route by Barbara Langhorst

route

1.

thud  (a death in the house) 

the strong beating of portents returns and how poetry moves 

the gray bird hangs (dismiss signs) suspended moving in rhythm feathers splayed  

such odd calm my long fear  reality  helpless voyager folding wings  breast crushed

to the screen  eyes  darting  confidence  regaining  long long minutes  this smash

of the heart 

and suddenly  flight

2.

and suddenly  flight

or flit the freedom of yellow amongst august leaves  gold above and below black wing

last week a glancing note  faced with a name scrawled 500 miles away at my man's work migration halts for fear of deep water   forced on by cold (o wild canary of my youth) american goldfinch mates late  so vibrant a cautious approach

to the season

in our reckless garden

3.

in our reckless garden

sweet clover scotch climate russian thistle and yarrow tall stand a promise to legions

a phalanx of sparrows pick at the well-soaked alfalfa wild war mosquito and blackfly

a mite in my eye (castenada's gnat  guarding the next new dimension) fear devours my undulating delphinium world  monsoon summer a changed saskatchewan  a gray convention mobs

the blue glowing screen

4.

the blue glowing screen

tells all  chickadee brains (too tiny for irrelevancies) shed details that pertain no more regrow neurons in fall   register fresh seed caches   my aging mind  forgets    details

retains the way  not the matter   search for a black-capped bird online by headgear

find cornell lab report  fall feeding moves from insects to seeds  wild chickadee casts pathways anew

recaps flight to the source

5.

recaps flight to the source

the mystic mind hums   interaction calls an immanent world to light on monastic

paw  from sources unseen (o so intimate)  wired  household canaries take radical paths ditch last year's song learn fresh each fall as one first beginning to build the talent

for immortality hatched in one's children  the celebrant clears thick aphasic slush

in karmic shed

the diminished heart flies light

6.

the diminished heart flies light

in deeper solitude each burst of pain  a brush or touch transcends lost words

rescinds berkeley's fallen tree  what song heats february or august apocalypse

that monitors   an interface glimpsed through a veil  projects surplus shadows  

such reckless concentric wars articulate change the constant of love of fear

and immanent life

thud  (a death in the house)

7.

thud  (a death in the house)

the diminished heart flies light

recaps flight to the source

the blue glowing screen

in our reckless garden

and suddenly   

flight

Barbara Langhorst's first book of poetry, restless white fields, was published in April 2012 (NeWest Press).  Her work has appeared in CV2, filling station, the Society, and the collection Bush Dweller (2010).  Born and educated in Edmonton, AB, she holds a PhD from the University of Alberta and teaches at St. Peter's College in Muenster, SK, where she has had the pleasure of meeting many of Canada's finest writers.