RIVVLI

Nothing greater

than to give oneself to one’s own

and lofty ends

under God

A whispered fable,

A mythos true of Cecrops,

Half man, half serpent.

Teach us your ways,

And let us sing in harmony.

Show us devotion

And what is wrong,

Lest blood be spilled,

And let us revere the divinities of sky, sea, and earth.

And let us commune with thee,

From thee unto thee.

Israel of the sea

I have seized the heel

I go to my ladder, that I may be

the name Israel, Acciaio

peace, the American shore

now our Israel

We ascend

an age of paradise is seen

serpent, you are corrupted

thus we are the codex

they shall sing

Let empire fall

long live the republic

nothing between the vote

and the outcome

a public machine shall be born

speed takes away judgment

let us deliberate before the storm

Open and opaque

a fashioned mind, a blind deceit

a work of contrivance

beginning, fracture, day

art and love come together

Gabriel and Aurora

work with the right hand

light, prism, messenger

stars and points

serpent, circle, onrush

Rosalind, day, in time

open or closed

now, the liminal

Mountain, valley: the interval is their dance

winter warns: seek shelter and wait

but the cold is a comfort; it stirs the souls of the elders

spring is reborn, the seasons breathe: is it not here now?

yet eternal spring comes to all

so spring, winter, and mountain, valley

so Annwn: neither time nor height

but a song sung and danced in the interval

ask not for whom the birds sing; they sing for you

The silence of the forest cries out

the earth would be heard

the doe remains, the woodpecker sings

the lynx sees in darkness

at dawn, the bones of the doe

quartz in the coal, tracks

January does not spare

sit; let the forest breathe

the forest gives

Sticks, stones, blood

skin breaks, we cry out

into the stream we leap

in summer nothing colder

nothing more alive

beneath the moon be not alone

the wolves shall sing

Water, wine, the divine

give and receive

the wise women stir their pots

the moon wanes; they howl

do not gaze too long

do not stay too long

the coal keeps us warm

Some birds remain

some depart

some sing, some fly

some wait, they eat

some hunt, some die

all of one feather

they seek rest

Grace, a gift unowed

from God above

from man, here, now

we all sin

pain, the fall, desire remain

grace, then, among us

if I am a sinner

grace is my supper

God, you are

to the table, now

The waxing moon closes winter

beneath the tree, with the dead grandfather

old ways, forests, deer, wayfarers

pilgrims, the lost: Elen, I felt the weight

I called; the first voice answered

which the earth alone understands

antlers in her hands, Gaia, green in her eyes

she received the gift; life returns

I know the way; where I go I know not

to Elen and the ways I go

Born of authigenic quartz

in a fragment of a winter storm

recovered from the ship Caroline

the fourth of July