NICK CAVE

Fleeting impressions…..from the film

“One More Time With Feeling”

not yet a cohesive whole….I give you fragments of this life altering meditation on grief…..

grief, so palpable
I ache with it
the long drive home
from the city
after midnight
echoes in sympathy
my stark memories
the heavens split wide
hard rain falls
heavily
I can barely see…..

In silence
I reach for that
Holy feeling
In the speeding
darkness
full
empty
my senses reeling

If I can just reach
Home
smoke a cigarette
drink some whiskey
perhaps then
I will feel relief
release
I drink
I smoke
but the bursting fullness
the hollow emptiness
stays
with me
in me
helpless
hanging
like a hooked fish
on a taut line
if I write it down
if I get it out
then I’ll feel just fine
But I don’t
the grief holds me
in its tight embrace

I still see the look
on Nick Cave’s face
soft and worn
a child newborn
hollowed out
with love
and sorrow

the conductor
leads
violin
and cello
Warren Ellis
kind eyes shining
liquid
light
lovely lean face
Biblically bearded
his arms lift
draw upon the air
the flight of swans
descent of eagles
lift
and fall
with
long fingered
Grace…
a benediction
of earthly Angels

and beyond my door
rain still pours
from the dark grey skies
dense
heavy
filling my eyes
where no tears fall
heart like a bleeding
trembling bird…..
thrumming to this poet’s
word

“with my voice
I am calling you”
“with my voice
I am calling you”

MA Spring 2016

Final lines are Nick Cave’s
From the song “Jesus Alone”

Image from the film “One More Time With Feeling”
by Andrew Dominik