Saint Julian Press Poet

Ron Starbuck - Author and Poet

VOICES

​Voices – Voices
 
Like the poet, Rilke, with each breath taken, I have heard 
and half heard the angels calling out from the depths;
 
– let them speak, as the whisperings of holy messengers,
 
in the unfathomable nighttime before dawn, upon the air,
in a quickening of flesh.  
 
These are the forgotten memories we may all one day
recall, more often then we suspect, subtle and obscure, 
 
– traveling on countless pathways of neural light, 
 
crossing our thoughts with distant remembrances that 
arise out of the silence of the saints.  These are the voices 
I heard once before, 
 
– in a church north of Pienza, when we travelled in Italy,
 
where lighting a candle and bowing her head, Joanne 
offered with a sad smile and a small hope, prayers for
a close  friend, who was ill at the time,
 
– struggling in life, and in death, as we all do. 
 
In every church and chapel, we entered that journey, 
she repeated the ritual, and in each one, I heard, the 
same order of murmuring voices.
 
Not that I could understand their musings, far from it, 
since they spoke only in hushed tones, in the ineffable 
and intangible – tongues of angels and heaven. 
 
Verse after verse, follows each breath we breathe; they 
flow in as a chorus; every word coming quickly, expressed 
ever so faintly, not always distinct. 
 
Flowing sinuously over the body like soft fallen rain, 
running over the earth and washing away. 
 
– Vanishing.
 
And then they return in a shower of lyrics, in a moment, 
or even years later, each word rushing in with such a 
haste, anxiously waiting in expectation to take its place. 
 
Out of this silence the poet within conceives unknown –
unheard languages of the spirit, new words and verses 
flowing out unhindered as a blessing. 
 
Encompassing the wonder of life, from the waters of 
Mnemosyne that pour forth,
 
– let the memories speak.
 
Each poet writes in their own angelic tongue, and 
humankind listens, or they do not. Do you? 
 
Sometimes, the angels speak too fast, and they are rarely 
kind or generous in their time. We cannot write the words 
down, quickly – enough. 
 
– Something is always left unwritten.
 
Words and images, thought after thought, come and 
go on – it all overflows, and you can never know what 
the angels may honestly want you to write,
 
– since they do not speak plainly. 
 
You must seek the beloved; only she can translate 
such language as a muse, and something more dwelling 
within us. 
 
It is truly unexpected, how even the stars fall 
silent in her presence.
 
One day soon, we will all become fluent
in her angelic tongue.
 
 
 
Ron Starbuck © 2016

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VOICES

from

THERE IS SOMETHING ABOUT BEING AN EPISCOPALIAN

Read by Ron Starbuck
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Impressionistic Art — These art images are from Via Santa Maria della Scala, 19, 53020 Castelmuzio SI, Italy.

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