A Call Out: De-Roncoing the Davide

My favourite part about running a blog with Davide is pretending we’re roommates just leaving notes around with seemingly no other communication. So back to the question: is it really a one-shot if your poem has multiple endings? Did you not technically go back to think of what other endings the poem could have?

In rebuttal, here I offer a one-shot that is indeed a one-shot:

High

Dream of going there,
on tree crowns, on roofs,
to scrape skies and breathe winds
unbreathed of; heights unwitnessed,
views unviewed. Be not in a reverie,
in an unsober state you won’t see
the beauty of height, the thrill of
the motion. Revel in altitude,
grow ecstatic and merry, be gentle
yet fairly tame in your flight;

And may you descend
in feather-like fall, angelic grace,
and hope and believe
you shall rise once more.

---

This happens to be my most recent piece. On Saturday when I was feeling sick, I suddenly gazed out the window and saw the top of a tree’s corona, where the thought came: ‘Would it not be the most supreme of pleasures to witness the world from that altitude, to experience the adrenaline-filled awe of contemplating the mortal scenery beneath?’ In other words: ‘I wanna be there!’

I must admit that I often daydream about flying around, or looking down from high places. I am quite happy that this is the case. Perhaps here you can see how I felt about heights earlier in my life:

Chute

Haut
hauteur
sans peur
je réfléchis
à la vie et le
sens qu’elle
nous y offre
souvent. Et il
fait beau mê-
me mes maux
n’existent plus

                                        cadavre.

---

Despite its dark character, this is still one of my favourite poems. It is concise and precise at the same time, capturing the way in which one’s thoughts run from one thing to another when there is a desperate sense to do so. It also marks their triviality.

This is quite the low note to end off on. Tant pis.