The Ushering of Twilight: Ocean Lawn at the Royal Hawai’ian
Far away,
And yet far away is always to something someplace near,
Every existence – person, creature, object – to someone somewhere dear.
Propinquity, relativity as cause and effect as one;
Twilight in the arms of the sea embracing both night and sun.
Hence,far away,
Memories, histories traded on prevailing winds;
Spirits born of sacrifice from bias, battle, bends.
Such memories rise from depths of consciousness as sea
Asserting timely tides with new days of infamy
And haunting thus ahead with visions cast away,
Shipwrecked in the mind as unfathomable foray.
Every memory of every lover,
Every casualty of history
Resides within the twilight as metaphor and mystery
And ushers in the night
That conjures and covers sin,
Walks the earth once more as universal kin.
There is no far away,
No place is far enough
From foisted, fusty redolence breathed as vatic snuff.
And yet paradise . . .
Reminded that all was once like this:
God’s attars in the air,
Soul in every kiss,
Anthuriums as valentines,
Florid trees that shower,
Healing turquoise waters,
Lethe in every hour.
But now
Greater than any ebb is worldly flotsam grown
To proportions beyond proportions
Never fully known.
Each memory thereby travels,
Each history surfs the waves
In search of newborn mourners
And waiting virgin graves.
One may feel a presence,
A phantom at the spine,
An omen in the breeze,
A warning just in time.
A flame may throw a spark,
The ocean whisper mist,
A prayer may touch the lips,
Divinely made and kissed:
Every isle, the isle of man,
Every heart in love the same,
To every life its greatest span,
To every god a name;
But I supplicate, in royal nativity I plod,
Please spare from bane of twilight my country and my God.
– Mary Jo Magar –