David J affin

A World mapped-out
Charles Seliger (American, June 3, 1926 - October 1, 2009) passionately pursued an inner world of organic abstraction, celebrating the structural complexities of natural forms. Like many artists of his generation, Seliger was deeply influenced by the surrealists’ use of automatism, and throughout his career, he cultivated an eloquent and poetic style of abstraction that explored the dynamics of order and chaos animating the celestial, geographical, and biological realms. Attracted to the internal structures of plants, insects, and other natural objects, and inspired by a wide range of literature in natural history, biology, and physics, Seliger paid homage to nature’s infinite variety in his abstractions. His paintings have been described as “microscopic views of the natural world,” and although the characterization is appropriate, his abstractions do not directly imitate nature so much as suggest its intrinsic structures.
Born in New York City but raised in Jersey City, Seliger spent his teenage years making frequent trips back across the Hudson to Manhattan’s many museum and gallery exhibitions. Although he never completed high school or received formal art training, Seliger immersed himself in the history of art and experimented with different painting styles including pointillism, cubism, and surrealism. In 1943, he befriended Jimmy Ernst and was quickly drawn into the circle of avant-garde artists championed by Howard Putzel and Peggy Guggenheim. Two years later, at the age of nineteen, Seliger was included in Putzel’s groundbreaking exhibition A Problem for Critics at 67 Gallery, and he also had his first solo show at Guggenheim’s legendary gallery, Art of This Century. At this time, Seliger was the youngest artist exhibiting with members of the abstract expressionist movement, and he was only twenty years old when the Museum of Modern Art acquired his painting Natural History: Form within Rock (1946) for their permanent collection. In 1950, Seliger obtained representation from the prestigious Willard Gallery, owned by Marian Willard. He formed close friendships with several of her other artists, including Mark Tobey, Lyonel Feininger and Norman Lewis.
By 1949, Seliger had his first major museum exhibition, at the de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco. During his life time, he exhibited in over forty-five solo shows at prominent galleries in New York and abroad. In 1986, Seliger was given his first retrospective, at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, which now holds the largest collection of his work. His work is also represented in numerous museum collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York; the Wadsworth Athe- neum in Hartford, Connecticut; and the British Museum in London. In 2003, at age seventy-seven, Seliger received the Pollock-Krasner Foundation’s Lee Krasner Award in recognition of his long and illustrious career in the arts. In 2005, the Morgan Library and Museum acquired his journals - 148 hand-written volumes produced between 1952 and the present - making his introspective writing, which covers a vast range of topics across the span of six decades, accessible to art historians and scholars.
Seliger was best known for his meticulously detailed, small-scale abstractions as well as the techniques he invented and used to cover the surfaces of his Masonite panels - building up layers of acrylic paint, often sanding or scraping each layer to create texture, and then delineating the forms embedded in the layers of pigment with a fine brush or pen. This labor-intensive technique results in ethereal paintings that give expression to aspects of nature hidden from or invisible to the unaided eye. His talent and generous spirit will be missed.
Since 1990, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, has been the exclusive representative of Charles Seliger.
A World mapped-out
Poems
David Jaffin
www.shearsman.com
shearsman@macunlimited.net
Distributed for Shearsman Books in the U.S.A. by Small Press Distribution, 1341 Seventh Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94710 Email: orders@spdbooks.org Website: http://www.spdbooks.org
ISBN 978-1-84861-100-9 (Shearsman Books, UK)
Copyright January 2010
The right of David Jaffin to be identified as the author of his work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved.
Title picture:
Charles Seliger (1926—2009)
Byways (detail), 2004, acrylic on Masonite,
11” x 14”, signed
Credit Line: Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY
Printed in Germany 37689/2009
Contents
Mapped-out	11	Bellini	39	
After reading Shelley	12	For Rosemarie	40	
Prosed	13	Time-touching	40	
Body count	14	Andromache	41	
The wood	14	a) When passion	41	
His father	14	b) Andromache	41	
Authentic	15	c) Pathos	42	
Coming home	15	d) Love	42	
Left	15	e) Pylades	42	
Pit bull	16	J) When	43	
Bad Tolz I	16	Hiding	43	
Bad Tolz II	16	A lost image	43	
The Isar	17	German and Jew	44	
Dreamt	17	The free-light	44	
See-Saw	17	Babigjar	45	
Of lost souls	18	The church	45	
As yellow’s	19	The law	46	
Misplaced	19	Not even	46	
Celebrating	20	The voice after	47	
Off-set appeal	20	The pin	47	
Off balancing	21	Cloth	48	
To be true	21	These autumn	48	
The origin	21	Do leaves	48	
Frog-eye	22	Grass	49	
Drained out	22	The soft	49	
Minor moment	22	Soft-spoken	50	
Recalling	23	Quartet op. 80	50	
Unrelated	23	Two grand	51	
The darker level	24	On those adagios	51	
Focused	24	Duet	52	
His	25	The Max Planck	52	
The gende	25	Mute	53	
In tensing	26	“Unanswered question”	53	
Balloon	26	The end	54	
Dark rain	27	Illmensee	54	
For Rosemarie	27	Mendelssohn’s	55	
Self-evoking	28	A mild	55	
Each day	28	Compassioned	55	
Overheard	29	Time	56	
W. W.	29	The lithe	56	
Did Columbus	30	Too bright	57	
Poems from Herborn	30	A sense of silence	57	
a) Some need	30	One	58	
b)The calling’s	31	Rosemarie’s	58	
c) Standstill	31	The impeccable	59	
d) Clouds	32	When	59	
e) Narrow street 17	32	Half way	60	
j) Attic	33	For Lenore	60	
g) Fingering needs	33	She had her	61	
h) Abbreviating	34	Known	61	
i) Herbom	34	Sound-shadows	61	
Finding out	34	After-thoughts	62	
Snap shots	33	Charles	62	
The doubting Thomas	35	The doubting Thomas	63	
Rain-choked	36	Elegiac	63	
Adagio	36	Poems from Sosa	63	
Self-revelations	37	a) Autumn’s	63	
That medieval-becoming	37	b) Sosa’s	64	
Narrowly pathed	38	c) Olive tree's	64	
Threaded	38	d) Ei>ening bell	65	
Ivy’s	39	e) Flower	65	
Old town	39	j) Sunday morning	65	
g)		Pink
n)	That small Autumn Greb Statistic
y) For Rosemarie	93	
z) Schtniedeberg	94	
aa) Mapping out	94	
bb) Can time	95	
cc) A single	95	
dd) Michelangelesque	96	
ee) This bay	96	
ff) Graecian hills	97	
gg) Over-thoughts	97	
hh) Late autumn	98	
ii) Hen-pecked	98	
jj) Pets	99	
kk) Sense-renewed	99	
11) Buried-to-life	100	
mm) Awakened	100	
nn) A.	101	
oo) Understanding	101	
pp Costumed (Alena age 8)	102	
qq) Shadowings	102	
rr) Aron	102	
ss) Self in-becoming	103	
tt) Wind-involved	103	
uu) Palm shadows	104	
w) These	104	
ww) Blood-ties	104	
xx) Sound-awakenings	105	
yy) Two faced	105	
zz) She	106	
aaa) Railing’s	106	
bbb) Pained	106	
ccc) Close-cascading	107	
ddd) Responsed	107	
eee) Roomed out	108	
Melitta S.	108	
Secretly concealing	109	
The pianist	110	
Sonata op 27.1	110	
That oriental girl	111	
Mowed-down	112	
High-phrasings	112	
The wrong road	113	
So far aboveness	113	
The 1st commandment	114	
Interchangeable	115	
Processional	115	
A graveyard	116	
Beggar	116	
Impersoning smiles	117	
Didl-downed	118	
Full-stopped	118	
Beethoven’s 2nd	119	
The flayed ox	119	
Creation-near	119	
Prayed	120	
Berwald	120	
Bach Partita 6	121	
Linear thoughts	121	
Scarsdale’s	121	
Of shadow	122	
Age	123	
Berwald	123	
A strange	124	
felling the	124	
Sermoned A. M.	125	
2 Rooms	125	
Self-findings	126	
That silhouetting “It wasn’t him”
Fight
Celan’s
Where
Questioning
Of lost identity
Aunt Gertie
First wintered day
Heron’s
Lone boat
Of no where out
Pain-spot
Walls
A little
R. D.
That down-earth 3 half-sensed persons
a)		Paul’s
b)		She
c)		He
Dark autumn
The dark
Cobble
Chagall
Cold rain
This grey
Leafless
Asphalt
Last autumn
A la Hopper
Reception
Twice told
The dead
Greek Islands
These trees
Pains poems Crete ’09
a)		Wheel-chaired
b)		Larry Eigtier
c)		Intensitiy-glour
d)		Serenity-feels
e)		An isolated island
f)		As Abraham
f) Callings ) Out-cultured
i)		When
j)	Image-making
k)	Closing
l)		"Call me"
m)If
n)	Darkness
o)	Light
p)	Writing
q)	Ambiguities are
r)	Dr. A.
