Works

A mind is a ray of light running to the sea;
an arch of wood upon which birds rest.

Minds roam the ocean's crest, sit as antlers upon a beach,
watch eddies of water trap themselves in the sand.
...

You said happiness was a bird
- a hand extended
could bend its perch.
span the perfect wings.

I spoke of swallows.
lived off flies
ebbed when flying.
seldom came to rest.

And what of privileged things
mur & frankinscense
or sandlewood -
yes, teak, ambergris
or skies of indigo blue
- I cite these gifts,
caravans offered as treasure
Christopher Wren putting...

These eyes of dolls seem leaden stones
not canisters of the Faith
but cannon-balls engraved
in tome-like stares so much
waxen shapes, these dust cloths
& spidery webs.

Dolls with eyes stare...

If anatomy were a contact sport,
the stomach would be a football
'stomac, hammock
sagging . . . .
the container of riotous living
pried loose.

And the head -
a barrel of nails,...

A man weeps at your ankles,
climbs the stairs to peek-a-boo
panties, with finger clasps,
a Rapunzel lowering your hair,
the long-matted braids
a skilful weaver turns to gold.

An ivy forest in...

Blue walls were grottoes,
subterranean panels
for covert messages, the
occasional mot juste
squirrelled up thru paint & memory.

Something like guitar strings dangling
only you employed...

Mood food. In deep, deep water
without the thought of water bottom,
I thought of you.

Sous la peau rouge,
Chartreuse, I thought
of you.

Dans le cafe du paradis,
ile au emeraude....

Trillium breath, an ounce
of feathered growth unravels
in the cloves of the silent forest.
The rain is heavy with the stamp
of perfumed trees realizing
slight restraint on bursting seed.
...

A boat sits on the very shallows
of a lake
in egg-cup fashion,
a tea-cosy covering waves,
orchestrating the bob of colours
in white enamel blue
inverted water.
...

Malingering,
increase drift
of censure
infrared blotted one.


No noise, just
the splashing of the sea
endless, shrill
birds
gaping a way
into the night's chill.

In the old air
by his rocker,
a silent trapeze of thought
suspends an aging man.

Each movement as of the katydid
droning -
a monologue with the past;
a buzz escaping across...

How do you survive
in the mangrove swamps -
amid the twitchings of fetid water
& water lice thick as baby tears?

How, with all the wallow of thick muck...

1
A thick hole in the dark
from which
stars pour silver
as in pails
their runny divide
ink-strewn scalps
torn from the roof of the sky.

2
Padded footprints...

All the candles are passing out, one by one.
They have evaporated their brightness,
overpowered limpid cracks in their own flames, seized
the outpouring air with hesitant breath to brave...

There is a star near
the hinge of planets,
a barn under
a cow's lick of moon -
plausible people
moving thru an
airless universe.

Pay attention to the frond of lilac...

The thin, feathery blue
egg-shell curtains gently tossing,
the tin smile
of the roof armada
its metal armour flashing
to inch their shingle way
into escalade-escadrille formation...

The intense focus of light
but pointillism,
into this juncture bits of light
surround rough, inverted sky -
dawn is their message
unfurled about
the alumni apparatus
of incensed eyes...

Backwoods cabin, opera house
from the pines awash with stars,
skullduggery in place over spruce hills
dredged to open revolt
against invading plough -
where greenest leaves...

The trees
are forming hands
to cloak the sky
with pillow whispers,
until the soft equilibrium
behind laughing eyes
departs down the moon dark world.