THE ELIXIR OF LIFE
The Comte de Saint-Germaine exclaimed,
“They forget I wrote Shakespeare’s plays!”
Like every story, this one flirted
With the idea of eternal youth.
What would you do if you were thirty
Years old again? Would you change?
Do the same or find it strange?
How would you remain you?
There is no way to paint a wall and add
Detail simultaneously. Zen circles
Are born in moments they are made.
Anything more seen in them
Happens afterward. To be fully
In the time-space they are painted
Is to be fully alive. The more zen,
The more one is the circle.
We reveal ourselves in all our splendor
Then we fall asleep and surrender.
We waste time on deliberations.
We pick up brushes and make faces.
MID-FLIGHT
What remains of the hours, they are wind-blown,
Scattered. I often think of destiny; where are you
Sky-born eagle? My truculent way, said in silence,
It calls for a volcanic eruption, geyser, a plume.
Like a snake, I have dug into the mire of my age.
The story has trampled upon my home of dirt.
If only I swept down mid-flight and caught it
I would carry my serpentine thoughts past the earth,
Wings flitting up-down as I scale the air, above time.
I could be the king of dark forest, acknowledged,
Able to cut through inertia, able to divide fields
Of galaxies. They find me, they turn the universe
Upside down, they break it apart, then are borne.
I am the snake and the eagle; within branches
Of the wind, the sand and stars.
IN THIS CASTLE WAITS A LION
The castles that he built all fell.
‘I’ collapsed in I.
A past of forgotten fruit
Reminded of the acrid taste.
Oh, he counted his hope
In dissolution scattered skies.
Wind exhaled its breath.
He built this castle inside.
For whatever hoped, burnt candle
Smaller self had reached its death.
He had climbed mountains;
Jagged pathway bled.
He shed the skin.
Became a lion.
Description of Process:
All art is a process of capturing the past, the present and the future in one moment. It's a conversation I'm involved in. The more I listen, the more it opens.
About the Author:
Aaron Lindquist
Aaron Lindquist is a visual storyteller. When he's not making films, he writes insightful poems, short stories and novels fueled by everyday life experiences, spoils two cats named Kiki and Lulu and explores the world with his multidisciplinary designer wife, Diane.
Art by Aaron Lindquist, The Chain (2020)