s)	Short-line
t)	Self-reclaiming
u)	Fresh thirst
v)		Dark days
w)	Name-dropping
x)		After
Off-mapped	126	The great divide	157	
Room	127	Walk-on	158	
Israel in Egypt	127	As the blind	159	
a) That God	127	Those hospital	159	
b) Frogs	128	Animalled	160	
c) A darkness	128	a) The mind of	160	
Eye-attuning	129	b Fish	160	
That more	129	c) The giraff	161	
Hollywood-type	130	d) After Henri Rousseau	161	
Before	130	e) The giant	161	
November	130	f) The snake	162	
Clouding-up	131	g) The burly	162	
Hospitalled	131	h) The seal’s	162	
The inside	132	i) The frog	163	
2nd rate	132	j) The red fox	163	
Flash-image	132	Shore-instincts	164	
Sleep	133	Down moved	164	
Arisen	133	Even if	165	
Surgeon	133	Homelessly	165	
A no-talk-back	134	Pre-timed	166	
Reclothed	134	Mapped	166	
He brought them forth	135	Sacred	167	
Fascism	136	An eerie	168	
That lone wait for Chung	136	Wheel-chaired	168	
Low tides for Ingo and Hanni	137	Sibelius’ world	169	
Forgiveness	137	Footstep	169	
Inner monologues	138	The carpets	170	
Cloud-moving	138	Naked 1 came	170	
Guilty	139	In these hospitals	171	
Talk-rime	139	On Psalm 73	171	
Thunder	140	For Rosemarie	172	
Proud beauty	140	He	172	
Abbreviations	141	First snow	173	
For Rosemarie	141	The evil one	173	
After Manet	142	The day	173	
Same routes?	142	Mongolid	174	
The faU	143	Snow-clouds	175	
Lost hold	143	4 German poets	175	
Surgeon	144	a) Else Lasker-Schiiler	175	
Too poor	144	b) Heine/Eichendoiff	175	
Proverbs	145	c) The other’s	176	
Birch	145	d) Hofmannsthal	176	
Napolean’s	146	Moonrise	177	
Unanswered question’s	146	The dead	177	
Poland	146	Time-flowing	177	
Clean slate	147	“Verlust der Mitte”	178	
The lake	148	When	178	
The left behind	148	Galuppi’s	179	
Tears	149	She	179	
On crutches	149	Been there before	180	
Time	150	Flaked-like	180	
Imaged	150	The snowman	181	
a) Some statue	150	Tracks	181	
b) Kafka’s	151	Human nature	182	
c) How often	151	Through the looking glass	182	
The pioneers	151	The church	183	
Advent	152	Wittenhofen	183	
The guilt	152	Winter-dark	184	
Both fronts	153	The thaw	184	
Time-sourced	153	Marked off	184	
Off and running	154	A la Magritte	185	
A lamp	154	a) Winter fog I	185	
The AJways-Jew	155	b) Winter fog II	186	
The fear	155	The lake	186	
There came a new king	156	December 25	187	
Self-creating	156	The scream	187	

Describing Pale winter
Cathedrale de la Resurrection
He talked
Four and a half
The most of
The calling
For safe-keeping
Chagall
Snap-shot
Home
Bellini’s
Tourists
New Years Eve
Can snow
She felt
Self-assuming
The village
Georgia O’Keefe’s
A piano
Ugly hand
Wronged
Double-sensed
Full-sized
The older
Aloned
King David
Drift
Cut free
Palm tree’s
Overwhelmed
Endangered
A cloud
How do
Theirs
A Jane Austen type
Those
Incomings
Touch-stones
Ulysees returned
Lost
The psalmist’s
The light
Flower
Sub-freeze
Afterglow
Warren’s
A safety
Unanswered
The feel of
Thy will be
Taking each
Self-effacing
Hedges
Morning
Giving in
Worst enemy
Dolled
Renewals
Wave-timing
Walls
Closeness
illuminating
Klimt’s
Berrie’s
Haiti’s
Owl-night	216	
The parrot	216	
For Rosemarie	217	
Pale sand	217	
Dead fish	218	
Of no return	218	
A sorrow	219	
Character study	219	
Haiti	219	
a) Voodoo’s	219	
b) Cain	220	
c) Why then	220	
Revealing	221	
Sit-down chair	221	
Masked	222	
Dog-racing	222	
Classically	223	
The palm	223	
Desert	223	
Side	224	
Dead fish	224	
Dialogued	225	
Of sound-touch	225	
Follower	225	
Over-stated	226	
Virgin	226	
Holding back	227	
Focused	227	
Reflect	227	
Just right	228	
Returned	228	
Half-confessional poetry	229	
No way out	229	
Are	230	
Repeating	230	
2nd commandment	231	
Her fear	231	
Rosemarie’s	231	
Windowing	232	
Barnacled	232	
Aware d	233	
4 Poets	233	
a) For Richard Wilbur	233	
b) Elizabeth Bishop’s	234	
c) E. E. Cumming’s	234	
d) Blake	234	
Autistic	235	
Twerns	235	
Color	235	
Unseen	236	
When	236	
Read wrong	236	
Emily D.	237	
Sick	237	
A tidy	238	
A long	238	
Back doors	238	
6 Times imaged	239	
a) Emma	239	
b) That passah	239	
c) Ulysees	240	
d) When	240	
e) Bald eagles	241	
f) King Manasse	241	
Focused	242	
Remembered	242	

Time-excluding	242	Don Carlos	273	
Haydn	243	a) Posa	273	
Deep-down feelings	243	b) Why Don Carlos?	273	
Eye-directioning	244	c) Father/son	274	
There	244	d) Love	274	
Saturday	245	e) dated?	275	
Kiss of death	245	Coloring exposures	275	
Art’s	246	Moon-touched scent	275	
Rive red down	246	Of transcending dreams	276	
Birth-waves	247	It “daw'ned on him”	276	
Softening	247	Time-realeasing	276	
The few	248	Dark bells	277	
Stop	248	Instinctive needs	277	
Undone	249	Chmelnik	278	
Insinuating	249	A fear	278	
That house	250	Statued	279	
Joseph’s robe	250	Spohr’s	279	
Oboe quartet	251	For Rosemarie	280	
Orpheus	251	Niced	280	
Faceless	252	K. 590	280	
Ode a Gluck	252	Horses	281	
One of theirs	253	Mute	282	
For Rosemarie	253	Adrift	282	
Uneasing	254	After-timed	283	
She	254	Smoke	283	
He	255	Umbrellaed	283	
Lifeless from voice	255	Star-sensing	284	
Nightmare’s	256	A loner	284	
No better than	256	Checkered	284	
The flute’s	256	Quiedy voiced	285	
Snapshots	257	The church	285	
The ancient turde	257	Karlsbad	285	
Of what it wasn’t	257	Wild geese	286	
So multicolored	258	Hovering spaciously	286	
A bottomless well	258	The pause	287	
Esther	259	Side-sensed	287	
Rats	259	Grandhotel Popp (Karlsbad)	288	
Thereabouts	260	Moon-shadows	288	
Cloud-transforming	260	Dusk’s	289	
In the air	261	A gaiety	289	
Intelling	261	Bric-a-brac	290	
Cold-time	261	That fear for loss	290	
Pale blue	262	Painted over	291	
Late winter snow'	262	That old Roman road	291	
After Breughel	263	Dialogued for Charles	292	
On Good Friday	263	At the hair dryers	292	
Awakenings	264	These quiet rhythms	293	
Illmensee	264	Those longing snow depths	293	
For Michael	265	Rooster	294	
But it wasn’t	265	So faindy reminding	294	
Her room	266	The date	294	
Realizing	266	Of heard darknesses	295	
Closing churches	267	Listening aloud	296	
Snowcat	267	Iced over	296	
Programmed	268	What’s unsaid’s	297	
Pavane	268	Quiet resolve	297	
The new synagogue in Munich	269	Red brick	297	
a) lined with	269	And Theodor Fontane	298	
b) Jewish life	269	Dark moon-night	298	
c) Thousands	270	1938	299	
d) Auschwitz	270	Our answers	299	
e) l	270	Of stuffed animals	300	
f) Israel	271	I see him	300	
Timeless	272	Annunciation	301	
Dull days	272	The line	301	
High above	273	Archduke Trio I	302	

Archduke Trio II	302
Trio Op. 100	303
Moon-cloud	303
Rock-tensed	303
For Rosemarie	304
Of tenderly forgetfulness	304
A cold	305
Confined	305
September song	306
As Lot	306
Reading him	307
Paintings in the New Pinakothek 307
a)		Woman ironing	307
b)		Henri Rouart and Son	308
c)		Landscape in Martinique	308
d)		Portrait of Frau Gedon	308
e)		The Weaver	309
J) Plucked turkey	309
g)		Young woman sewing by lamplight 309
h)		The visit of the sovereign	310
i)		Marquesa Cabellero	310
j)		Portra it of Lady	310
k)		Fir trees in snow	311
l)		After the Storm	311
m)		View of Dedham Vale from
East Bergholt	311
n)		Convent school outing	312
o)		4 Breton woman	312
Luncheon in the studio	312
Impressioned	313
The law	313
The last of snow	314
Raven	314
Mouse-minded	315
Cliche	315
Involving	315
Light-glancing	316
Aging actor	316
Macke’s world	317
