(another) Chalecedony, Chrysoprase, Lapis, Onyx

Chalecedony, chrysoprase, lapis, onyx:
the great bowl of the St. Lawrence
changes -- water in the net of its surface
is first deeper than twilight then softer
as the sky slides past it -- the air deep blue
and the water blue green and luminous.

Amethyst, serpentine, sapphire, sardonyx:
In the great vision, the gates of heaven are lined
in five and seven stones -- imagine the seer
struck down in the gold bowl of dessert,
the scorched sky flamed like heated copper.
Imagine the sleeper heated like copper, or
imagine that he woke to desert rain, to roses,
to vipers nestled in for warmth, and water
pooled beneath him like a shadow.
Imagine that he wrote tasting honey,
his feet wet, wild bees in mouth and pockets.

Carnelian, topaz, bloodstone, janith:
We live beside a world of strangeness,
the bee world of the blazoned roses.
Serpentine, emerald: its gates slide into us.
Jasper, jade: the morning stands translated .
In a dream I walk down stairs.
I wake, and walk down stairs.