Aurora you were it
My everything I had
I crashed into your horizon
And washed you down as planned
And now I wake up missing you
And never had a chance
To follow in your footsteps
And rewrite all your pasts
This is the great hollow
Which consumes all beyond
No use feeling sorrow
The decay takes that too
Aurora my words wove round you
Trapped in your repose
And destroyed the truth, your suitor
And your heart beat on unfroze
And now you sleep in sunlight
Your skin never warms
Like an empty page in your novel
In which meaningless words swarm
And this is the great hollow
Which surrounds all, imbibes
Sucking in your tomorrow
Cutting in your strides
Aurora temptation struck me
To visit you again
My eyes fell on your image
And you stunk worse than sin
And I have come to despise you
Who was once my sole desire
The brambles of time may curse you
And be cleared out by fire
This is the great hollow
In which all truth resides
The menacing torrent of borrowed
Fame from morning’s tide
This is the great hollow
So go throw yourself in
I’ll make no farce sorrow
Into the adder’s den
Categories: Josh Manning
I’m in space, I’m in space, I’m in space
There’s no escape, just bubbles and paste, I’m contained
And I float with solar winds in my sails
The beams of morn eternal
The sounds of metal shells
Ping once more my radar
Clear once more my trail
Doth silence wail?
I’m in space, I’m in space, I’m in space
The comets are wraiths, bringing fire in their wake, to lay waste
And gravity’s absence wakes me as I fall
Through an endless pillow top
I sleep as a thrall
To my life support humming
As my vital stats waltz
The void exhales
I’m in space, I’m in space, I’m in space
Tin man, glass face, Radiation-safe plastic case
And I sleep for years, each day is an age
Nightmares of earth awake me
To thaw at transit’s end
My cryotank expels me
And waking sick begins
And this ends
Categories: Josh Manning
Again and again and again
We round each other
Side to side
Again and again and again
We circle a sphere
On the galaxy’s tides
Again and again and again
We lose we win and we grin
Again and again and again
And again
Again and again and again
We flail in sequence
And fall laughing
Again and again and again
We search for truth
And come up missing
Again and again and again
We dig deeper in sands of sin
Again and again and again
And again
Again and again and again
Gravity is in my chest
And it’s beatin’
Again and again and again
Each beat is closer
To my leavin’
Again and again and again
We don’t think of death ‘til th’end
Again and again and again
And again
Again and again and again
This mortal friction
Is boring
Again and again and again
Is this one really
The thinking end
Again and again and again
My head can’t manage the spin
Again and again and again; And again
Categories: Josh Manning
(Hebrews 11:22)
not in
Egypt,
boys, nor
Goshen,
land of
father’s
latter
sojourn—
but plant
me deep
in ground
the Lord
himself
has named
for one
who brawled
with him
till dawn—
case me
not in
coffin
wood, so
even
tongueless
I will
taste the
blood of
Canaan,
to be
spilt by
Yahweh
in his
fury
for the
rising
of the
day of
one whose
beard will
drip with
fragrant
oil from
God’s own
horn of
choosing—
(2009)
Categories: Kurtis Neil McInnis
the/ and/ some/ why
boy/ a/ things/ am
walked/ car/ are/ i
his/ zoomed/ out/ thinking
dog/ by/ of/ about
down/ at/ place/ the
the/ high/ in the/ car
street/ speeds/ suburbs/ this much?
Categories: Josh Manning
Will I know…
how to fold shirts
how to fall off a bike
how to pull the cord
how to flip the switch
how to shut it off
what to say
what to wear
what to drink
what to forget
what to remember
why to care
why to stay
why to cave
why to fight
why to love
when to stare
when to leave
when it hurts
when to feel
when you die
Categories: Josh Manning
Painfully, oh painfully
My teacher
Welps will help
Recall
The heady draughts
Of sacred fire
Burning down
Like tracts
Through my arm
Helped by the scourge
of Divine harm
Categories: Josh Manning
If Eugene Fuqua had lived,
he’d have been sixty-five this year
(same as my father,
his childhood best friend,
who did not make it to sixty-five either,
on account of cancer).
But his car went off a bridge in Clio, Alabama,
and he drowned at sixteen.
His mother always suspected foul play.
Categories: Kurtis Neil McInnis
In my tattered soul a sense,
A disparate, refracted ray
Melancholy paced miles ahead
The drumming depths of hope’s dread
Like a beast-born bray
My sins, their boots thumping strong
My soul, like carpet, old, with worn
Path down center as tread
And guilt like a gut full of lead
Repentance lies stillborn
Will God’s own hand improve
Its force to nudge this sinful mule
Further down the path thin?
Or does his Spirit not contend
Anymore with a fool?
Methinks that we grow tired of grace
The more that we dine
We long for stranger meat and fare
We tire of sun and freshened air
We trade the sweet for the rind
And even the bitterness dulls
Of sin that we endure
And one long drudgery it becomes
To even fill your stomach’s rungs
And all things taste impure
Until the night is a red haze
And day too dimly seen
And all noises hum like bees
And warmth won’t thaw the freeze
Of your black heart’s thumping
We crave the salt of the tear
When altar horns are gripped
And sorrow’s cheer is never felt
And we who knew with whom we dwelt
Never knew how far we slipped
And for the heart to feel a sting
Like wine swirled in a grail
And the crack of broken bread
The pain of thorns upon Christ’s head
The whipping of the flail
And for a soul too sick to feel
Or wince in sympathy’s behalf
I pray the prey of my regret
Won’t slip the throw of heaven’s net
Nor exceed the stab of its gaff
Categories: Josh Manning
Tuesday, October 14, 2008 · 1 Comment
Speak to me in a language without bones,
words without form,
sounds without distinction,
purely impression,
dictation enfolded in experience,
A boundless gelatine of expression and profundity,
Silent fervour, and a daybreak of nuances
Like a white sheet bleached
Categories: Josh Manning