Stephen Sutherlin - Poet, Musician, Designer

So simple, this theme
Of morning and spring
The full moon sets
As the falcons sing
A day beginning
With promise
Gathering
Upon the shadows of horizons
The sun to bring
Warmth to the new day
As the cold moon wanes
Nature’s ritual
As the seasons change
Returning the life
The rhythm
The song
To stick in our throats
To be hummed
All day long
This celebration
Of the simplest of things
This confirmation
of the season of growing

If I were not left to stand naked here
Stripped head to toe, not much to stare
Upon in the shadows of this exposing hour
Nowhere to run, no, no protective tower

Could I stand myself or you of me?
Exposed to the core; no more reverie
To drift these moments of folly
And pass the time content and jolly?

No, this dark hour has left me here
In the open, alone and full of fear
I cannot beckon, who would I call?
To stand by my side, naked and all?

For at my center, the liar sits
He’s taken control and silenced my fits
He conjures my dreams and calls forth my ghosts
He will not relent until I’m fully un-clothed

Not for the moment that I long to be
Composed, quite clothed, protected fully
By this will to be the man who I am
When I’ve yielded to God, my own judgements be damned!

First I must let go of these illusions of control
Un-bind my demons and embrace my ghosts
The light there waiting for me to take up new clothes
And stand with aspirations of the life I’ll compose

For this is a journey taken one step at a time
The trauma, the pain, takes time to unwind
We can’t blame ourselves for mistakes that we’ve made
All is forgiven when we ourselves face the day

But forgiving yourself is the first step to take
Only then can you begin your healing to make
This person is longing to be set free
No longer naked, now standing proudly.

epilogue
I write this poem still naked myself
No longer do I care what the others will shout
My exposure is mine and I have no doubt
This day is mine and in the light I will sprout!

We step into the past — by choice
Out into
the woods
Away from signals
of society
that keep us
pinned into
Frameworks of consumption.
Out here there is Nothing
but each other
and often
we can’t stand
Each
Other!
Though we love deeply
These
Others who
We share our lives with
by choice or
by birth
You don’t choose your family
only mother and father
have that privilege.
Everyone else
must deal with that choice.
Yet brothers and sisters — siblings
May be the only ones
Who care
when all else
has gone…

4 Million steps
On this journey of circles
Around
and Around and
Around
A hamster on the wheel of life
Deleting my center of gravity
One ounce at a time.
But, these travels were not made alone
My constant companions
On the same quest
To chase away
This Angel of Death
Who has cast his dark shadowed
Wing over this Covid World!
We’ve walked long and hard to find
The daylight waiting
At the end of this tubular night.
I’ve never felt better
After years of addictive tendencies
I find myself emerging
From our Mother Earth
Changed…
Once the pale grub in a hole
Now, the Cicada out to sing
The songs of summer!