let me orchestrate a pantomime

NUT-BRIDGE

Epileptic Dante struggling like a trapped ant

in his centaur-world

in medias res, Gould –

in RI, for example (not so pleasant).

& nothing gets better in Minneapolis

immediately, automatically

or even slowly, gradually

& verbiage without chasteness

is only noise, eh.  We all agree, eh?

IGNIS NATURA RENOVATUR INTEGRA

– fire renews nature as a

whole – spiritual telos of poetry...

So let me orchestrate a pantomime

rooted in that ancient flame

proceeding from a paradigm

of our immaculate Ariadne-dame;

the shoreline seething with desire

under a summer moon again,

& memory of lambent pain

(Ocean’s infinite suspire).

As when Hart’s Hobo settles down

at last... rolls on to sea

& stubborn ghost of MLK

becomes triform Medusa-Charon

only to deliver newborns (on

St. Christopher’s Day).

Naked Nut-bridge, say –

or eye-in-hand (almonds in Mendelssohn).

7.7.19

anyone know your knots?

SHADE-CANOE

The lowly starfish, neither fish

nor star.  Rather

fish out of water, or

spark from Ocean River.  Wish

upon which?  Empty choice, perhaps –

like this rickety cedar

gazebo door, spannered

over the void for mosquito apse

(fine Roman iron).  Door always open.

Natural Bridge – sublime,

like Jefferson’s government;

only supporting vault, for all men,

women, are created equal.

Contracted limestone

hieroglyph, whose one

whole marbleized body-spiral

corkscrewed like Nut – bolted

to high arch-campanile.

Mostly invisible.

An Arctic burg (igloo-solid).

The hollowness of raven-beak –

scars like tattoos for Cain;

Jonah from Spanish Main

become Columbian Mayflower (seek

& ye shall find Canonicus, O

jolly Roger).  Darkest

camera oscura (west

of black hole, near Tasmania)

                *

filled with simple cave-sketches –

a wave-curve with a graphene

heart-keep (anyone

know your knots?) nyet – catches

hermaphrodite french wombat stray

(whom-batt to you) – punished,

burnished bronze, banished

by Moi (Great Man Two Hernee)

for coming naked from the sea

right into Nineveh

(some Who-She-Whooshee

mania).  Like Mirror Lakes, see –

glass bifocals, in Mendelssohn.

Reflective retina

bent through Ravenna

or shade-canoe of rusted iron

in Ferrara (almond mandala)

whose double curve

lets light swerve,

portable & potable.  Some farfalla

redbird’s bedrest (or robin’s nest)

you carry like pemmican

for Father Hennepin;

some amphora from Galilee (the best)

floats into harbor on a buoy

bobbing with airy Ariel

corked in oak barrel –

Jonah ex machina, sailor’s ahoy.

6.28.17

facet of the grey sea

WOOF DAWN

Now vales of Maia give away

to peaks of June, plains

emerald after rains;

gold Ghana-threads of yesterday

(encircling Hermione,

her Perdita) are knotted

in one polyglot,

shade-silvered whisper-crown.

The dream-song of that melancholy

painter in the corner

(Henry Coroner,

or Richard Parking-Lot) might be

a facet of the grey sea’s matière –

portion of the human

globe (octagonalmond,

arched like Nut over the pearl-

sphere of the earth).  Hearth-sign

of futurity, through sleep

to an oasis – leaping

Minnehaha (Hobo river-mind).

Someone smiling in an acorn cap

shadows his Georgia garden.

Some apple-orchard man,

repairing limbs... his milky map

renews the face of day.  All things

woof dawn, old Prospero –

it happened long ago.

Her cartwheel (spun of gold bee-stings).

6.15.16