GRATITUDE

In the Late Hour

Look, everything is moving so
quickly, it seems still—
In a short time, this
will be a long time ago.
Vast cities and whole
deserts are vanishing
without an echo.
Lifetimes pass
in the split-second before we wake.
Too late was
yesterday—right now
is gone into
dim memory, swifter
than a welder’s spark.
Look,
it’s already happened,

you and I
are lost
to another age.

John Coltrane

I think of him again,
head bowed in the studio,
or on a smokey stage—
Hushed mourner, tightrope
walker, grand
wailer.
Ecstatic on the sax, he summons

echoes of Eden,
bringing them close enough
for us to touch.

Rover, seeker,
astral traveler—his scriptures

burning wild in the air,

cutting sapphires from silence,
pushing the far gates
open
to a strange glow,

a molten river—our primitive hearts
joining his prophecy, his

light, his sound
of light, a strobing glimpse
of a higher world

beyond the roads of time.

Gratitude

After you’ve set the book down,
It’s all right if we only
remember the paper cuts.

It’s all right if Eliot stands under
a bare bulb for days
writing two lines.

We should thank our suffering—
Chopin coughed up blood
composing his last mazurka.

We come from an ancient family
of weepers—A certain grief
gave birth to us all.

A flash of agony stokes the coals
in the heart’s furnace. We burn
like the scrolls of Alexandria.

It’s OK to break down before
the poem is over. Everything we’ve lost
carries us on the wind.

The Stranger

A window opens
and the curtains
rustle at 3AM

We can be taken
from out of our dreams
or from our

plane of oblivion
One dark may lead
to a deeper dark

What happens
when death ends
our every sense

Do we wake
into a new
unimagined sight

Does our mind
blend tracelessly
into infinity

What becomes of
our last moment
in the oceans

past time
Will our memories
attend us

Or will we only
know worlds
of cold rubble

in the ancient
mind of
obliteration

Alexander Etheridge has been developing his poems and translations since 1998. His poems have been featured in The Potomac Review, Museum of Americana, Ink Sac, Welter Journal, The Cafe Review, The Madrigal, Abridged Magazine, Susurrus Magazine, The Journal, Roi Faineant Press, and many others. He was the winner of the Struck Match Poetry Prize in 1999, and a finalist for the Kingdoms in the Wild Poetry Prize in 2022. He is the author of, God Said Fire, and, Snowfire and Home.