Strange Beauty

author's note:

This poem wasn’t written to anyone in particular...

So maybe it was written to everyone in general.


STRANGE BEAUTY

That first long look
down into your eyes
told me
there was more there
than I could ever possibly see

but I keep trying
because
where there's more
than can ever be seen
there is mystery--

there is beauty.

l want to witness your mystery
so I can remember
how beautifully strange
this life is--
feel again
the deep strangeness
of my own life.

Once I saw the face
of a stunned alien
reflected in your dark pools

only to realize
those big hungry peepers
belonged to me.

We both seemed like aliens then.

How beautifully strange.

Dancing to Raven’s Song: a novel
© 2021, Michael R. Patton

Another World

author’s note:

Recently, someone asked me how I find contentment...

Not something I usually think about...but I do know that I can find it by discovering beauty in the commonplace.


ANOTHER WORLD

Sometimes I sense the presence
of another world

lurking like a monolith
--like a dark castle gate--
somewhere over my left shoulder

but when I turn to witness
I find only a blank space

nonetheless,
I can feel the absence
and so, that world
still seems real to me:

I'm tantalized--
for years I've searched
for the pass key:

so much work and yet
I remain frustrated...

except in odd quiet moments
that come to me suddenly--

in that stillness, this mundane world
is seen again, felt again, heard again

known again
but known differently--
known as strange:

even the stones seem to brim with life

or especially the stones

even old familiar doors
hold mystery

or especially those doors.

At such times,
whatever object I experience
becomes a door slowly opening:

I discover secrets everywhere.

After such times, I wonder:
did I step through the mirror?--
did I pass through the gate?

© 2015, Michael R. Patton
dream steps: the blog