Richard Lawrence Harrington

Richard L Harrington

Poet

Poetry

Solid Ground for Solid Feet

2019-4-16

I am a stone for you,
a mountain of will,
and as I, from new vistas,
revisit the geology of my past,
I am known better in my canyons
from my peaks.

Woven

2019-4-8

I find strands of your hair
woven though my shirts,
my hat,
my heart.

Like paraphernalia
of the spaces through
and between my own being,
where I still remain vulnerable to love.

And with each wash
I find these garments cleansed,
yet agreeably fettered, still more
with you.

And I know,
should we become apart,
my wounded hands would endure,
powerless to unstitch your fibers from me.

I would stretch my fabrics
to find new spaces,
and fearfully rethread the old
- tattered and doubtful as they may be.

Still a shirt,
a hat,
a heart without you,
but happier with your inlaid embrace.

Your Chicago

2019-1-1

You showed me

Eden,
in the windows of a little house;
how it was perfect,
in its time,
behind snow-laced trees.

where your slithering hands,
in hunger,
spoke coyly
in that paved-over shop
which tempted you those earliest apples.

how you curled in wisdom's pain,
shivering in the brush,
drawing scarcely
the innocent warmth of a still-tame wolf.

His damning trickery,
His cruelty as He cast you out,
still possessed
by remembrance of that garden.

those plastic-sealed joys,
dispensed surprises,
and the youthful taste of ignorance
- perhaps an Arcadia of its own.

the perpetual violence of Cain,
safety renounced,
as your nomadic heart
wandered jealously across his world.

the stained light of morning,
seated alone,
in that temple of empty pews;
and oh, dear Eros...
a glimpse of heaven through your voice.

a feeling thought unattainable,
a realized love,
a long-abandoned perfection,
tenderness in friendship,
connection,
and touch.

how the prodigious city skylines,
cathedrals in a way,
bestow some coveted peace
and entrance our hearts as He once did.

life, from which we ever steal
that flawless wilderness;
where the lost innocence of beasts
sleeps sterile on display.

those renderings of your powerful heart,
rituals of your hands;
how I'd fall willingly into your marks and curses,
and embrace the inevitability of pain.

beautifully worshiped sins in the darkness
advertised desires,
there to be seen,
but demanding devotion to be known.

how we've all reached back desperately
for that lost orchard,
whilst our feet strode on,
losing their way in the definition of myth.

sadness for memories that stay behind,
not lost or abandoned,
but whispers of ambrosia
forever fixed in time.

Eden,
through the perfect trees;
my favored forfeit of a better harvest
for the trees you grow all around me.

Filled with an abundance of your light,
I know I'd let you be last,
and I'd carefully tend,
hand-in-hand,
cheek-to-cheek,
dust-to-dust,
to our sacred garden.

The Flames

2018-12-20

It burned through our hearts;
destroying the land
the town
the safe homes
where we've warmly nestled our love
where we've grown through our pains.

Our memories
still within our minds;
and our keepsakes
lying in rest
woven together as ashes
- we continue.

We will be whole again
in time;
our hearts repaired
our burns treated
- we can be whole again
in time.

Without Knowing Myself Better

2018-11-16

To never
have held, and pulled, at stone
or stood loyally atop our mountains.

Had I not
wandered amongst your leaves,
stoic as my seasons changed about me.

If never
my brooks had interwove',
nor I flowed drunkenly through your valleys.

I'd stay here,
a silent moss-veiled cave,
hypnotized by warm daylight on the walls,

and I'd mistake
the ground beneath my heart
for the green, green grasses of some spring-dream.

This Untitled Something

2018-10-22

It's etchings of rivers long dried;
scars of fluid devotion,
those unrequested commitments,
our patterns more so than the notions.

It's summer's wilting of meadows;
counting each blossom we knew,
those waters running underground,
tended rebirths into newer truths.

It's the bark of ancient lovings;
the slow twisting of dear trees,
this intertwining of our roots,
or how we still quiver in the breeze.

It's boulders in mountain saddles;
tense clasping at rough edges,
when cascades shift slower than minds,
breaking down before spring mends us.

It's waltzing 'neath the aurora;
a dance binding earth to sky,
electricity in our bones,
our wondrous lights never lost to time.

It's swimming with the change of tides;
the salty shores we have been,
this shedding of our loosened sands,
how countless eager forms hide within.

It's the circling of the mushrooms;
making homes away from home,
the morning dew that tickles us,
or our conjunct solace as we roam.

It's that small, magic feeling;
that sure, perilous movement,
the narration of the fleeting,
our grip to life before we lose it.

All Tied In

2018-7-31

Deep swelling of our chests
- balancing this ebb and haul.
These vulnerable ascents
- weighed against a tethered fall.

We're tied here, vertically
- together, lashed to this stone.
Fingers placed furtively,
- pressed against this crag, alone.

Firm earth 'neath each caress
- climbing old faces of sin.
Tempting the wall, "undress"
- starlight revealing this skin.

These grasping limbs held tight
- returning our hearts back down.
Felt by day as in night,
- passion, into which we drown.

Into Embraced Comfort

2018-3-25

Into
and out of my life,
you'll fade
— or my favor
will swerve from and for you.
Ever reborn,
with the stirring of stars,
your warmth will remain what I knew.

Embraced
and released, like bliss,
I'll drift
— or acceptance,
given no other choice.
My southern sea,
or ye expanse above,
I'm still proud to have known your voice.

Comfort
and freedom, balance
in loss
— or forsake us,
by bonds that might have been.
Night's best questions,
twinkling beyond my sight,
answer, "We were only meant to begin."

Means to an End

2017-12-18

I am your way;
not companion,
but crutch.

Your better self,
on my shoulders
- not heart.

I once believed
our desires
converged.

Now overgrown
by stumbling time,
I ache.

Rather I'd with,
than without you,
go on.

We still share paths,
though parallel,
at times.

Splitting lodgings,
more suitable
than planned.

Our Home Town

2017-11-17

You'll never truly stay around, so let's always try for late.
We'll have streetlamps in the moonlight, lining every traffic gate.
Our town's too small to grow within - you, too restless to stifle;
so when you find yourself longing
for our mossy ol' awnings,
we'll listen and smile
as you rest here a while.

Let your stories wash out on Main, of life beyond the outskirts.
Wilt among our Autumn orchards, shedding to winds what now hurts.
While not always postcard-perfect, our town is always a home;
where strolling down middles of lanes
relieves us each of our strains,
and loved ones you know
will cherish how you've grown.

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Contact me at: rlh@artleaping.com

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