Mute	317
Thanksgiving	318
She	318
1 Kings 3:16-28	319
These woods	319
Friedrich Ebert	320
Ode a Eichendorff	320
The meek and humble	321
In memory M. B.	321
“Dinosaurs”	322
Let the snow	322
At the end	323
Little dotted flower	323
Stately	324
Cactus flowered	324
The poet’s	325
She	325
His master’s voice	325
Vaughan William’s	326
Andras Schiff s	326
Painted over	327
Overreaching	327
Overcame	328
F Minor Variations	328
Night-loom	329
Waiting	329
Underlooked	330
More sensed ...	330	
Michael	331	
Truer	331	
Dark snow	332	
Birches	332	
The way	333	
Sundown	333	
Time-receding	334	
City	334	
Whisperings	334	
Poised	335	
Of no return	335	
Bottomed out	336	
Close to life	336	
A library for Leroy	337	
At First hand	337	
Musical virtuosity’s	338	
Taneyev	338	
Songed	339	
Polar bear’s	339	
Gendeness	340	
Smoke	340	
Raped	340	
Moving	341	
Language
Anouilh’s Antigone	341	
	342	
a) Creon’s	342	
b) Creon	342	
c)		Antigone
d)		Anouilh’s	342	
	343	
e) King David	343	
f) Has Creon	344	
g) Anouilh’s “He’s gone”	344	
	345	
Prescribing route	345	
Instead	346	
Hide and seek’s	346	
Schiitze’s I	347	
Schiitze’s II	347	
Corelli’s	348	
Turnabout smile	348	
When to stop	349	
Adagio	349	
Drab day	350	
Of dreamless imaginings	350	
Why did Stravinsky	351	
An illusion	351	
The more	352	
Ringwald	352	
At the bottom	353	
Oedipus at Colonnus	353	
a) between	353	
Oedipus	354	
b) blind to the	354	
c) Oedipus	354	
d) Sophocles ’	354	
Wooded-horizons	356	
Ofjesus’ birth I’m dreaming	356	
	356	
No answers left	357	
He survived	358	
Aloned	358	
Felix	359	
Winter out-fitted	359	

Mapped-out
When his
whole world had been fully
mapped-out the mountain
sources and the levell
ed terrain The fine-feel
of wild flow ers so dis
tinctly co lored and those
night-appear ing animal-
eyes voiced from fear
When he human ed that world
with mostly self-subdu
ing person s and center
ed the love of his life
to where she’ d always re
main of the nothing more
to be said than saying
it now alway s more so.
After reading Shelley
for a last
ing moment so small I
felt (this lesser voice
of mine) torrented
by such stream s of light
and still try ing to hold
fast to the cooling pre
conceived touch of a
single can die in a
room famil iar and yet
vacantly
self-enclos
ing.
Prosed
We’ve pros
ed this lang uage down to
a flat-bare ness Few sign
s of beauty left only the
natural ones that lend our
eyes for short-imaged
phrasing
landscape
s of those still possibly
untouched si lences that
may hold us well for un
known time s to come.
Body count
imperson
ally touch ed and number
ed to what’ s nameless
ly human.
The wood
s in their
depth-seclud ing darkness
souled his no- way-of-gett
ing-out from.
His father
only his
but when the bottle
drowned his person in to
a father less void
from self.
Authentic
only when
all chat we’ ve learned
to say and think’s detail
ing a way out.
Coming home
to where no
one’s left to be calling
it that empti ness homed
from its time less being.
Left
disappear
ed with only those track
less thought s of his
reaching far behind.
Pit bull
as some I’
ve known false-eyed
faceless ly exposed
to a mali cious unre
pen ting bloodstreaming.
Bad Tolz I
pretend
ing a time that once
may have been too prett
ily nice for true.
Bad Tolz II
s’ endear
ing facade s as sweet
as sugarcane smiles.
The Isar
running
shallow- stones per
petuating
light-shin
ing breez es.
Dreamt
He dreamt
that he could n’t anymore
speechless in a room
of empty ing chair
s.
See-Saw
She
lived so
high as she came down low
the see-saw that couldn’t
find in-be tween
nesses.
Of lost souls
Poor Uncle
Irving so good and kind
thought fill ofo
thers but with a numbed weak
ness at the heart of
where a forti fied streng
th wouldn’t have left him
with such a dy nasty of lost
souls.
As yellow’
s the color
of sting her interned smile
wrinkled from its intimate
exposures fa ding to an
aftermath of its fail
ing light.
Misplaced
She mis
placed his mood like co
lors that don’t match
because they may once
have seem ed related to
each other.
Celebrating
The garden’
s intricate coloring
s as tonal ities of time-
length-flow ing through
his mind com posed for cele
brating
thought
s.
Off-set appeal
It may have
been that offset appeal
that kept her eyes from fo
cusing be yond simply
chanced ap pearance
s.
Off-balancing
Speak
ing quicker than one can
think off- balanc
ing mid-air without ad
equate land ing-right
s.
“To be true
to oneself’ as if by self-
creating its unknown
source.
The origin
s of color when an un
seen bird voices
through the dark of
its prime val wood
s.
Frog-eye
s glass
ed her pond- perspect
ives in to low-pitch
ed hollow nesses.
Drained out
The rains
have drain ed all the
colors out of these un
timely word s.
Minor moment
s as when
a stone holding your
hands in to its coolness
for light.
Recalling
times that
have left one vacant
ly aware as the after
sounds of sand-step
ped impress ions.
Unrelat
ed image
s that pass as from a
train’s near ing itself
distant ly track
ed.
The darker level
It’s only
on the dark er level
deeper down than those
brightness es of mind
could recall words flow
ing in to the winds of
dream-eclip sing sadness
Focused
Her eye
s focused on the un
realizing touch ofjew
elled awaken ings.
His
scar-disturb
ing face lessly mark
ed-through with more
than those weather
mg times could be re
calling.
The gentle
fingers
of a tiny unknown child
softly re telling my
own why warm th can remain
so faint ly realiz
ing.
Intern
ing shadow
s as the palm of a
hand reluct antly clos
ing time with in its tenu
ous grasp.
Balloon
s bright
ly color ed for a van
ishing view of these child
ren’s sky- awaken
ing.
Dark rain
s bring
ing me down to the some
wheres of their lost-
from empti nesses.
For Rosemarie
In the blue
of this soft day’s inward
reflect ions your
mild-touch ing eyes
spaceless ly unfind
ing.
Self-evoking
It’s those
stilled mo ments as a
room becom ing the more
ofour be ing there
wordless ly self-e
yoking.
Each day
lives it
self out to the end of a
no-return like turn
ing the page s of a book
bound be yond its out
lasting
touch-sense.
Overheard
Birds (it
seems) often prefer the re
peating re frains of
the self- samed voice-
listen
ing.
w. w.
in the mid
st of a dir ection
less unpav ed road in
what was less than an
availing town stopp
ed me to the always-down
from my phar asaic self-
appealing
s.
Did Columbus
also discov
er that the flatness
of our self- availing
claims end only by round
ing out the full circle
of those se eluded end
ing’s beginn ings.
Poems from Herborn (Hessia)
a)		Some need
to be help lessly alon
ed bleed ing close to
where time’ s running
its slow-down cause.
b)		The calling’ (Caravaggio St. Matthew)
s a no-way-
out even space closing in
on his time lessly there.
c)		Standstill
A bird
(not quite as seldom-
colored as it should
have been) topping the
roof of my contemplat
ing its mo mentary still-
stand.
d)		Clouds
closing in
coalesc ing (or per
haps even concealing)
the where of their cel
estial shy ness.
e)		Narrow street 17 (Herborn)
the hang
man resided here noosed
to those most intimate
thought s that tight
ened-close around his
deadly grasp.
