Evocative

"My view of poetry is the description
of a thought evoking a mystery."
--Magritte

So beautifully
thought, so beautifully

said, so beautifully
evoked, a mystery

mystery's taken away.

(from The Intricate Evasions of As)

Temporal

tintinnabulation

of
sheep

bells
flock
below

open
window

herds
songs
through
tempo

airily

(from The Intricate Evasions of As)

(De)crypt(ed)

Who will calculate for us the cost of our decision to forget?
--George Seferis

Of those departed
and of their deeds

(most haunting,
most memorable)

naught was left

(undeciphered,
unforgettable)

to remember.

Thomas Alva Edison, 1949

I knew who Thomas Alva was by heart;
he was always twenty-five, suspended

over my bed like a bat, though
he was really a light bulb.

Thomas must have flickered and died
about twenty-five times before Momma said

she'd had enough: I'd go blind reading
comics in that bad light. She was right,

besides, it was cheaper,
so she burned them all one night.

.

Thomas Alva, wherever you are,
you helped me with the English I know,

it was all Greek to me, though
you never knew it--

I hope you're resting
yours truly, your enlightened

incandescent soul.

(First published in Maverick Magazine 6/7)

Saturation Point

radio

active


bee

sieging


deci-

mated


hearth.

(first published in NOON: journal of the short poem, #2)

Confluence

Nightingales near
the river.

No superfluous noise.

(from The Intricate Evasions of As)

Prehensile

Grasping, but not man-
Handling the language,

As if the poem were,
So to speak, a glass

Mandible.

(First published in Poetry Salzburg Review #11, Spring 2007)