Five Sublime Poems by Belinda Subraman

The Cacophony of Silence

 

Sunshine pulses in magnetic air

Stars hum as they hang in the mist 

Thoughts swirl like Van Gogh’s wheat

Explosions bomb the mind field 

 

Years fold into wallets, misplaced books

Memories roam the iCloud

Our lives are in flash drives

Sparks in the atmosphere

We deny magic as we perform it.

 

 

 

time shifts

 

feeling auras dim

pivot, pull away

cool air rushes in

turning cold

tearing the membrane

in a couples’ cocoon

 

internal hum heightens

following orders 

from an unknown source

or are we hearing gears

 

in organic machines

making body waves

finishing a lesson

in relationship

 

emptying and dawning

healing psychic wounds

 

until we blend with

spiced forest soil

hot with tiny life

 

 

 

Sunrise, Sunset

 

Counting life by decades

on fingers

using a second hand

remembering youth

and the other worldliness of age.

 

The past has not passed

as it’s one long day

with gradations

of all we’ve ever been

caught between the womb and stars

hungering for the hug

of recognition

and dissolving into space.

 

 

The End

 

morning rainbows last longer

in slanting Fall light

the twilight is hope

in all directions

and sensual dimensions

your companion in bed

is machinery and love

awash in white noise

tidal breath bi-pap and

oxygen concentrator

the heart swells as birds

suddenly rise together

flutter specifically beyond the sky

you go joyfully

fading into the sun

burning into light

whether or not

you ever yawned an Om 

mumbled a Baptist hymn

now you realize 

everything

 

 

The Accidental Elephant

 

Let’s say you’re traveling in India

and an elephant in a Hindu temple

salutes you with his trunk.

You notice the designs and paintings

on his forehead and body

and move in closer for a look.

The elephant wraps his trunk around you.

He likes you.

 

Hindus crowd around to see the white boy

blessed by Ganesh, a favourite god of good luck.

Let’s say they begin to see you

as a reincarnation of Ganesh,

put garlands around your neck,

and bring you food, especially butter and limes.

 

Let’s say you enjoy the attention,

the smiling admiring faces.

Then through an interpreter

you hear their prayers and pleas.

You learn they want their dying to be made healthy,

their destitute to be made wealthy,

their crippled to walk, their mute to talk.

 

Let’s say you’re inclined to give

the Sermon on the Mount and bless them with platitudes.

You even practice healings but none of them work.

So you learn magic and wow them with tricks,

enough so they bring you even more flowers, butter and limes

and their hard earned precious few rupees.

 

You accept them and bless them again.

They seem to be happy.

But you are not.

You live with an elephant.

You are god-like.

You are a liar.

 

 

 

 

Belinda Subraman has been writing and publishing for years. She had a ten year run editing and publishing Gypsy Literary Magazine 1984-1994. She edited books by Vergin' Press, among them: Henry Miller and My Big Sur Days by Judson Crews. She also published Sanctuary Tape Series (1983-89) which was a mastered compilation of audio poetry and original music from around the world. 

Belinda has been published in 100s of magazines, printed and online, academic and small presses. She has a Master of Arts from California State University.  Her archives are housed at University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. Her latest book is Left Hand Dharma from (Unlikely Books).

In 2020 Belinda began an online show and journal called GAS: Poetry, Art & Music which features interviews, readings, performances and art shows available free at http://youtube.com/BelindaSubraman and https://gaspoertyartandmusic.blogspot.com