deep cleveland - featured poets & artists

featured poets & artists

eric seddon

Eric Seddon is poet living in Lyndhurst (a suburb of Cleveland), Ohio. His work has been published or is forthcoming in the New York Quarterly, Spitball, the Journal of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society, the Bloomington Voice (IN), and the Bloomington Herald-Times (IN). He is the author of three book length poems entitled Hudson Valley Boy, Punk Girl: a Rap Oratorio, and Chanson (which is currently undergoing its final revisions). He can be reached at red_crosse@hotmail.com.

BAPTISM OF DESIRE

the passing/painless/passing like the doppler/passing

underneath the window/painless/passing like

a truck drives through the rain/the motion passing by

crescendo/decrescendo/passing time and space/i’m

in the place i am at last/ly life and death/beyond the

grasp of/painless/passing by was all my life/my death

and now it disappears/the tires parting water/after rain

there is a mist/i am i must/the water covers all my

death/the doppler effect/the passing/water parting

orbits dancing/painless suicide of water/ever/always

promise/parting all the waters/underneath my pain

my skin/my secret soul revealed/the glinting of the

post-rain truck in summer sun/my soul in secret/

pothole turned to spray/i mist a rainbow/and the

doppler effect as i dazzle the light/as in wonder i’m

here/and the sunlight under my skin and i feel/ and

my pulse/i sense the secret pulse/the light/oh birth

from death/the breath beyond the sun/the only one

past life/past death/i stand outside the clock/the

death/the temporary/time/the temporal/ doppler

effect of the mortal/the breath beyond/the light

beyond the sun/the one/i stand outside this life

this death/the setting/settling/self again at last/at least

the day/the death is past and yet to come/the one

the sun beyond the stars/the setting/leaving/left

like sound/the echoing doppler effect/and i’m here

and i’m back on the floor again and the clock is

ticking again and i’m still pregnant again and

breathing again and the room is much deeper and

i’m waiting again/running again/and eternity begins

to sense itself beneath my skin/i’m back again

like an echo/and the doppler effect of the invisible

and I fall asleep to the rooftops underneath

the gentle rain…

INCENSE (IN UTERO)

infinitely small within the womb/my mother

carries/infinitely small inside the pealing

layers/peeling bells of/rings of sound/of silent

sounds of/infinitely small and held i am/her open

arms/she carries me so small/i’m held inside

her bosom/as i’m infinitely held so small inside

the cosmos/carried over centuries of peeling/

pealing/sounds of/sounds of stars of silent

singing/infinitely held i’m small within

her womb of/sounds of chanting bells of silent

sense of souls/incense of silence/as i’m shown

i’m held/the bells of home/i hear her voice

her choice/i’m held/she’s told a sword will

penetrate her heart/i hear/i see/i feel/i love/

i sleep/i dream/i wake/i’m held/her infinitely

softness carries me/i see the stars/the stillness/

silence/and i know it’s me/she sings/i’m over

time/beyond all space/i hear her heartbeat and

she sings/her voice/her soul/her bosom and

her womb/i’m small/i’m small inside

my mother/and i’m infintely small inside

her womb/i’m small/infinity/i’m

infinite/i’m infinitely small/her love/i’m

infinitely loved/i rise i love/i’m small

i’m held/and silent bells and incense floats

i’m infinitely carried on my/infinitely loving

in her/infinitely sounding/peeling/silent love

her arms/her eyes/her heart/her heartbeat

as i sleep/i’m infinitely safe now as i’m infinitely carried on infinity…

ASCENSION

some people say that seeing is believing

but they’re wrong or they’re just liars cuz

they’ve seen a million things they don’t believe

and anyhow they look for what they want to see

and if you’ve seen what they don’t like

they’ll tell you you’re a lunatic

so i don’t listen anymore,

instead i find it’s safer to believe

in the invisible,

the things that disappear into the clouds

because they soar too high: i follow them

inside my secret soul/they carry me

beyond my sight/like a husband making love

to his wife in the dark/in the absence of sight

they can mingle even closer till they can’t tell

where one soul ends/where the other soul begins/

it’s like that/and i’m leaving now and

empty words can’t stop me/cuz i’ve known

what i can’t see and it’s so beautiful/enough

to give your life away/to live at the center

of silence beyond our seeing/above believing/

you were here and left us/went beyond our sight

so we could hold you closer now/we are

those lovers in the dark the world can’t bare/

and i don’t have to see to love/and i don’t

have to feel to trust/believing is a simple thing/

i close my eyes/believing/i receive.