J) Attic-
down view
of where those house
s stopped thinking be
yond their lower-level
insights.
g)		Fingering needs (cemetery Cloister Amsburg)
In the back
yard of med ievally
cloister ed prayer
s the SS shot-resound
ing the last blood-cries
of their al ways-eager
finger ing need
s.
h)		Abbreviating
Street-pid
geon peck ing at se
eluded applerounding
his Caste Col umbus-abbrevi
a ting.
i)		Herborn
slate-grey
ed city snow- envision
ing a less er purity of
medieval con templation
Finding out (forHanni in Russia)
one’s fa
ther’s grave in a stone-
wilderness of imperson
al names.
Snap-shots
that tell
(neverthe less) more
than that moment of
there-be
ing.
The doubting Thomas (After Caravaggio)
flesh
ed out his moment of
faith
fully disbe
lieving what only e
yes hadn’t seen (but
then) even touch
ed.
Rain-choked
wood left
the impress ion of some
persons narr owed-down to
their warp ed framework.
Adagio
Haydn lets
spacing it self out
spaceless ly beyond
the where of its tonal
efficien
cy.
Self-revelations
Small flower
s ever-so- fine cluster
ed in spontan eous self-re
velation
s.
That medieval-becoming
I may be a
Christian now But in
that mediev al-becoming
Jew-awaken ing my ghetto-
feared shad owing corner
s beyond es cape.
Narrowly pathed
These small-
minded Christ ians self-pro
tecting narr owly pathed
from a world- creating
beauty'.
Threaded
The cat’
s unravell ing ball-of-
thread ed him in
to a play- past sense
of mind- touch.
Ivy’
s wall-clutch
ing growth a left-behind
appearance of its shadow
ing height s.
Old town
s that have
seen too much restor
ed to a pris tine nostal
gic pretti ness.
Bellini
(if only mo mentar
ily)
softened Diirer to that
smooth-recall ing poetry
ofVenetian
light-enchant
merits.
For Rosemarie
Modesty’
s one of those inffe
quent vir tues no imi
taring can re store to its
unblemish ing source.
Time-touching
Old lady
as thin as her canebearing time-touch
ing thought s.
Andromache (Racine)
a)		When pass
ion become s its own
person ally leav
ing the rest of us to but
a self-shadow ing self.
b)		Andromache
loved
to a dead past and
person ing the duty
of their still per
petuat ing claim
s.
c)		Pathos flam
ing out the sacrifici
al altar of uninhabit
ing self-ex pression.
d)		Love
and hate tension
ed to a one ness at
their self- dividing
center.
e)		Pylades
and his an
cient lover an encircl
ing chorus of what could
have been be cause it duly
wasn’t.
j)		When
the peace
of reconcil ing passion
s and people s still aflame
with the fire s of a time-
devour ing past.
Hiding
out a clos
eted fear of finding him
self closed- down-lost
from selfbeing.
A lost image
Her late-
blue dress and almost
secret ly confid
ing eye s as a lost
image of a time she
held slight ly close-
in repet itive step-
ons.
German andJew
a self-defin
ing symbiosis of alway
s on the outside.
light world
of Schubert’ s death-re leasing sad nesses.
Babigjar
a too expen
sive way of killing the
Jews pil ing them up
in to con science
less heap s.
The church
left their
Christ to those sealed-
off trains nameless
ly blood of our blood
and ash.
The law (commandments)
a wall high
er than its height could
measure their surround
ing needs for gett
ing out.
Not even
Uncle Julius
could humour his way back
steadying from the
loss of three sons and a
wife he buried with the
last flower of his know
ing how.
The voice after
I’m the voice
after The one who spoke out
their gasp ing for the
breath of a living si
lence.
she wore
intimate ly felt as
a flower touched
from its in revealing
scent.
Cloth
may sound
even less than the
touch of a moment’
s glance.
These au
tumn wind s color
ing the af ter thought
s of their not know
ing where.
Do leave
s sense
they’ve been touched
through death’s co
loring de ception
s.
Grass
hoppers in stinct
ively aware
of their clipped-off
grass-phras
ings.
The soft
ness ofrabb
it’s warm- fleshed
fur awaken ing the touch-
streams of those inclus
ive feel ings of our
s.
Soft-spok
en as he
was as if drawing us
in for a closer view
ofhands holding long
er than e ven his vast
ly seeking eyes could
want for tell ing.
Quartet op. 80 (Mendelssohn)
It was
only when you failed
When the pain of loss
cried out be yond those
self-enclos ing fine
ly sensed phrasing
s ofyour s.
Two grand
statues of
Wagner and Karl Marx self-
impressive ly overlook
ing a Germany sanctify
ing the wound s of a past
they bled down to its soul
less loss.
On those adagios (of Haydn)
Why does
such music often listen
me down to the pulse of
its bare- sound awaken
ings.
Duet
If even
birds can voice each o
ther to a
common answer
ing-response Why is man
so often self-inton
ed.
The Max Planck
house in Mun
ich all in prisoned
glass with cubby holes
of wood much of the
kind pidgeon s could in
habit for their signifi
cant calling s.
Mute
When the
voice went out ofhim
Mute to a ghostly
fear of those blank/empt
ied apparit ions of his
night-tens ed expos
ures.
“Unanswered question ” (Ives)
If the ans
wer’s because there isn’t
anyone left to decipher
as those Mayan texts of a
civilizat ion lost
beyond its ini pending
past.
The end
If the end’
s those space less heaven’
s empti ness of no
more by be ing there
selfless ly unknown.
Illmensee
vacant to a
self-creat ing silence
of only the lone fisher
plying the depth of his
line-extend ing touch-
thought
s.
Mendelssohn ’
s elfin scarce
ly-sensed scherzi more
spirit than formless
ly self-e yoking.
A mild
rain so soft
and scarce ly felt that
even these winds lessen
ing from touch.
Compassioned
The rever
end almost unlike him
self soft ened in
ward compos ure until
his words began to
flow as if from them
selves melt ing through
sorrow.
Time
and the way
ward moon’ s a kite
of a child’ s breath
lessly un holding.
The lithe-
touched- length of
these slen der reed
s awaken ing in her
the feel of imagin
ery star s.
Too bright
to think a
loud The sun’ s intensed
beyond where words can
find for mean mg.
A sense of silence
There’s a
dark sense of silence
in the rose at night only
the moon can awaken to its
fullness of scent.
One
The undulat
ing flow of these hill
s in to the distant depth
of a word less sky’
s one form one life one
sense.
Rosemarie’
s soft-touch
ed eyes and quieting
hands melt ing me in
to the stream s of such
far-distant
longing
s.
The impecca
ble taste
of the spider’ s carefully
woven web left him in
stinctive ly at the
center of a deathsting perfect- placed.
When
the days
grow short as a hand
tensed to its veined-
in press ure and there’
s a fear at the heart
of time’s always dar
kening
reach.
Half way
We met halfway though at the midd
le became the more of
us than e ven that line
could di vide two-sid
ed yet now one way.
For Lenore
Charles
left her a house so much
of him that even his death
became the more of her
being a lone.
She had hey
say or did her say have
her caught in its net
of unspeak able pain.
Known
It wasn’
t said but known as if
space could be spoken a
loud.
Sound-shadows
The street
light’s
sound-shad
ows speech lessly time-
reflect
ing.
After-thoughts
It rained the day down
to its tree- express
ing afterthought
s.
Charles
I’ll always
remember the fine-
glow of your up
stairs ap pearance
where co lors began
their sound ing-you-
out.
The doubting Thomas (Caravaggio)
finger
ed his eye s into that
depthed- flesh of his
intelling dis belief.
Elegiac
The leave
s falling through a
world of sur rounding
sadness
es.
Poems from Sosa (Erzgebirge)
a)		Autumn’
s more the loss of sea
son-time’ s been blown a
way to the nakedness
of its new be ginnings.
b)		Sosa ’ s a hill-
down town wav ed through
its timeless reach al
most as an af ter-thought
inescapab ly there.
c)		Olive tree’
s gnarled
roots ugly and aged
ly bespeak ing those
clutch ing wound
s of time’ s unrelin
guishing
grasp.
d)		Evening bell
s recall
ing why time has pass
ed so el usively un
heard beyond our seeing
the where of its be
coming now.
e)		Flower
s paled
from scent as the touch
of words un pulsed from
fragran
cy-sound.
J) Sunday morning
in Sosa that
small-seclud ed town’s
empty street s speech
lessly a wakened and
waiting as if Christ
could poss ibly at that
very moment be whisper
ed alive from the
dead.
g) Pink
umbrell
aed to selfsurround
ing thought s that co
lored and pink- dotted his
wholesome
commens
ing smile.
h) 'That small
church at Sosa so fine
ly cleansed and freshly
lit to its modest scent
of flower dar kened me
from its godly pre
sence.
