Seeing North Light

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Pickled Fœtus in the Museum

in the silence of the exhibits

a deeper silence as deep as the silence of

stone jars

a face a curiously confused face

with eyes primate eyes

limbs entwined

flesh

fluid

silence

entombed

in a glass jar

words in the mirror

evol

hollow the knock of stone jars

absent ashes that filled them

diminutive interruptions of silence

diminishing chords

star dust

lament

as a sigh

EVOL

a star map

moons of Jupiter

systems of planets

& a wandering star

lonely isolated

a soul

apart

with primate eyes

eyes of a seer

an earlier version published in Wolfprints

Workshop Poets Series 1971

London, UK.

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Satyr

Satyr sore from neck to shin bent with age

bare among bushes off the path in long grass

uncaged scratching first arse then bearded chin

trying to remember where he's going

lost in reverence of female beauty

ardent women afire with passion

from a compassionate past he's reviewing

naked on a river bank lost in thought

swallows swooping over the river

ticks leaping from leaves into his unkempt hair

sharp edged grasses scratching his lanky legs

a satyr stiffened at a nymph's approach

going back in time through his lusty life

a raven deriding him raucous crows

ENVOI

a tired nurse from the rest home not a nymph

with the clothes he left behind in his room

coming to take him wash him and bathe him

much to that agéd old poet's chagrin

Saturday, January 3, 2015

A Library Mouse

for Eileen Myles

an earnest mouse emerges

from a library wall

quickly four footed

funny to the eye

a mouse begging a blunt hand

for smaller morsels

bewhiskered critics

mice consume literature

seldom understood

Monday, December 22, 2014

Song of the Children’s Feet

Trudge – said left foot to its partner Boot

trudge trudge – Boot replied

slippery slide down the slope they cried

tobogganing trundle up to the top of the hill

WHEE they go back down again

trudge – said right foot

trudge trudge – said left

glittery glide down the slope they cried

icy icy nice and icy trundle and trudge

Saturday, December 6, 2014

Aphrodite and Donnelly

Aphrodite came softly through the rose petals of a wedding

& finding the far gate found Donnelly sitting in the rain

her manner was veiled

in her eyes an expression of eyelashes

damp with concern

she came lightly through the wet fields

her silk scarf moistened by rain

only a soft rustle of leaves

faint imprints in the meadow

evidence of her passing

a piano accompaniment a conspiracy of violins

coming feminine through the fields

lighter than rose petals

lighter than rime

(she was wearing a cream raincoat

with brown buttons on it

belted tightly at the waist

her hair deep black

a royal blue scarf…)

Aphrodite held his tongue

Donnelly wondered Woody Allen style

whether to skip the dialogue

he came straight to the point

emboldened by her direct gaze

“Let’s not”

he tried to say

but she forbade him