Bless you for your anger, it's a sign of rising energy

Found in Abandoned House, Cripple Creek, VA

3 Frank Stanford Poems

Lullaby to a Child They Say Will Not Live Through the Night

the fog worked on the coffin without a sound
like a tire rim rusting in the dark
I went around waiting for some scum to grow on the lid
I wanted to hewn me oars to take you home
I wanted to bring clean sheets dipped in ice water
and smell your curls like strawberry vines
have a one of you seen how long it takes to wave so long or lose a crop
I plant my garden under the gradual pressure of the loveliest saddle
forgetting the undergrowth of sorrow
I make loops for the worms my darlings
I take a bath in a grave with no soap
and keep the secret of the fingernails and vortices of dirt
a pelt is taken by the sound of a lantern going out
and I tremble with the channel cat black as soot
and I pass out on funeral jazz and slow water rag
I betroth myself to the tension of the raccoon's approach
flexing my eyes with the dark
and I swear on my life
I will prowl this black island until I can return
your dirty kiss lightning's flesh and thunder's hurt
I stand ready for the spume of your cooked tongue
it is a simple ceremony
a girl has burned
her wilderness to honey but not to death
a woman will die
before the hunter rises I can hear the embers from my boat
from my bed I can see the odor of her pillows

In Plain View

A white rose fell out of my lapel
outside the church house
like a hand with too much sun
A horse trampled it
The barefoot rider who was
just passing through
leaned over backwards
and picked it up with his toes
He said Sorry
and I said Much obliged
And I took it from his dark foot
and gave it to his fine horse

Blue Yodel Silence You Are

You are a fourteen year old farm
girl who's done it already
you are dreaming about it again
losing your faith in the loft
in the hay of that dress you want
anybody to bring you
and the horses are sleeping
you are a dark boat
moored to the evening's
harbor and I
am a new rope
unravelling
the storm
passes by
like someone
I knew

Yoko Ono/Cat Power "Revelations"