Autumn
winds chang
ing color s through
that impet uous rush of
sound ing vacant e
choings be hind.
Greb
the middle-
aged vegeta ble man warn
ed “don’t judge other
s” perhaps because he be
came afraid of their see
ing even dee per in to
his own dark ening past.
Statistic
s couldn’t
paper him back to life
again that 1
in 10,000
dead on the spot of a
chance less surviv
a!.
That silhoue
tting cat kept
creeping his lowdown
thoughts until they
became lost out from
sight.
“It wasn’t
him” they said
but that some other voice
who noosed him fast to
the forest’ s trembl
ing darkness es.
Fight
ing a cause
that’s de feating it
self the mod ern Jeremiah
citiless within the
ruins of a wordless
way out.
Celan’
s saying the
most by us ing the least
left him voice lessly out
spoken at the end.
Where
did he be
gin as I know him now Why
this way not that other
side of a per son contin
ually shadow ing what could
have been but never really
became.
Questioning
If it’s not
the question itself but the
way it’s ask ed question
ing even the answer’s den
ial.
Of lost identity
Flowers
bunched to a one-color
ed sense of identity.
Aunt Gertie
as some wo
men espec ially in those
over-weight ed middle
years ground ed in a true
sense of selfconviction
as horse and rider with
their poor chos en husband
s released only at sparse
intervals for those preordained wa tering place
s.
First wintered day
cold and clear
ed my mind of its shad
owy autumn coloring
s.
Heron’s
grey fish-
formed length of its de
ceptive ly feather
ed intent ions.
Lone boot (after Odilon Redon)
distant
ly through- plying the
solemn wind s and wave
s of their forsaken
ing shadow s.
Of no where out (on Goethe’s Faust)
He possess
ed the eye s strange
ly alert of knowing more
(those se cret per
suasion s) and the
hands of call ing in to
those hidden rooms of no
wheres out.
Pain-spot
Dtirer cir
cled the ex act pain-
spot that grew intense
ly deeper e ven beyond
his anatomi cal know-
wheres.
Walls
no where
out a si lence zone
here only the echo of
restless
thought
s numb-
timed-still
ed.
A little
girl’s red-
haired feartouching
way of ask ing through
all those distan
ces.
R. D.
oflesser
mind but act ively will
ed her way to what
ever she wanted
found.
That down-
earth in
stincted
turtle
slowed my time-sense
to its low er-level con
templation
s.
3 half-sensed persons
a) Paul’
s some un
touched sad ness through
his 9-year- old sallow
eyes left me with a sort
of sorrow I couldn’t
quite real
ize.
b) She
possess
ed somewhat attract
ive feature s yet a put-
off almost hardened-
protective sense of
Don’t touch too near
where I might be
gin to thaw.
c)		He
after 50
years in psy chiatric
wards tried to explain
so meticu lously what
he kept re peating as
if I could n’t really
understand what he
didn’t ei ther.
Dark au
tumn wind
s releas ing the last
leaves of their color
less find s.
The dark
took him
down to the forest’s
deeply in escapable
need for sky-search
ing star s.
Cobble
stones re
creating a past that’
s only heard when distant
ly increas ing.
Chagall
sensuali
sed a faith in his long
ing for a God nearer to
his own creat ive inclina
tions.
Cold rain
s left the
trees bared of their
last con cealing in
hibition
s.
This grey
season of
the closed heaven’s co
lor-forget
fulness.
Leafless
silence
s when the bird’s wing
s soundless ly awake.
Asphalt
sky that
wordless sense of
spaced mo ments unful
filling.
Last autumn
leave
s twirling dance-rhy
thmic death- calls.
\
A la Hopper
Streetlight wind ow’s empt
ied-glass lonely re
flection
s.
Reception
ist’s paper-
hand’s inclu sive smile
s.
Twice-told
It worked
once it did n’t again
Twice-told poems only
if they’ re found-
through to that once
of being only their
s.
The dead
are most
ly revered because they
can’t talk back even on
gravely im portant matt
ers.
Greek Is
lands left
me with cliff- haunt
ing mentor ies of a time
oceanless ly reflec
ting.
These tree
s unloosen
their leave s as itin
erant child ren space
lessly envel opmg.
Pain-Poems Crete ’09
a)		Wlteel-chaired
to other’
s looks as if fasten
ed to a noreturn
clause.
b)		Larry Eigner
parapli
gic windowsitting the
rhythms that could only
feel him out profi
dally.
c)		Intensity-glow
High power
ed-gear clutched the
wheels of his intensi
ty-glow.
d)		Serenity-feels
Smooth wa
ters as the touch-shine
of silk’s serenity-
feels.
e)		An isolat
ed island
of uninhab ited thought-
down stone.
J) As Abraham
Did I do that
to you as Abraham to
protect my self from a
hurt that’ s still wear
ing the wound s of you
down.
g)		Callings
This sea’
s always been call
ing its own voice shore
lessly unre solved.
h)		Out-cultured
Crete’s an
out-cultured country with
only barren hills and
fished-out seas to wit
ness those sun-tanned
smiles of tour
istic remind ers.
i)		When
pains hamm
er my flesh in-to its
clasping- corpse of
deadly in sinuation
s.
j)		Image-making
Fragile
tiny culti vating flow
er the rock- stone sur
face of this island’s i
mage-making
appeals.
k)		Closing
these sound
less window s to the un
derwater sea s of the mind’
s impervious contemplat
ions.
1)		“Call me"
Wheel-chair
flat-tire s of no
more than here-wheel
ing a world away that
always re mains that
flat-down
sameness.
m)	If
we’re not at
the heart of our own
problem ’s misplac
ed that pulsing
sense-in-dir
ection.
n)	Darkness
at sea
those my sterious
ly moon-crea ting wave
s closing within the
breath of their unseen
silence
s.
o)	Light
ning electri
fying in awe the ancient
Greek’s spir itual vast
ness.
p)	Writing
I’m writ
ing the all of a world
to find my own little
nesses out.
q)	Ambiguities are
like two-lev el fugues
surfacing for depth.
r)	Dr. A. Our Greek
Dr. A. storm ed in-light
ning-struck with all those
rhetori cal appeal
s of his diag nostic fer
vour.
s)	Short line-
breaks elon
gating their sinuous
ly melodic preferen
cial time- routes.
t)	Self-reclaiming
When the
pains subsi ded he
knew his own being left
shadowless ly self-re
claiming.
u)	Fresh thirst
Was it the
fresh thirst of our garden
ed beginn ing that left
him so naked ly forebod
ing-
v)		Dark days
in a south
ern climate A world at
the abyss horizon
ed beyond the inner
glow of those bright
ening momen s through.
w)	Name-dropping
as if bereft of one’s
own naked self-cause.
x)		After
the storm
pidgeons roofed to a
moment’s glance sitt
ing intact upon their
weather less roof.
y)	For Rosemarie
You voice
an intima cy of unknown
preception s seal
ed with a kiss.
z)	Schmiedeberg
in an insight
ful moment re minded me
that thinker s too-press
ed in-to their own system’
s no way of getting out.
aa) Mapping out
a world that
isn’t on the maps intri
cately de fining what
wasn’t there never complete
as a field’ s growth be
yond the li mits of its
self-encompass ing claims.
bb) Can time
be remember
ed through these long
sea-stret ches of sound
ing out why the rocks
have crevic ed into form
less inunda tions of a
previous
age.
cc) A single
rose for
each person ally inclin
ed in the glassed wa
ters of our recept
tively trans parent
thought
s.
dd) Michelangelesque
His harsh
rock-envis ioned face
as if free d from the
time-burden s of these
numbed-re
claiming
cliffs.
ee) This bay
careful
ly harbour ed from the
sea more like the self-en
closing re solve of a
mother child lessly in
tent.
Jff) Graecian hills Undulating
Graecian hills timerolling the increas
ing expanse of their
thorough ly barren
down-thought
s.
gg) Over-thoughts
Little child
ren with their self-becom
ing hats high ly-held the
way of umbrell aed overthought s.
hh) Late autumn
Crete’ s interning
shadows
plastical
ly recall ing the in
coming of winter’s im
posing grasp.
ii) Hen-pecked
the right re
verend D. scarcely
could right himself for
his upright imperial
spouse tower ing over that
eternal code of “I’ll
right you wrong”
ly embarrass ed his tiptoed right- fearfull
y to a less er (inhibi
ted) tact.
jj) Pets
that small
ish self-en closing dog
sun-rehear sing the
dreamy sway of its in
nocent ly recept
ive paw- finds.
kk) Sense-renewed
It could
have been as a taste
that remind ed (as An
dreas did) of a time
that wasn’ t now refresh
ingly sense- renewed.
