Joseph Bottone – Two Poems


 

Lone Cormorant

Big Sur coastline

dismal winter clouds, grey halo midway between

leaden sea and sky.

         At the horizon, a screen of charcoal mist.

At the verge of the cliff

like a young god

                          the brilliant green cypress stands undaunted.

Closer in, at the roadside, eucalyptus trees

    long spindly curtains stir

scent the air.

                No one here, no division

between the observed and observer but the cold wind.

Waves chafe rock and sand,  and the lone cormorant plunges into my soul.


 

Walking The Redwood Grove

It is the inward topography

that interests me most

though what I see in correspondence

         takes me there

a welcoming portal

 

where blue jay and hawk shatter the air

though muffled.

                   In misty light

the periwinkle begin to blossom

on the green hillside.

 

Under the redwoods fern tremble

under mist dense fog and rain  I stand silent in the gloom

                        Oh joy!   Oh sweet!


 

Author’s Statement on Beauty

The honeyeater sitting in your soul stretches out through the universe, returns to the ecstatic dance where the soul in things is present again. And one finds in themselves the “I am That”. Other worlds beyond the physical open themselves to the poetic vision that can see profoundly the highest work of transformation—the liberation from a grasping life, the destruction of ego, the Jesus shattering into Christ. We awaken from complacent sleep and come into our rightful place in the Abode of the Gods. Great minds attend to the turbulent, sick and corrupt inner life of our culture and make commentary. We celebrate as one by one we claim our own self realisation. Out of this flows the world’s revelation and a new intuitive poetry emerges as the voice of the Mother who weeps for our return to the ancient worship of Beauty and Delight. In her arms we finally come to rest.

 

Joseph Bottone has been a poet in residence at Camaldoli Hermitage Big Sur for 3 years. He now resides near Santa Fe, New Mexico. He has published in Paris Review, Malpaia Review, Abraxas Review, and a number of other publications, including the Grapevine Magazine Lucca, Tuscany, Italy. More at: josephbottone.com.