Remembering the Dragon Mother Tongue

Poems From Each Side of the Sloughing Skin Moon

"New Moon Eve / Consciousness"

poetry 
      
           feels 
                       far away      tonight

the moon-guided tide
is out beyond the known horizon

i reach for words / they are not there

i lay my head down
drift out on unseen waters

no light / only tumbling / waves

hours pass
toss-turn
turn-toss
more waves

then a beam of light enters the window

slithers across my brow like an albino serpent

the first words of this cycle:

Do not mistake 
what is in your own water bucket
for the whole ocean

_____

"New Moon As Gateway"

Wave-Riders.

Presence felt through lantern light.
Presence felt through the fading pink ribbon of this day.
Presence felt through the pulse of stars.

As the tide pools fill
and Spring seeds snap open underground,
we are all on a precipice.

There's a reason the Great Sufi Jalāl al-Dīn
implored us not to go back to sleep.

This is not the precious sleep of night of which he speaks.

This is the fearless, relentless wakefulness of day.

Who are you now
on the other side 
of the Soul-Brightening New Moon?

_____

"詩魔 | Shima | Poetry Demon"

Now that the sickle of light
has appeared beyond the branches,
I know She will not let me rest.

Even if I manage to sleep, 
She enters my dreams
directs my attention
with her Pointing-Out Instructions.

For years she has been trying to...break...through.

Like grandfathers Bai Juyi and Basho before me,
I am haunted by a poetry demon.

She arrives just before midnight —
even calls me by another name.

"半宵 | Hanshō!" She beckons. 

"Wipe the dust from your eyes!
The midnight hour is soon upon us.
Slip out the door. 
Your dragon-saddle awaits!"
______

"Dragon Mother Cosmology"

Here we are again.

All of us, here,
in this grand woven basket
of ceaseless interconnectivity.

Where is your wandering Wayfaring Heart
taking you tonight?

______

"Flickering Points of Contemplation"

Our Life-Bestowing Earth
rotates at 1,040 miles per hour.

Our Life-Bestowing Earth's
orbital velocity around our Life-Sustaining Sun
is 67,000 miles per hour.

Every twenty-two minutes, 
we travel the entire circumference 
of our Life-Bestowing Earth.

Our Life-Sustaining Sun,
our entire Solar Village,
is moving through
the Dark-Enigma of Deep Space
at 448,000 miles per hour.

The Milky Way itself,
in which we are all nested,
moves through the dark
at 1.3 million miles per hour.

Everything 
in the Cosmos 
is in motion.

Stars.
Breath.
Waves.
Bloodstream.
Mind.

As you can see, 
this makes all of us
Travelers.

Some are oblivious 
to the movement
and the interconnectivity.

Some choose to numb out
under the weight
of this velocity.

Others are aware
and track the vast patterns and undulations
in the form of hexagrams.

Others have fully befriended the vastness,
surrendered to a life of riding on a dragon's back.

Some spend vast reservoirs of life-force
and endless cyclical thought
convincing themselves 
of their unworthiness to be here.

The Spinning Dragon Mother whispers:
"You, child, are one of my own."

image: “Star Night Sky Ravine” / Mark Basarab

© 2026 / Frank Inzan Owen / The Luminous Procession: Poems From Within and Beyond the World of Red Dust

soundworld: “In the Garden” / Entering Elysium / Steve Roach - Serena Gabriel

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