11) Buried-to-life
They found
that treas ure hidden
buried-to- life blood-
soaked (drain ed down) cen
turies after that unrecord
edjew-mass
acre.
mm) Awakened
Can these
stones so cold mute and
callous ly boulder
ing the sea absorb its
sounds a live awaken
ing as from the primit
ive birth of a renewing
cultural
dawn.
nn) A.
still fight
ing the war s he’d never
seen or known A German a
Jew in those no-known-man’
s-lands of his two-sid
ed front s.
oo) Understanding
Some look
s seem under standing
as fresh flow ers cut to
a moment’ s pause.
pp) Costumed (Alena age 8)
Children
color-cost ume even
more than those in-hid
ings from self.
qq) Shadowings
Crete
shadowing the last of
its October days through
those dark sounds of the
sea’s irresol ute wind-im
mersing
s.
rr) Aron
wiesell
ed his way as the rock-
obscurmg
inhabitant
s of some remote-in
sisting
ground-urg
ings.
ss) Self in-becoming
When it’
s hard to walk and
time’s bear ing down on
each step as these
words seem almost com
plete ly self-in
becoming.
tt) Wind-involved
This sea’
s moving slowly
through my conscious
ly being wind-in
volved.
uu) Palm shadows
swaying
through the soft
ness of moon lit trans
parancie
s.
w) These barren stonefaced island s staring
centurie s of unin
habited con templations
s.
ww) Blood-ties some
where at the pulse of un
remember ed dream
s.
xx) Sound-awakenings
These time-
forgotten birds circ
ling wind s of spac
iously ap parent soundawakening s.
yy) Two faced
they called
it as if we could be
seeing through a
unity of self.
zz) She
“always
true to her darling in
her fashion” ed an irre
sistible charm of
those deep ly eye-spok
en alius ions.
aaa) Railing’ s sensea- touch
through the
down-feel of these un
recorded mo ments.
bbb) Pained
If one can
die of pain so scream-
tight that thought’
s raw-nerv ed.
ccc) Close-cas
cading wave
s riding the unerring
depth of these imper
ial cliff s as a child
horsed to his caroussel’
s infinite ly through-
chargings.
ddd) Responsed
She immens
ed such a ponderous
obesity that even when slight ly smiled
her chair creaked in
credulous
response.
eee) Roomed out
Hotel’
s closing down for the
season left me empty-
halled room ed out of
those echo ing sense
d-feeling
s.
Melitta S. (in memory)
When that
ship of mine too heavy to
bear its own needs sinking
beyond a time less deep
You (and no one else) could
have resurfac ed it flagged
it again but for your own
calling it found away for
another unde cided port.
Secretly concealing
This early
November
morning’
s hushed- quiet as some
persons se cretly con
cealing some unknown truth
s more like ly from them
selves.
The pianist
(Buchbind
er) seal ing those
thought fully per
ceptive fin gers of his
through Beet hovianly
brighter-
staged
orches trating flow
ers resolute ly self-en
hancing.
Sonata op. 27.1 (Beethoven)
dialogue
d in unre solving
question s that left
him middle d through.
That oriental girl
Some paint
ings unease the more of
us than could be lasting
ly resolved as that or
iental girl with inward
ly pleading- guilty eye
s knowing more than
they should be telling
us through that strange
ly colored background-
face secret ly withhold
mg.
Mowed-down
His hand s temper
ed to a cau sality of
touch-look ed much
like he’d been mowed-down
to that e vened-grass
ed semblan ce of self.
High-phmsings
Beethoven’
s oft high- phrasing
s temper ed me to a
reflect ive resid
ually corner ed-in re
sponse.
The wrong road
He took the
wrong road but before he
could find his way back the
landscape had changed
as when snow covers over
all that was known or seen
even the re membrance
of why he was where-
going.
So far aboveness
That little
girl’s climb ing eyes
couldn’t fa ther his so-
far-above ness down to where she could all-but-
touch the claiming
pulse of his own.
The 1st commandment
Can one love
God more than a loving wife
She’s near He’s mostly a
far She’ s in timately
close to my everyday
needs While He defines
them oft ab stractly
in His own
sense But she’
s His most precious
gift for me Our love His
transcend ing cross
ways.
Interchangeable
As they paint
ed all these self-same
houses to a unifying co
lor I wonder ed if those
personing an inside
hollow ness weren’
t equally in terchange
able as well.
Processional
All lined
up process ionally co
lored as if for a parade
but the main performance
inside an Eng lish wedding
And they (the hats) symboli
cally signifi cant each in
its own right.
A graveyard
season
ably dress ed down to a
respect ful quiet
ude rehear sed in the e
choing step s barely
sensed of flowering
self-renew
als.
Beggar
comfort
ably corner ed in to
the small ness of his
receptive ly in-hold
mg eye- finds.
Impersoning smiles
He sat in
a steel and leather-
bound chair in a room
of artifi dally reflec
tings light s syntheti
cally carpet ed for the
seldom sound s of his
real-life im personing
smiles.
Dull-downed
Mid-November
when even the after
noon’s so dulled-down
in voice less expos
ures.
Full-stopped
Love wasn’
t enough for that famed ath
lete depress ively infold
ing until tracked-down
by an in coming
train full- stopped.
Beethoven’s 2nd (scherzo)
’s rhythmic
self-infatu ations so o
ver-pulsed chat it dead-
sounded me out.
The flayed OX (Rembrandt)
beaten to
its bared bones still
hanging crosswise bearing
it all dead ened for
life.
Creation-near
animal
s breath ed with a
life of in stinctual
awareness
es.
Prayed
He prayed
until his own voice si
lenced in to the re
deeming quiet of an
other.
Berwald (cello duo)
finding
from its al ways there -
momentum
breathed-
down pause s lyrical
ly selfexpress
ing.
Bach Partita 6 (Sarabande)
Column
ed light-sen sings self-en
closured
sound-flow
s.
Linear thoughts
as these
thinned na kedly re
fining bran ches edged-
in their line-touch.
Scars dale’
s become a
house owned by stranger
s so redone
that I can’
t find my self back
there A school imposing more
through its imperson
ally closing me out And a
“temple” that left God
on the o ther side of
what faith should mean
It was there (though) the
birth of this poet.
Of shadow
If you list
en hard e nough center
ed to only discover
ing the or igin of shad
ow.
Age
I can’t mea
sure my age on his be
ing younger- looked though
older-thought as if reflect
ing upon my own seeing
through.
Berwald
and Nielsen’
s other wiseness
that can’t quite be
translat ed in to
what it shouldn’t
have been.
A strange
bird (one I’
d never seen before) color
ed to a sort of winged ap
proval per haps in re
ciprocal ac cords.
Telling the
truth even
if it hurt s especial
ly if you know it won’
t help isn’ t true at
all to the kindness
that’s true beyond all
that thought avails.
Sermoned A. M.
It was
only when he sermoned him
self down from that high-
standing pul pit that I
lost my own preacher’
s fears of such tenu
ously preclud ing height
s.
2 Rooms (H. e.)
On that long
rainy day He mostly spoke
of those 2 rooms the one
for the still active the o
ther that point ed his way
to a used- out sense of
speechless ly self-in
volving.
Self-findings
Little girl
s dressed- through their
Sunday bestknowing that
womanly feel of co
loring o ver appre
dative
self-find
ings.
Off-mapped
They didn’ t know that
in themsei ves off-mapp
ed as a for eign border
never there for finding
out until they were
taught to kill.
Room
s left a
lone to a vacancy
of growth in sad
ness.
Israel in Egypt (Handel)
a)		That God
of strength who led them
out with such a sure hand
and unbend ing spirit
left so many in our time
s so helpless ly behind en
emied to those untold chasm
s of their relentless
ly death- claims.
b)		Frogs
on the loose
rhythmic ally pulsing
even in to those remote
ly cor
ners of their
most intim ate housing-
comfort
s.
c)		A darkness
came over
that land so deep that
not even word s could be at
tuned to their indwelling
lightness of sense.
Eye-attuning
Saying the
right thing s at just
the right times with
that look of eye-attun
ing concern s like some
paraphras ing their u
sual need s for a touch
ed-over cig arette-
glance.
That more
Hers an un
requited moth erly instin
ctual need for being
that more a part of
self.
Hollywood-type
happy end
ings are only happy for
some who’ ve long wish
ed an ending of all those
party-posed
happiness
es on dis play.
the operat
ion Closed in a room where
even the mir ror seemed
blind to his not look
ing back.
