smooth gray sky hovers
intent on rain
somewhere else
the warm breath
of the day
a faint, steady stirring
no shadows
fall from houses
or trees
nothing
builds
but the sameness
yet this poem
forms, moves
flows in rivulets
satisfies
a longing
for resolution
the sky
relents
and weeps
Poemblaze Blog 
Pathos hangs on the word “relents” – the longing for movement. You have caught the tension between trapped sameness & a longing for that “flowing” & those creative “rivulets” . The simplicity of form & word is deceptive: leading to an underscoring of the presence of pain. One to savour Matt. Carmel
Thank you for reading and pondering.
Love this! such tension in the stillness that is broken by motion – perfect spare words with nothing to spare 🙂
Matt,
I don’t know if you get a responses from here. But I’ve been catching up on your blog. It’s a pleasure to read. Have you turned your back on reciting at open mics? There is one of which I’m sure you’ve heard: The Stone Spiral Wednesdays from 8-11. It’s mostly pretty good singer songwriter fare, but there are a few poets; intelligent, sensitive, eloquent — some of them are. anyway I have no idea what course mainstream poetry is travelling at this point in time, but I feel that open mics are attracting “counter culture radicals” with uncombed hair and torn slacks, inspired by beat poets, and EVEN WORSE (in my opinion) by spoken word. artists. These folks are good, but a bit verbose at times. Also too many puns can really grate on the nerves. Especially after four pages of weaving it in and out of the poem’s long, winding narrative. Nevertheless, these are very smart people that can take your breath away from one line to the next. I don’t think they’ll ever write a perfect poem. (Who will?) But they’re often so in love with the sound of their poetic voice, that they refuse to finish, until after their original point has been buried in a sea of heavy-handed wordplay.
I see your poems as bite-sized kernels that’re so small and palatable that they’re accepted casually, and with little thought, but once absorbed and digested there is a latent, intense, disturbance as we try to digest the sudden weight of the words we’ve been given.
I think you WILL write the perfect poem one day, and although, I’m entirely unqualified to judge art of any kind, I think your work is evidence that you’re listening to the right philosophers, and indulging the right muse.
-Jason Wyman ________________________________
Beautiful!