"Mt. Katahdin" photo by Ward Jarman

                                             

                                                                          Rocks and Stones . . . And Mountains

 

Large gaping pores riddle my black ashen, lava crusted, rock face

Sculpted from resolute lines compelled to castigate ebullition,

a crazed exhilaration of elemental fluidity

that runs rampant,  provoked by the blinding urge for velocity;

Yet I cannot deny my unvoiced outcry choked from lack of beauty.

 

Jagged, angular sharp lines of mine define cold stark legalities

incarcerating a manic celerity under a bedrock of restraint.

Mantle plates ride our red tide that throbs in search of escape

and terra firma groans from interlocked persistence that bulges into cordillera disfigurement.

 

Rage and Passion fashioned in fraudulent Chaos,

You cannot deceive me with your mystical weave.

There is pattern and from beneath your deformities,

And your smirk flirts form keenly pointed, serene noesis.

AI image by Bernard Jarman

Thrusting upward my hard, ridged, peaked reality

of our internal pressure from cooling core heated,

I now know well our protruding volcanic eruptions.

A boiling liquid purity once contented, I am engorged,

and we poke the air with unrelieved need.

 

Take heed for I do feel your lapping satin waves

licking the golden hue of our southern shore.

Your libidinous tongue, Lust-Monger seeks to corrode

but cannot erode my fortuitous code.

 

We shall cool our heated frenzy:

magma is but unborn rock,

fire but the ghost of future rain,

chaos but a fetish mirage

invoked by sweltering vehemence

sweating to be quenched amid trembling convulsions.

 

We are rocks and stones . . . and mountains,

Shall we weep our struggles, you and I?

AI image by Bernard Jarman

Iron Mountainous Ego of tactile paranoia and stubborn narrowness,

So you say.

Are we truly a myriad of celestial blobs?

You, the shining light around us, the boiling heat within?

Are we not the air and clouds and water?

We are our own tears.

Kama-Rupa**, I explode with exuberance our viscous serum of life.

Feel the surge of power gushing, gushing, gone.

Sigh

Calm, contented, relief.

Photo by Ward Jarman

Air born dust caressing unseen elements

transfigured now to flawless spheres of liquid crystals

are supple, transparent globes of wetness,

pure clarity unblemished by color,

progenitors of ice,

chameleons of form,

persistent seekers of the lowest common ground.

 

One minute tear

Infinitely replicated within our robust cloud

falls.

AI image by Bernard Jarman

Bring on our multitudinous drops.

Wash over me.

Drench arid pinnacles barren but for crevices and cracks.

 

I cherish the rain.

 

Soft, round water

Flattens and expands upon my rocky cheeks,

Slides over flat granite and slate,

Infiltrates all unperceived voids.

Slips into unseen spaces,

Leeches below the microscopic,

and subverts my most jaded edge.

"3 Brooks Falls NFLD" photo by Ward Jarman

Coerced into fluid suspension

Tiny particles of rock

dissolve in progressive, accelerated motion

to join countless others in the torrential race

as trickles spill into creeks cascading down

tumbling over rough terrain, snaking into streams,

Rushing into rivers that know only to flow til there is nowhere else to go.

Photo by Ward Jarman

I am worn,

torn from myself bit by bit

dissipated again in saturated solution

that runs from the deluge of liquid rejuvenation

which has stripped my most decisive summits

to lay bare parabolic ridges

before crashing into our grand tidal pools

of Rain’s reservoir. 

Cradled beneath the stench

liberated from receding oceans

lies estuaries in rhythmic oscillations.

"High Tide Frankfort, ME" photo by Ward Jarman
"Low Tide Frankfort, ME" photo by Ward Jarman

We are mud and clay

 

Infused,

 

A critical mass

 

Triggered.

"The First Word" by Ward Jarman (1969 -1970)

**Kama-Rupa: Sanskrit: desire form; the form of the body after death; astral body: theos.