November
My November’
s time-of- life declin
ing bright ness to the
horizon’ s impending
darkness es’ down-fall.
Clouding-up
an all enveloping tir edness of not
even a shad ow’s inform
ing resolve.
Hospitall
ed in to
this artifi cial man-made
world to eye- touch what e
ven seems va guely alive
to flesh and blood-like.
The inside
of night where fear’
s inhabit ing its e
ven more than that moon’s all
uring glow.
2nd rate
acting mi
mics the lack of a whole
ness rarely brought back
to life.
Flash-image
What was
(why then why where)
flash-image ed to the
now of time’ s two-fac
ing present.
Sleep
less night
s in the shallow
ed darkness of unfelt
dreams.
Arisen
City a
risen from the sun’
s blue-spa cing uphold
ing assuran ces.
Surgeon
strict and
attentive ly espying
those ten der morsel
s he’d be taking out
of my only being blem
ished by those leftover bloodstains.
A no-talk-back
Some main
tain a notalk-back au
thority as that Sunday
policeman almost motion
lessly handsignalling
a change of traffic-re
sponse.
Reclothed
Special
ly recloth ed for the
operation’
s tight-fit
that death (hopeful
ly) would find no room
for getting in safely
there.
“He brought them forth (Handel, Israel in Egypt)
like sheep” dumb with
out will without sense
of being led direct
ionless from an unseen
hand more pow erful and stea
died than that unrelent
ing time’ s force.
Fascism
may have killed itself
in the ruin s of its
still-brood ing cities
birds of prey hovering o
ver that last self-sancti
lying mess age.
That lone wait for Chung
In “the
house of the dead” he wait
ed patient ly weeks-on-
end for the incoming
outgoing shadows of
what wasn’ t his lone liness not finding it
self out.
Low tides for Ingo and Hanni
when most of
life seem s gone out
of them low-tides
and that with drawing sense
from the moon’ s self-rest
ing glow.
Forgiveness
Some can
not forgive because there’
s too much of self that
barrens that fruitless
land of their
s.
Inner monologues
Don’t o
pen wound s too soon
The blood will flow free
ly beyond leaving much
of yourself behind.
Cloud-moving
Storm with
out quiet within a
world that’ s cloud-mov
ing so dens ed-silent
ly beyond.
Guilty
of what one
didn’t do Christ told
him so as if the mind's
feel wasn’t more reveal
ing than that silken touch.
Talk-time
as empty-
phrased as those cere
monial dress ed up past per
formance s of world
ly rituali zing a code
of self-san ctifying
s.
Thunder
without
afraid of the cold sha
dowings of the mind’s e
choing those primitive
voices hea ven-swelling
warn-light
s.
Proud beauty
stuck-up
to its selfcertain
ty of reassur ing mirror
ed appear ances.
Abbreviations
when words
have lost their fullness
of formed- meaning
less now only letter
s disinte grated in to
where the special few
can body them back to
phrase.
For Rosemarie
It wasn’t
Gatsby’s myth of a still-
flowering daisy that
kept you here for me Nor the
Laura (the real one) more
realized by the sweet
softness of those silent-
innuendo eye s of yours.
After Manet
You read
him short right down
to where only feet
were stand ing at an im
personed
stance.
Same routes?
No they’
ve document ed that deathfeeling after one’s gone as
if we’d all ta ken the same
alive route s to that in
becoming for self.
The fall
You knew
we would fall (let the
Satan in) his open
ing door s revolv
ing smile s too weak
to hold back temptation’
s grasping for a fruit
that satiat ed our evermore needs for You.
Lost hold
When he lost
hold (grasp ing for a
line that would surface
him out) It was only his
hands that slipped a
way to the bottomless
deep of his own self-find
ings.
Surgeon
His face
didn’t speak implacit
ly non-touch ing hand
s wholesome though blood-
designed.
Too poor
(as he said)
to find a wife but rich
enough in the understand
ing of why life’s more
its own un folding beyond
the surface of all those
artificial
self-appear
ances.
Proverbs
oft buried
in those re mote region
s of a once inexplicit
past now so self-appar
ent that one doesn’t even
question our not knowing
their why- from.
Birch
es birth
ed out of their long
ing for the moon’s ines
capably
lit.
Napolean’
s tree-lin
ed soldier s forwardmarching through the
shadows of their victor
ious light-ef fusions.
Unanswered question ’ (lues)
s not the
why or where fore but its
own unresolv ing stillness
es.
Poland
a no coming
back to where I never
was in the land of the
dead ashed down to
vague remem brances of a
time that was always
then and al ways now-
lost.
Clean slate
all’s forgott
en forgiven the black
board’s wash ed down to
its imper ceptible
though still looming dark
nesses.
The lake
in late Nov
ember so si lently re
solving its vast distan
ces spacious ly unheard.
The left behind
They left be
hind those poor ghett
oed times those centur
ies of oppress ion but for
got to pack the God of
Moses for their long
trip to freed om and oppor
tunity.
Tears
Why does the
light and peace of Christ
mas bring tears to those
who’ve long since wiped a
way the true source of
its meaning.
On crutches
A world on
crutches clinging to
the implied balancing
strength for their lost
ground-mean
ings.
Time
fades out
as those superflu
ous facade s ofbeach
houses o ver looking
other time s than
these.
Imaged (3)
a)		Some statue
s shadow e ven beyond
where their death-image
could immense such undue
ly claim s.
b)		Kafka’s
father left
his son only the paled i
mage of his self-denial
s.
c)		How often
vve live with
in the shadow s of out-
self-image as a coffin
holding us in ground-
based.
The pioneers (wuia Cather)
have only-
new lands to claim a
vacancy of such remote
inner silen ces.
Advent
If The Lord
remains that always differ
ent always o therwise Why
did He need (once again)
to claim us for His own.
The guilt (Isiah 53)
Did Christ
bear that heavy price a
lone even a bandoned from
his loving Fa ther Or did
He recall his first-loved
people to help share
those birth- pains for a
longing re demption.
Both fronts
Must one
have war s without
to keep the peace with
in Better to enemy one
self to both fronts at
once.
Time-sourced
Slight per
suasion s of cloud
s horizon ed from view
while slow iy drift
ing these troubled time
s of ours a way.
Off and running
Jumped the
gun (as u sual) off and
running until he discover
ed he was a lone on that
track circl ing miles of
emptiness without be
ginning or end breath
lessly aware.
A lamp
hanging the
evening down as if heaven
and earth sus pended to
its all-im pending glow.
The Always-Jew
I’m guilty
because I’m a Jew and cause
these younger Germans a need
to defend what they hadn’t
done I’m guil ty the alway
s Jew.
The fear
a child
has of the dark that o
ver coming un known too
deep to find himself
through.
“There came a new king (Israel in Egypt, Hcindel)
who knew not
Joseph” The signs were
there hard to decipher at
first (perhaps because we
didn’t want to realize)
that each of us has his
time his span of meaning
no more than a hand’s
length of times clos
ing in tight- down on us.
Self-creating
Rain-wash
ed shadow s self-creat
ing these lone-fmd
ing country roads in to
the dense woods of their
all-consum ing silence
s.
The great divide
We belonged to
gether (or so we were told
to believe) a large fam
ily The way was far but
our steps re peating
those same in stinctual
rhythms rhy med to a comm
on cause un til we came to
that great di vide looming
high above what we’d e
ver conceived But few were
left to all- our-own and
the others disappear
ing in those thicken
ing fogs deep- down below.
Walk-on
but the time’
s had passed his clue to
a world that wasn’t the
one he’d al’ ways known
left him long irrecon
cilably un moved.
As the blind
Some as the
blind with their self-dir
ectioned cane can only touch
the ground- base of o
ther’s faint ly echoing
footstep
s.
Those hospi
tal carpet
s worn with the surfac
ing needs of those whose
pains had run deeper
than even the imprint
s of such linger
ing sound s could recall.
Animalled (to)
a)		The mind of
the bird her metically
small-rang ed to where
the flight from earthly
reason can be come winged
with heaven ly dimens
ions.
b)		Fish water
ing the sound less deep
unconscious ly color
ing their self-express
iveness.
c)		The girajf
elongat
ing to the linear
heights of a lyrical
refrain.
d)		After Henri Rousseau
Strange
phantom- eyes dark
ly conceal ing the wild
nesses of their dead-
down claw ed instinct
s.
e)		The giant
turtle ex
posing the ex tended width
of a world slow-timed
consuming.
