Surface

When I could walk on water, I dreamed of land.
When the land dreamed of me, I knew it.
Behind my eyelids, volcanoes muttered smoke, grasses

bent away from wind like saltwater
from my fingertips. Black clouds set music
to storms. Could I hear in each boom all songs

sung at once? Or none? Or my own voice? 

I questioned breezes often and often
they questioned back with echoes (echoes spoke

only when spoken to). Sometimes I dreamed land,

inch-by-inch, materialized over the sea’s ledge,

opened by the sky’s lifting, one actor

enacting stillness. An island waiting for an echo.

The world was falling—falling from the sky,
from the edge of whatever first fell from whatever sky

first picked away at my grip, or gripped it hard until it died.

I dreamed I couldn’t walk on water, but I could.
Salt was a scent, soil a superstition. Flakes of foam

filled me up like a wave. I crested and I crashed.

In that dream, I fled. In that dream, I followed.

A Blog is Born

I'm Daniel Porder, a young New York City poet. I plan to use this blog to showcase my newest work.

Here are a couple poems to start:

The Universe Addresses Its Center

Looking back, all stones
orbit your axis. You’re
a selfish centrifuge of light.
You say stars are spices
sprinkled over me. Now teach
me to study our shadows shrinking
not away. I’m moving
in with outer space, waving
at my wave at you. (Have I found, clinging 
to the vacuum, my own
moonless body?) Release your gravity, 
undo an atom’s grip.
Follow me—
you must. 

nightingale.com
(after Keats)

buzzing once 
with plastic lips 
screened no more

silicon dotted illness 
drips (not even 
switching into water)

farewell electrons

enter &
delete 

Psycho(somatic)

Indications & Usage: To own no body, to disperse. (see Adverse Reactions)

Dosage & Administration: Even faster. Ejected skin cells levitate in light.

Capsule Description: Generic #8, your genome via origami.

Empirical Data: Red #40 bleeding. The brain solves for 0. (see Mechanism of Action)

Half-Life: 1 half-dreamed c-minor piano theme ≈ 7 somnambulant children half-humming.

Melting Point: Your flush, your body-heat.

Precautions: Do not operate machinery on a stranger’s nude pores. (see Melting Point)

Adverse Reactions: Cogito ergo sum. Eye-contacting the sun.

Mechanism of Action: 1-way mirrors. (AKA to see)

Duration: How many years ≈ forever? (see Today – Tomorrow = Yesterday + Eternity)

Toxicity: Here are 2 vials of clear liquid, you have 1 guess.

Onset: When bacteria secrete your name. (see Surrender)