd gently & funeral around
a salamander tonight perhaps
  what colors survive in stars &
desert will explain why the heart

shivers hard with ecstasy, with emptiness


******


xi. To Zephyr

mountains beyond mountains forever
flow, just flow
flow, just flow
each day flakes away from rose to onyx
flow just flow
the meal we share, the tower we build
the exquisite loneliness that descends
with stars upon us when a new shiver
heralds darkest night—

flow, just flow
flow, just flow

release past like chimes dimmed with still
shun future for its paucity of rewards to desire

flow, just flow
flow, just flow
flow, just flow

begin in the mystery of what you are
doing now, continue by thanking mystery
for its ever-new child spirit, conclude
by marking all which seems impossible
for discontinued study—

flow, just flow
flow, just flow

flow, flow, flow

mountains beyond mountains
your message, your muse—


******


xii.

rhythm color writhing symbiosis
flaring silhouettes scirocco tawny
slither plan cirrus globe lounge—

words nearly denoting nothing
crush them quickly into dust.


******


xiii.

Moving toward immolation, dream leads
  mind leads body. What matters most
is fear-mingled hope. What matters most
  is fear-mingled hope.

You‚ll corrode in the sun. You‚ll break down.
  Release. Don't try. Release.

Give away what you cannot merely
  hold in your hands.
Spread your dust. Better fame.

Moving toward immolation, soon beyond
  fear & hope. Soon beyond corrosion & gift.
Soon beyond the need to believe.


******


xiv.

While the city rages I do not
not tonight not yet

I have no music to share tonight
not tonight—not yet


******


xv.

I don't dream too often of cunt anymore
            per se
        while awake anyway
I dream rather of smiles, of curves
          of laughter
          of some vague form of cosmic justice
I dream of a place where cunts are
          not covered, nor cocks, nor
  fancies, nor the stranger moods of
          gentle freaks

I dream of being neither awake nor
  dreaming, not knowing which I am,
oh, in a way like LSD-25, in a
  way like eating pussy, in a way
like perfect full moon nights but

          better. Better

NYCity naked. United Nations naked.
  President Next naked. Hospitals
naked. Judges with old-time wigs
  but naked—

Maybe I'm dreaming of some other kind of cunt—
  deeper—don't laugh—vaster—truer
      happier—when whistled at able to whistle
smartly back—

& some other kind of cock for that matter—
  no less hungry—but more musical—don't
laugh—sentient, nearly—

in secret places, I hear, cunts & cocks
intermingle without the usual buffers &
forbiddens—3 cocks dance along a trembling
skin—cunt & breast & lips & touch &
laughter—trees all around—the air
full of dreaming

a new dream. a bigger dream. No longer
a dream—per se—

I want to think of cock like 11th finger—
I want to think of cunt like Lawrence
  did—joy! joy! joy! joy! fucking joy!

yes to cock!
yes to cunt!
yes to everything—every last thing

Leave your body & lick the stars!
Leave your body & seduce the moon!

I don't dream of cunt too often anymore
            per se
I dream of the liberation that is
    twining my days & nights

I dream of smiles

I dream me more & more

I am dreaming you right now.

You are the most beautiful creature in
  the universe—


******


xvi. To Karie

Dream. Sometimes a yes-voyage, sometimes
  a no-voyage. Dream. Til rhythms wavy
    & slow. Dream. Or just dance & let the
      desert dream for you. Dream. Voices
        undulate like water. Dream.
This universe a mist, a light, a shimmer.


******


xvii. For Ari

Remember you are beautiful
  perfect overcast starry skies
    ecstatic blue moods rising

all is good: remember
it's all good: you are beautiful

Return to your beauty always
  in the blue-black midnight of doubt
vampires hungering for your stumble
Your beauty is a new rise
  a new language, swift & snaky

be well: allow yourself to be well
  at ease you shine: remember

The desert fest is about to flow
  & madness sweetness & loss
Comfort & fire. Symbology of dust.
Mystery of dust.

Shine: you are ready. Release
  what is overcast. Choose to be clear.


******


xviii.

Dreams of dust deep in this cement city
nights duststorm-long, authentic,
the sense of real nowhere in a whiteout,

& still feeling the magic kindness of that
desert city, continuous festival, still

feeling what's possible strolling nakedly by,

what's so obvious—no rich man's fancy—

money small & funny in that city where
miracles stroll nakedly by—


******


On to 6 x 36 Nocturnes, series two, #19-35

Back to 6 x 36 Nocturnes, series one, #19-36

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