Shelf
Portrait
a translated man considers
the ground aslant
its shifting registers
its halting measure
visiting exile, dreaming arrival
raw skies in a condition of fire
burning the heartwood
the ash circle
the phoenix nest
in a time of drought
the sea within the perforated map
at the point of parallel lines
the name of this intersection
in the ocean liner’s wake
like the rains come down to
a curious shipwreck in no man’s land
savage survivals at the littoral
a chrysalis in the desert
allotments by the north sea
snake train incognitum in a mist
the language creatures hold momentum
there are words beneath the internal
rhyme of rime & endtimes
the voice thrower & the visitor’s guest
talk like galileo, florentino & the devil
it is the logic of the stairwell
a manner of utterance
designed to fade under balkan light
the body in space tripping daylight
by a backward turning sea
salt on the eye the seventh gesture
of equilibrium’s form beyond the fire
something in the air &
no back door for the living –
let’s not call it consequence
the recreation of night
back of a vast gestaltbunker
inside to outside
comparisons, conversions
lyrical diagrams printed on water
so here we are, unbelievers
at maimonides table
in the lower reaches
with only kneeling room
& no film in the camera
it is memory’s morning
the memory of the drift
the landscape of a dream
dreams of the caucasus
with boccaccio in florence
the man who spoke to owls
seahorses, otters & martens
has the clockwork gift
threads of iron in five eyes
but it’s not the full story
forest music, madrigals
in the ash range, crab & winkle
black seeds on a white dish
did you hear about the fighting cat
on your big american trip?
berlin stalker bursts the bloods
through hoodoo-voodoo
on w. sunset boulevard (11781)
where the writing occurs as song
elsewhere or thereabouts
as luck would have it
the time we turned
onto tokaido road, the road north
meaning to go to the origin in some way
we entered a landscape with light
the mute departures for a neon tryst
in the dustbowl bottomland
continental drift
at the radio mast horizon
picks up northern soul, little white bull
an easily bewildered child
in possession of loss
takes uncertain measures
gives forest its next portent
listening to silence
different kinds of music
reassembling still news from afar
reading halse for hazel
mouthing prayers for the dead
openings in the told world
an obsequy for lost things, solitudes
arrivals & departures in a model city
buried music bounding with discords
eidolons pine to sound a rampant inertia
the dance at mociu – several dances
outside the institution
the lovemakers with optic verve
go after paradise – spring
in the ruined city is paradise for everyone
with no public language
the limits of maelstrom origami
relative strangeness of the waving gallery
the bass accompaniment
panic cure light source gestation
landing rights my resignation
migrations to views of the hudson
in hope of belonging
a diorama with fleeing figures
kinetic on ruins & return –
I am not from here
snow is falling, has settled on alstonefield
encouraging signs shift perception
through lines of sight
ascension notes textual possessions
when you said no, did you mean never?
we were three reds divining for starters
root inventory of handmade equations
in a pauper estate at a stretch –
stretch of closures, an infinite difference
as if only partly in riga
took necessary steps on thin ice
through the marble orchard
the returning sky of the third shore
the look of goodbye in hotel shadow
a vanished hand, a stone dog
hearing still the cut pages
of this songbook, palavers, hoard
the small history of her various scalpels
makers of empty dreams hazard or fall
on the governing of empires – couldn’t you?
look! we have come through!
false memory only more so
the day’s final balance
an experiment in navigation
to be continued
a translated man considers
the ground aslant
its shifting registers
its halting measure
visiting exile, dreaming arrival
raw skies in a condition of fire
burning the heartwood
the ash circle
the phoenix nest
in a time of drought
the sea within the perforated map
at the point of parallel lines
the name of this intersection
in the ocean liner’s wake
like the rains come down to
a curious shipwreck in no man’s land
savage survivals at the littoral
a chrysalis in the desert
allotments by the north sea
snake train incognitum in a mist
the language creatures hold momentum
there are words beneath the internal
rhyme of rime & endtimes
the voice thrower & the visitor’s guest
talk like galileo, florentino & the devil
it is the logic of the stairwell
a manner of utterance
designed to fade under balkan light
the body in space tripping daylight
by a backward turning sea
salt on the eye the seventh gesture
of equilibrium’s form beyond the fire
something in the air &
no back door for the living –
let’s not call it consequence
the recreation of night
back of a vast gestaltbunker
inside to outside
comparisons, conversions
lyrical diagrams printed on water
so here we are, unbelievers
at maimonides table
in the lower reaches
with only kneeling room
& no film in the camera
it is memory’s morning
the memory of the drift
the landscape of a dream
dreams of the caucasus
with boccaccio in florence
the man who spoke to owls
seahorses, otters & martens
has the clockwork gift
threads of iron in five eyes
but it’s not the full story
forest music, madrigals
in the ash range, crab & winkle
black seeds on a white dish
did you hear about the fighting cat
on your big american trip?
berlin stalker bursts the bloods
through hoodoo-voodoo
on w. sunset boulevard (11781)
where the writing occurs as song
elsewhere or thereabouts
as luck would have it
the time we turned
onto tokaido road, the road north
meaning to go to the origin in some way
we entered a landscape with light
the mute departures for a neon tryst
in the dustbowl bottomland
continental drift
at the radio mast horizon
picks up northern soul, little white bull
an easily bewildered child
in possession of loss
takes uncertain measures
gives forest its next portent
listening to silence
different kinds of music
reassembling still news from afar
reading halse for hazel
mouthing prayers for the dead
openings in the told world
an obsequy for lost things, solitudes
arrivals & departures in a model city
buried music bounding with discords
eidolons pine to sound a rampant inertia
the dance at mociu – several dances
outside the institution
the lovemakers with optic verve
go after paradise – spring
in the ruined city is paradise for everyone
with no public language
the limits of maelstrom origami
relative strangeness of the waving gallery
the bass accompaniment
panic cure light source gestation
landing rights my resignation
migrations to views of the hudson
in hope of belonging
a diorama with fleeing figures
kinetic on ruins & return –
I am not from here
snow is falling, has settled on alstonefield
encouraging signs shift perception
through lines of sight
ascension notes textual possessions
when you said no, did you mean never?
we were three reds divining for starters
root inventory of handmade equations
in a pauper estate at a stretch –
stretch of closures, an infinite difference
as if only partly in riga
took necessary steps on thin ice
through the marble orchard
the returning sky of the third shore
the look of goodbye in hotel shadow
a vanished hand, a stone dog
hearing still the cut pages
of this songbook, palavers, hoard
the small history of her various scalpels
makers of empty dreams hazard or fall
on the governing of empires – couldn’t you?
look! we have come through!
false memory only more so
the day’s final balance
an experiment in navigation
to be continued