Poetry by David Hickman: Lyrics and meditations. Very slightly revised from the original ebook.
The sky gathers all things
Days fall like sighs
Out of already accomplished and beatified weather
I once had a family
They were dutiful to their own
We lived miles apart, and were enveloped in our cares
When my sisters played their violins
White birds poured out
Into the afternoon
And sailed through blue skies
Only to become a nocturne
I have been so empty that at times
Those birds flew through me
As if I were air
And they were its blessing
I was as tall as I was wide and all my friends laughed
They said “ We see you move and it's like
Freight offloading"
I recall the deaths of some I knew
I sat down in their memory
And read to them
I would not sigh or weep
Because the thought of my crying
Might unsettle the departed
Every day the sun undoes my desire
And every night the spaces between the stars
Bring it back again
As such, there is only this to say: I am here, as I was there
I recall only dimly the motion that brought me
So few of those around me are willing to say their names
They are afraid
They are small
And they give awards to the ones who
Make themselves the smallest
Once a man who was very wise said
“People live lies because they are afraid the truth will devour them
The more lies we live
The more the truth irritates”
Above the houses the birds are disheveled and cry out
They float on the air but it will not remember them
Neither do I remember the person I was
At the moment I began to say these words
