The Dreamflax Cocoon
by
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Igneous rock intrusions faceted the coast for leagues: Hideous fire in charcoal dark,
I studied the rough with a loupe,
the glass caught light by dawn
the pavilion blocks
were cleavened spars thrust brillandeering
next the scaif of wave-formed spume.
Even high up,
even the old man’s weathered wrinkled eye
I saw did take aback a bit in searching mine
at what I might have seen beyond the glass.
He went about half blind,
still he knew his way about the sulfurous table.
Sandy bottom land we’d crossed,
but plant less cliffs like these were sponged with reeking caves.
The pilot whales and dolphin played
the pressured turbulence there sounded white
then dove deep in aquamarine
below the waves hid caverns deeper still.
Salt wind caked about our nostrils
clogged their membranes
grasped fire seared our sense organs
til we stood like snowmen
pitched our voices outward
toward the sea lions invisible
indistinguishable my face culet scarcely
moved in the dop the igneous rock.
Eons skilled in sculpting
cut the prisms of the cave walls
reflected light within our eyes
brilliant fire in scintillation with the sea.
insidious, livid and sensual the glow:
Death on leprous cheekbones bare
wrought the mask of masks,
aged in fear carboned, blackened mirages
back-a-back afar in legions.
The glazened eyes
acidic tears sought alone,
saw reeking, stiffly-webbed corpses
freshly torn of forgetfulness
stark of despair and cold,
and stole the remnant raisons,
prune dregs of cinders left from Bacchus’ heath;
plumbed the lukewarm hearts of heat-split lime and sandstone,
rabid harbingers took suck of dry dugs,
basic mounds of the parched carcass bones,
shadowed by choked saguaro stumps nearly,
and the ashes of prickly pears hidden by madly desert moons.
Firmament bowels effluenced essential time
by its passage coveted,
but its regularity amidst distraction tormenting;
sopranoed headtones staccattoed
a tempo to sizzling lard,
such a favored release rent the lungs,
drew up the gas, the mustard...
taloned condor toes betrayed
the whistling air farther from the grasp.
Once proud, once seasoned fingers blistered,
seared gluttonous au just
carved back the flesh from marrow,
then the sole lemminged feint exeunt
from adhesioned weir, the gills fluted,
dried beyond use.
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About the Book
While some sought money, fame, or education, or some other goal or theme in their books and writing, the author focused and aimed his sights on the experiences garnered in life; and to the best of his ability, he was a seeker of the supreme power of the universe. Conscious union with God had actually always been of great importance for Richard, since he first thought about such things at an early age. It seemed simple and basic enough for Richard to regard it as a pillar to his real goal of eternal happiness. The idea is that The Metamorphosis of the worm into butterfly (Papillion) involves spinning, changing, and giving birth; in this case, to dreams, reflections, and visions of a silk of the highest order, and the turning of bombers to butterflies, above our worlds. NOTE: Borrowed metaphors purposely from Kafka, Papillion, Jung, and: Woodstock by Joni Mitchell.
About the Author
From a dirt farmer in the Andes in South America, to the heights of California society; from a promiscuous lifestyle, to the peak of Christian monastic life; Richard J. Grant Caldwell in his life was conceived in California, was born in Meadville, Pennsylvania, and went over the Rocky Mountains in between, in a Model "A" Ford named "Clompetida." His father, Howard O. Caldwell, was a career Navy man, who served on active duty in three wars: World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. The family, consisting of Dad and Mom, Richard, Melinda Jean, Robin Michelle, Christopher Scott, and Jake Evans, moved thirteen times in the first seventeen years of the marriage. Richard lived as a young person in two places in New York City, two places in Philadelphia, and two places in California while his dad was stationed in those and other places. Richard’s formal education included high school (Meadville High), Notre Dame University (B.A.), and post-graduate work at U.C. Berkeley, Boston College, Edinboro University, Universidad del Valle in Columbia, and Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania.