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Music of the Spheres

In the beginning there was no beginning;no no; no was; no in; no there— nothing that was, was, and all that wasn’t, inconceivable, and there was no one and nothing, and anything, to care: until such time—in due course—creation had begun So Mozart ages hence . . . . Continue Reading »

Simple Anna

Simple Anna liked the words although she didn’t understand what many of them meant. Her man sometimes could make them into worlds where forests shaded green young girls. The girls were always what she was when what she was was what she dreamed. By herself she never dreamed, not any . . . . Continue Reading »

Choice Trees

In primal garden the tree stands laden, splendor consummate, grace-rooted, owned by him who warns, don’t eat or sure you’ll die. Yet you, arrogant Adam in us all, grasp prerogativesnever due. Thrust out, bedeviled, you stumble . . . . Continue Reading »

Man in a Glacier

The mountainside failed. But when  we saw that deep spot the dead sun  came back heavy as an engine  and my pick rattled like a gun. The ice unravelled; we peeled it from  his toothy face, glittering brown,  a woody rubber round his mind,  the Bronze Age still stuck to . . . . Continue Reading »

Apology to Starlings

Starlings may mean more than we supposed,Their ugliness but a guiseHiding beauties too deep to probe.Look how they adorn the barren oak,Mimicking so many black and restless leaves,Remnants, making what to them is musicAgainst a sky whose blue is nearly white,This winter day as still as God’s own . . . . Continue Reading »

The Grand Canyon

From the eastern rim Jorgé throws a rockinto the deep and we hear nothing in return.An American lady says as she walks awaythat it’s a nice place to visit and her voicetrails off. And “breathtaking” sayssomeone else we’ll never get to . . . . Continue Reading »

La Belle Tontina

For Nicola I send fond wishes to a horse named TontoAnd you, sweet Nicola, who once was wont toCross a busy London thoroughfareTo ride about the Common on this mare.But there’s another matter that’s still pending,And that’s her boyish name you keep defending. A change to something like La . . . . Continue Reading »

Sacrifice

This slender stem—the wax-imprisonedsoulof candle’s being—Ignited,starts theslowdescenttoward death;Convertingits encasing fleshto molten dropsthat hanglike tears upon a cheek,the painful priceofmaking lifemoreluminous.Until—substance spent,cylindrical shell dissolved—it . . . . Continue Reading »

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