Word count & Brief Window

Word Count

I don't write because I have to
but because I must
not for the lovers 
I do not write for them
in their innocence and ignorance
altogether blameless 
in their little treacheries against
their own full hearts
for who could blame them

I do not write for children
or for the shrill now 
that has already been and gone
nor to the future do I type
anything I think worth keeping
they will have to work it out 
between themselves 
or let it go 
scores addressed to stardust

I do not write for our reason

I write because the universe 
itself saw fit to tell us
and has waited for forever for the words
that have long been around 
but are yet to arrive
I write to keep the meaningful alive
in words we survive
I write because they are
here and because they are not
here even before numbers began 

learning to count


A brief window for rain

Only the smallest of rain today
barely enough time
to take a smoke to the windowsill
plant my feet on the roofing
stare at the sea through closed eyes
take in the earth's battering
the smell of the steam and the stone
walls caked in lichen
the rich swell and the broke barn
the scattered clutch of apple
bent trees dark green 
abundant gobbets of berry
hedgerows hanging limbed and wet
the peculiar quiet of hidden birds
the huddled jumble of puddled lanes
only the smallest of rains came today 
falling like love on the chapel house does
in the fewest possible words