surprise
SURPRISE
It
was a perfect night for snowdust. / The silver of
the moon altered /all living and concocted things. /
You felt the yearning of the world / to be just one,
uniform, / the object of a principle, / a
cancellation of surprise.
With morning
came the warmth of the sun. / The domination of
snowdust ceased. / Species and genera regained /
their disarray in brilliancy. / This holly had its
bevy of blue jays; / that maple had its huddling
sparrows. / The moment to come you
could not guess.
Surprise Thoughts Dazzle Coming Out Augenblick Vulcan
From the
Many Lives of a Hot Air Balloon
thoughts
THOUGHTS
Bodger
thought that thoughts toughened, / given enough time and
the heat / of enough passion from enough minds, /
burning, as always, for righteousness, / for
situating something stable, / anything, within the
mayhem, / against the fright of first sight.
But thoughts, Bodger further thought, / toughened to metal,
for all that, / lack certainty, never evade / the
assay of doubt: always the tower /
threatens to smirk that it stands on sand.
The doubt of thoughts, Bodger thought, / yields the thought that evades thought.
Surprise Thoughts Dazzle Coming Out Augenblick Vulcan
From
the Many Lives of a Hot Air Balloon
dazzle
DAZZLE
Black crows seemed to whirl in strange
designs that morning. It was winter
but some green shoots stuck through the
dead
leaves. And sunlight sharpened itself
against edges of the houses, as if
it were a cat's paw, preparing
for prey.
Life was winding down
for old Navitsky. His joints were barking
as he walked, and he bent his back.
Even he, however, had
a different look. Here he was,
quintessentially on the shelf,
letting his imagination
swoop toward a spring of keenest dazzle.
Surprise Thoughts Dazzle Coming Out Augenblick Vulcan
From the Many Lives of a
Hot Air Balloon
coming
COMING OUT
Reflection on a
newly announced gay man
"Truth to self"/ demands a price
/ so high that most / refuse to pay, / resigned to be
/ whatever else / might slantingly / for them
suffice.
The few who pay / receive their parcel, /
wrapped in white, / going on faith / that inside they
/ will find the wings / that proffer flight. / No returns.
Surprise Thoughts Dazzle Coming Out Augenblick Vulcan
From the
Many Lives of a Hot Air Balloon
augen
AUGENBLICK
A moment at the
Schuylkill
Two robins are drunk on March, / chasing
one another / in the ritual of renewing.
On the swell of the rising Schuylkill, /
mallards in pairs are floating / against the
freshening current, / dunking for mid-day food.
Canadian cold blankets / the entire
ancient valley, / but you feel a hint / that this
will be the last / before the spring prevails.
You watch four deer watch you / as you
move through barren trees. / You know it will be
harder / for you to spot them when / the branches
fill with leaves. / They bound when you toss a stick.
The woods are a sculpture garden: / fallen
trunks make forms / of intricate line and mass. / The
passage of countless seasons / has burnished
surfaces.
You say:
"I want it all
to stop / just as I see it now. / I want this frieze
to be / my final satisfaction."
And then:
"I want it all
to flow / forever, always coming, / ever
multiplying."
In the blink of an eye, / the garden and
the river meet / in your passageway to everything.
Surprise Thoughts Dazzle Coming Out Augenblick Vulcan
From the
Many Lives of a Hot Air Balloon
vulcan
VULCAN
There is never
enough imagination
to seize
the flux of fire
upon which breath depends.
The magma
defines its path to the waiting sea,
ignorant of
threshold and crucifix
that stand
between the burning edge and the shore.
Hungering to
make a land again,
it devours home
and the signs of eternity.
Here, it says,
the vulcanian start and end
precede all
human things and definitions.
Behold the
flowing redness that destroys
whatever it can
touch or take with heat.
There is never
enough imagination
to confirm
the certain start
that follows when all ends,
the breath that
rises on the flux of fire.
Surprise Thoughts Dazzle Coming Out Augenblick Vulcan
From the Many Lives of a
Hot Air Balloon
hot
FROM THE MANY
LIVES OF A HOT AIR BALLOON
I. Though it lacks the alacrity
of a cat, / it rivals, in rising and falling, / the
myth of feline multiples.
II. Its colored stripes grow
round / after lying flat on the ground, / touched by
a lot of hot air.
III. Floating in the company of
birds / is fine for a hot air balloon, / except in
duck hunting season.
IV. Heating means rising
sunward. / Cooling means floating earthward. / Water
below means--hazard!
V. From the ground the balloon
is a bauble. / From the air the ground is a toytown.
/ Comedy rides on hot air.
Surprise Thoughts Dazzle Coming Out Augenblick Vulcan
From the
Many Lives of a Hot Air Balloon
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