Down in the ground is the sound
of the growl of the trains on their rails
while out on the periphery at the end
of the lines there’s nothing but blue.

Blue as the last day before school starts.
Blue as “Happy Trail to You” homework undone.
Blue as the first day starting a new job.
Blue as the Blue Jay calling to the Crow.
Blue as life would be without you.
Blue as blood returning to the heart.
Blue as the fountain of youth to which
                                  you never returned.

But we pull and pull the long bow
of the heart and it’s taut arch takes us
through the deep sound of the chambers
and right to the very deep blue center
where in the air currents and shadows
we find the grace that heals hearts.

 

James Van Looy has been a fixture in Boston’s poetry venues since the 1970s. He is a member of Cosmic Spelunker Theater and has run poetry workshops for Boston area homeless people at Pine Street Inn and St. Francis House since 1992. Van Looy leads the Labyrinth Creative Movement Workshop, which his Labyrinth titled poems are based on. His work appears weekly in Oddball Magazine.