Disguised as an Illness

Poetry by Rich Ives ♣ Art by Alessandro Della Pietra

                                                To free yourself from obsessions,

I propose that you start with the contemplation of snow.

–Heberto Padilla

To free yourself from snow I propose

that you start with grasping theatrical hugs

presented in Nature’s continuous theater as

extraordinary occurrences randomly assigned

to the warmer cyclic territories of nervous behavior.

For there is such an extraordinary excess

relentlessly plowing Spring’s wild canyon

while Winter still chains chilled bodies to intellect

and numbs their instincts with cool reason.

And to free yourself of even the seasons

I propose the perpetual release of still warmer

fluids from your own distance and calculated calm.

This offer holds the harbor responsible for the storm,

marries indulgences every minute and wrenches them

from the routine thirst in formerly elevated understandings.

It contains joy and confusion over the loss of childhoods

longing to romp in the foreign, frightening snow,

and to free yourself from nostalgia I suggest returning.

See more Art from Alessandro della Pietra at  http://alessandro-della-pietra.artistwebsites.com/