The Go Away Island

Before the day awoke, there was a spinning wave in the water

All going under the wavy forces of tide, the pull of moon and sea

No one heard me say; send away the shadows, way out farther

Alone I notice the reeling image of the go away island, the palm tree

Standing ashore in the sea, an island I have about my knee

 

Last of the many nights it's been a long, dread cold winter

Then the warmth came in slowly as I recall, as the palm would know

An island that I've known where some fruits were bitter

If an angel walked on the sand, or ancient land, it's now long ago

But did he see the oat grasses, or the coral reef of the island at all?

Did angels tread byways of this place, gone away under crumbling wall?

 

Out on the high seas, the waters collide with storms in resistance

But had the cliffs of rocky slopes stood in upper floors of the ocean

They would have formed crystal shores on islands in the distance

The sun reflects against a glass or a shell my palms held, in calm emotion

Toasting from the go away island, yet I ask, and hide but wear no mask

 

The tall grass inshore waves around, in a shroud of light I was walking

Where may have stood the messenger, could have easily been close to me

By the torches of glistening walls of stone, we were silently talking

Muttered above the waves, words almost formed inside echoes of the sea

To escape the go away island, where each indigo night falls and strays

Would be an escape of an unknown depth of either the sea or sky's ways

Tides close in around the shores, far from the hour clouds form

The glassy horizon settles in layers of green-blue on faded gray bland

But a shine sparks through when stars bid the cloud to spark a storm

The winds seem to stay out beyond and lightning follows the command

The sharpest blue and island so pale, showing age in its withered trail

Sandcastles crumble in the grip of my hand to loosen my soul

Driftwood of fallen tree in this far away place under the night

My longings go in all directions and with the waves they roll

It seems to hold no breath, an island that just doesn't seem right

And tiring motions of the island heed no touch of change, wind or tide

It just drifts away, slowly away, like a stalling root, and with it, I ride

 

Stranded in the tale and the ocean moon is eerily forsaking

Where the messenger stands is now out of island's reach

I've strained to see any sign of ship on water's edge breaking

Or from the edge of skies within my view from isolated beach

The go away island hosts the will of roaming vine, mocking time

Sitting silently, watching all of the sky, vague as an unseen window

Between me and it, there's a sense of something never dying

An isle of long sleepy retreats on eve's gate, on wind high and wind low

How does one open the way, a passage the island is denying?

A hidden crater surrounded by the go away island, then the tide comes in

Buried corridor out past the sands, island's center, the unknown hides dim

 

Far off, and stretching out to the sea is the long sweeping palm tree

And sometimes the sands shine with starry mimicking to my surprise

When the evening falls and fire's light glows, I recall songs sung to me

Burn the dark world down to faded ashes, to lift the shadow off my eyes

But in peace, the ocean and the mist makes up the only view I see

 

My head bowed in thought or recall about the beginning of the age

Strange stone on the beach, wooden chest of silks, gold and cotton

Imagining wonderfully arranged realms of peace, written to no page

And back out to the sea, any journey from the past, forgotten

For angels I cannot call out any name they may be known by anyway

Another lost island adrift, with giant leaf and twine, another go away

Gathering pieces of tropical storm from waters stirred, I am thinking

From far beneath the ocean floor an eerie sense arises, in the light

Another tide comes and goes with no tidings of the island sinking

A deep sense of knowing never known by the darkness, by the night

No cover for the fallen in the fray, falling past what was cleared away

I wonder if the island sleeps so deep or if it can sense anything, at all

I look out on the sea, the hour goes by, and so does the day at length

Will I stay here on the island when it finally goes away, with it will I fall?

I long to touch another light or hold a hand, longing but lacking the strength

Hope seems almost passing in hours, in a sad way, and I am here, I feel

For long spans of time in timeless dwelling on the go away island still

 

Many days it is void and empty, and nothing floats by

Hope seems almost passing in hours, almost ages ago, in a sad way

But hope's not afraid, my touch is gentle and kind

A reminder of quiet drops swelling from my eyelashes, I would say

The forlorn land, quietly the island stays each grain of sand

 

In a dream once I begged to turn away from sand's burning dunes
The appearance of closest star brightly lit, scorching flames
Brings about another dream of the arid plains under sky's fumes
Stoic I stood not knowing if the dream was real or whispered names
A lonely dock lay dimly not so great a distance from me, on water tame
It moved only with a wave and slightest wind, like it I felt the same

The ocean beckoned for every while and then, withdrew within
Any solid figures under sails are neither here nor there
Gully tides rush so, and rush one after the other again, wisp thin
Long tides form out so far they diminish passing shore so fair
In the deep blue, there are stronger forces pouring through

In island song, chanting I speak slowly and clearly in tones
I've watched the sea's rage emerge from its depths of cold
The island has many returns upon greens of path and smooth of stones
When I sleep there are still the spinning waves in dreams I behold
The far off distance, the far off I cannot see, somehow
The island I'd let go if I could only be there now

Splendid tremendous storm that descends then climbs the skies
And palms shudder as they, too, sense the night on the way
Languishing, like the clouds as they thunder their goodbyes
They have but moments to grow and rise, and ages to sway
They stand in a breeze off the sea, just an islander like me

The go away island feeds no soul and numbs any other hope
To put claims on this place, sea's mock paradise, is foolish boast
So here and now I gaze from the island that whispers in its scope
Oddly relating a tale I already know, coldly settling on its coast
While all the time and all the same it appears to be calm and warm
It's something of a hidden world bound to be the target for a storm

The go away island is a haunting ground that fills one space
But if I flew away and I conquered the mass of the sea
I'd yet hold, carrying island's troves, but with great haste
The shell and the palm, just an islander are they, like me
Where I will go, my memory is fragmented though, I do not know

©Iggy 1994