Dream Desert Song

[James Albert Barr]

This moon so luminous sits upon a dune,
And night is replete with constellations.
There is an Arabian song below the desert breeze,
Yet she is not far away.

Haunted by some whispered beauty
Above my silent and sleepy mind,
This night calls upon me from beneath
Where eyes can reflect within.

Desire, like home, I've fought so long
To crawl away for a second's respite
Only to advance once more eternal
With details beyond the ken.

This sand so abstract and timeless
Rolls under my thoughts with
Words that have never rubbed together:
I hear their new conversations.

In the arid folds a monad keeps vigil
Always within the hushed womb;
A comfort, like the smell of old books;
A time not time, before and after: the song.

And it sang of a mystery never solved,
And it called forth in a couplet deciphered:
"In the leisure of this tragic story
Lies a fissure of some magic glory".

There is something to this nothing.

[badger11]

Another interesting one James, with resonant and playful phrasing. This sand so abstract...'  made me smile.

[James Albert Barr]

Thanks, badger11. This one was written in the mid-2000s shortly after reading Paul Bowles' novel, The Sheltering Sky, which takes place in the Sahara desert. The desert motif/metaphor had inspired my imagination for a few years leading up to this poem.