So When We Talk Of - Clayton Carnahan

So when we talk of ungraspable things

of love beauty courage
and wellness and wholeness
I'm suddenly, certainly unsure unequipped
perplexed and confounded, my tongue is flop flipped
of to as how what if wherewithal I would articulate
.
You utter something that would have been cliché
on
many
other
lips.
and that Michelangelo didn't start sculpting with the David,
or something like that
.
.
"Look at that pot, for instance"
and conceptualize its shapely limitations
.
But you don't know
,my friend, and never will
the dreams and aspirations
I've collected in that ornamental crucible
the moments I was broken and collapsed,
The fullness I so longed for
to much that I had known,
to be perfect as He is perfect*
And still yet ever I kept it most contained

For A hope is a moment
and freedom a glance
bravery mercy forgiveness a stance
if left alone without devices of men
a molded symbol
or an image drawn in
some thing where transparent virtues can stand
quabbles distractions and round about thoughts
of men women children
of dreams and clay pots
.
.
In the morning I was Dorian Gray
:a mirror full of pictures staring back at me
,But now I sit uppon my vanity
Thinking for the first time
i remember something beside myself
a hope unspeakable
a water ever flowing from an uncontainable source
.
a fullness within yet a fullness without
confidence measured,
measured but stout
.
.
Still, if language is so limited,
Why did we ever stop talking?

*Matthew 5:48