golden autumn of the codgers

CHASTE EQUALITY

A synthesis of reality

is the poet’s quarry –

the whole serene array

sweeping like wind over the sea.

Not that irritable reaching

after fact & reason

but a subtler conviction –

life’s laughing dolphin, breaching.

So lips’ continuum of air

sustains your sea-sounding,

reverberates in rounding

surf (os-scintillating there).

The light stems from another realm.

A gravity so dense

you’re pulled beyond sense

to transcend...  Owlish Athena’s helm

shines like an emerald acorn cap

out from that wilderness

of native lovingkindness

(Williams’ mayday just a maple tap).

The Ocean State is what we seek.

The Providence of Roger-

Seeker... golden codger

settled in his freedom, meek

and bold.  Like admirable Edward

Coke, who founded

justice vs. his confounded

king – a chaste equality (rood-hoard).

11.1.18

those double doors

DEEP RESCUE

Those double doors of the Baptistery

in Florence, where Alighieri

was restrained from returning.  He

might have admired the mastery

of Lorenzo Ghiberti – that golden river

of perfection, surging from

Eden to Gesthemani... some

inscrutable summa of Prime Mover

spoked in parables of heartbreak

& confusion (Miriam, lifting

both hands in agony).  So bring

what you have to a blindman’s break-

fast, to her Thanksgiving feast.

From the belly of a whale

came Jonah – whole & hale

as dolphin-breach (O swift grey beast)!

The linèd forehead of Leviathan

is like your own... therefore

be not dismayed.  Footsore

mule, flinty thin Prophet Stan,

your Livingstone (still at the Nile)

holds firm against the flow

of time – your steadfast glow

upon the brow of them who show.  Smile,

Indigo!  Passage to more than blue!

– these equilibria

of gyroscape... mute

mutualità, below the soil... deep rescue!

5.16.18

Maximus at Colchis

OUR SCENE

Late August light & humid air

through the antique slats

of gazebo, & mosquito

nets.  Ariel’s almost not there,

booky Prospero.  Miranda’s

playing chess, with Gene

& Giacomo – our scene

closes on island claritas

& calm.  Full fathom five, the song

takes hold... the anchor

swims into obscurer

depths.  Remote bronze sea-bells bong.

Those are pearls that were his eyes

treasure-chest of Solomon

impregnable soul of W-man

(– Maggie’s, Martin’s, JFK’s)

Black Elk’s airy diamond

Roger’s pole star

Edward Coke’s (Sir)

liberties & rights, crowned

offshore, in the harbor now.

Maximus at Colchis

wore the golden fleece

of his theoria : articulate prow

or figurehead, the cosmic union

unconfused – not-

separated-knot

of Christos-Nazir (breaching dolphin).

8.29.16

Limestone Medusa

DOUBLE-WE

Something inherent in the stone,

the milky, the snow-seasoned

Winnebago (Indian mound).

A pregnant plot, expectant zone...

one-stringèd salt-shanty, or tent

of tentative meeting.

Limestone Mediterranean

USA, moon-galloping... unspent

Ethiopian Edith (double-we).

String’s stretch-to-break

(real Rimini headache)

loops through Persephone-tragedy –

Tiresias whispering mother-wit

or pock-marked moon

keening her Dionysus-loon

(rive-marine beyond yon Key West

jetty).  If the Greeks could see...

but it’s not necessary.

Stout military

Perseus will refract the sea

into a trillion dolphin-heaps;

Poseidon’s jealousy

toss Cassiopeia

upside to her throne (for keeps).

The circle of the sea (deep Circe)

revolves round Galilee –

Pygmalion will be

revived in thee, Pocahontas-B. 

10.6.15

may the circle be unbroken

Atlantic weather

HOME FREE

Set adrift down Providence streets,

blown along by chilly air,

this autumn Atlantic weather

in the Ocean State... gray cloud-fleets

follow birthday Hobo, his big-baby

muttering – a nonsense

tremolo from Jonah’s

whale-gut habitat (her kingdom’s maybe

someday).  Like Apollinaire slaloming

dolphin-rime atop a marble

door in Rimini, warbling

his trompette marine (something

about a Frisco treasure chest

in a hurricane eye) – or

Bluejay Slocum, Shaker

salt in pauper’s Dauphin-quest...

your sailor’s air, so fortunate

pipes down from the future

on Ariadne lure.

Hookline for deep sinker – bright

hand who flew from the poop deck

waving from waves his

palm-leaf radius

(JJ-pendant, octahedral speck).

Wisdom’s justified in all her children

plays out the line from high-

strung Miriam.  Sky milk-

train sounds – all home free then.

10.1.15

October periscope