LINES IN A SYMPHONY
BY NOLAN JAMES BRIDEN
Words bending space into lines
bent into line-breaks
that break divided-lines
in creating the line
in pushing the line
in holding the line
we become the line
that comes to be lines drawn in earth’s colors
and becomes linear movements
that break division and build dimensions
of lasting endurance
giving life a breath fresh
refreshed
in people cloaked in blues looking out into technology
as the circled note of the singing bowl pierces through existence
melody finds the way around the world by
freeing bounded prisoners
in-bounding
out-bounding
leaping bounds to the center of Being
singing-song’s long note
that longs for home
travels airwaves
as the resonance from earth tremors
delicately stir in the waking of spirit
extensions of extended-mind
minds-thought
mind-right
to-feel
in-thinking
the Seasoned residents live
in the resonating remnants of remembrances
in a real moments-time reality
different seasons add power by changing waves of energy
and direction of moves like dancers in free-falling step
or like the crisp sounding call of the whip-man at a powwow
We are here
still standing as we never truly stand-sit-or lay still
in a forever moving motional shift of worlds in worlds
thoughts transition into the dreams of the sleep
waking
awake
wakefulness dreams
in the between shift that stands in at different times and
levels of work that stretch miles into days
12am to 12pm
12pm to 12am
365 days circular world lives and breathes
In
open spaces
between
the heart-beats that place paces in timed beat
Tibetan Song Bowl sings it’s vibratory pull-in
resounds of the harmonic sounds in-mind-of-good-medicine
a new symphony. | NJB
LISTEN TO THE POEM
Lines In a Symphony first published in Prisons Have A Long Memory: Life Inside Oregon’s Oldest Prison, published by Bridgeworks Oregon in 2022.