J) The snake
poison-
tongued the curious Eve
to its ven umous sting-
flow.
g)		The burly
brown bear
paws contem platively
committed to the wind
s and wild s of his ap
proaching
forest-claim
s.
h)		The seal’
s slippery
pleasure s riding the
instinct s ofa cool
ed-down Sun day afternoon.
i)		The frog
jumped im
pulsively self-si tuat
ing a moment ary pause
Jumped
thorough
ly past that too-longed
contemplat ive inter
lude.
j)		The red foxes’ sleek
beauty flash ing inter
nrittant ly through
his hunt ing eyes.
Shore-instincts
So rhyme and
meter imply an even-keel
ed world a flow with the
surety of shored-in
stincts.
Down moved
Snow mov
ing the moun tains down in
to a close ness of cool-
touched re membran
ces.
Even if
the dead
can’t answer all the why
s and where fores of
what still re mains mute
I’m listen ing hard e
nough to what could
n’t be said.
Homelessly
birds in an
emptied park circling their
uninhabit ed winter-sha
dowings.
Pre-timed
Knotted
tight in the scarcely un
ravelling world of her
own self-cer tainties
She seemed almost pretimed as an imals instin
cted with out cause of
their know ing why.
He slept that
night over a room of emp
tied maps he tried to
fill in those vacant place
s he’d left be hind but could
n’t remember their names or
those still self-evas
ive time
s.
Sacred
If nothing’
s sacred then you are
that untouch able pride
replete with sacrament
al self-justi fication
s and litur gical surround
digs protect mg the holi
ness of your sanctify
ing person.
An eerie
fog-ridden
light he couldn’t e
ven touch the shadows of
its not-going- where.
Wheel-chaired
For those
who have to wheel a world
that keeps re volving a
bout one’s self-center
of those out side revolv
ing interlud
es.
Sibelius’ world (for Tony)
dark and
lonely where man’s evas
ive shadow ings can’t e
ven inhabit what’s threat
ening unre solving-time
lessness
es.
Footstep
s in the hall
coming near er feeling
closer that one could al
most hear the subdued
message of those tiles
spoken aloud.
The carpets
It was only
when she be came unmoved
static that she realized
all the car pets of her
usually tarn ed house be
gan moving a bout all those
ways she could n’t imitat
ing or per haps only re
minding.
“Naked I came
forth from my
mother’s womb” (Job) and na
ked they re turned stripp
ed of all that wasn’t even the hope s and dreams
choking in the gas of Israel’
s return to its nakedly
withholding
land.
In these hos
pital room
s Time’s be come more on
the outside windowed as
Alice’s look ing glass more
real for not being there.
On Psalm 73
Why do the
godless live so freely-fine
in a world without Him
Or why do we suffer from
the blind ness of not
realizing their pains
and darkness es as our
own.
For Rosemarie
Birch-blue
sky’s light ness dress
ed to your morning’
s wind-trans parent ap
peals.
He
for years master of
the tiger’ s dreaded
glare false- stepped spell
broken to their devour
ing fleshed and boned.
First snow
As we slept
through the softness
of recurr ing dreams
the first snow recreating
the night’ s soundless
ly awake.
The evil one
If we deny the
evil one He becomes all-
powerfi.il
(Baudelaire).
The day
they unclothed him of his
horns tails and other extenu
ating attri butes so wick
edly unreal A terrifying
nakedness o vercame their
helpless need for es
cape.
Mongolid (down-syndrom)
Dressed up
that he did n’t look o
therwise with a finely att
ending beard conscious
ly poised an image of
his becoming a puppet to
his own self- securing ap
pearance.
Snow-clouds
as women
pregnant with those darken
ing enclos ures of lifereleasing s.
4 German poets
a)		Else Lasker-Schuler
off-center
ed exoti cally color
ed to a selfeccentric
I’m the in side of what
ever isn’t out.
b)		Heine/Eichendoiff
The one per
haps finer- felt a trans parency of word-sensed i
ronically toned same
nesses.
c)		The other’
s darker ton ality mystic
ally voiced quietly re
ceptive.
d)		Hofmannsthal
knew before
he knew it was so as
when the swan s white-sha
dowing their time-pass
ings secret ly reveal
ing.
Moonrise
This moon
rised snow- awakening
primeval
other-world
linesses.
The dead
still alive
facing us back to those
unresolv mg moment
s of their
s.
Time-flowing
Train’s light
s through the darken
ing snow timeflowing un
seen distan ces.
“Verlust deY Aditte” (loss of the center Sedlmeyer)
If nature’
s still so mysterious
ly alive Why has art dull
ed its selfefficient
brush to that inescap
able loss.
When
the cold so
intense that even
the free-fall en snow touch-
resistant muted from
voice.
Galuppi’
s sonatas
reflective ly intimate
as if each tone was touch
ing at the chords of
self-response.
She
had a way
of being so open friend
ly cheerful almost birdlike that she still re
mains a clos ed book for
me.
Been there before
He knew he’
d been there before a
strange feel ing of having
been seen through the
way dogs scent their close -
to-the-ground
appraisal
of what’s lead ing them out
and far be yond.
Flaked-like
snow harden
ed to im pression
s of a mind less void
wordless ly intact.
1 li£ snowman (after Wallace Stevens)
felt cold
motionless ly self-ap
parent be cause he was
looked at that way numbed
and voice lessly time-
stilled.
Tracks
in snow
paw-signs so slight
ly felt as a child touch
ing for its mother’s
calming voice but
here blood- endings.
Human nature
Ifhuman
nature was mainlyjewish
upper middle class hysteri
cal ladies in a decadent
and decaying society Then
Freud had it just right!
Through the looking glass
Those who in
stinctively feel why o
thers react or would have just
the way they do through a
looking glass of doubling
self-image
s.
The church
here dy
ing its cold- stone memor
ies of why it once did
n’t allow Jesus the Jew
inside its sancdfi
ed presence.
Wittenhofen (forMichael in remembrance)
We’d been
there often e nough but
only once did that place
become a live because
he died since and that’
s where he’ s buried to
the depth of my mind-sens
ings.
Winter-dark
a pre-pre
sence brood ing as some ex
tinct animal waiting unre
solved for its reclaiming
time.
The thaw
only then
we knew how deeply the
frost had con fined us to
its tensed- foreign reign.
Marked off
They mark
ed off their terrain much
as animal s instinct
marriage of
ively do a
what’s mine became a world
that couldn’ t keep them
both.

At the top
of the world his hat still
accumulat ing the ten
uous reach of those sound
less snow-drif tings.
a)		Winter fog’ I
s surround
ing self that not even the
lithe bird could find the
wherefore of its wing
ed light ness.
b)		Winter fog’ II
s that not
even the out lines of these
unfathomed houses could
merge beyond their weight
less silen ces.
The lake
in Benson Vt.
however deep they tried
but never found the bottom
less chasm ed wild tur
ties and black eluding snake
s coiling a round our depth
iessiy penetrat ing fears.
December 25
the light-
miracle of Chanukah’
purified tem pie proclaim
ing His un ity with The
Father’s in visible do
minion.
The scream (afterMunch)
He screamed
so loud so long until a
deadly si lence over
came that room emptied out
of all but
increas
ing feared.
Describing (forLenore)
the route
of a first- time alone
almost as if Charles en
compassing a lost-time
together
ness.
Pale winter
days faint
ly blank-fac ed snow wash
ed down to vague (though)
slightly re curring) re
membrance.
Cathedrale de la Resurrection (Evry-Essonne)
Spaced
to a heaven ly light-
depth ascend ling beyond
time’s reach ing hold.
He talk
ed oblique ly almost out
of the cor ner of his
eyes hold ing time back
from its ag ing appear
ances.
Four and a
half of an
only child standing up
right to those care
fully select ive words ade
quately fea turing self-
importance.
most of
He made the
most of him self until there
was little left to suit
his continu ing needs for
more.
We were call
ed not be cause we’re
better more deserving
somehow
something
special but simply be
cause.
For safe-keeping
All the x-
rays the blood result
s those dis eases known
or not fil ed for safekeeping long after he’
d passed a way.
Chagall
couldn’t
know where color came
from so my sterious
ly alive he created it a
new.
Snap-shot
as if that reveal
ing moment
could tell the all of
what we al ways are diff
erently.
Home
an alway
s moving on a restless
nowhere s homeless
ly unfind ing.
Bellini’
s rabbits
and squirrel s touching
and tast ing in scent
of life’s lithely appeal
ings.
Tourist
s reading
up on New York as if
these impene trable build
ings wouldn’t be reading
down on their soul-staring.
New Years Eve
in Times Square’
s increas ingly tension
ed lights/ crowds wait
ing incess antly for
that incom ing invisib
ly felt there ness.
Can snow
however
lightly
sensed conceal
ing the or igins of its
white-ilium ed cause.
She felt
in her alone
d vacancy the need of
flower the touch that co
lor confine s.
Self-assuming
These imitat ion timberfaced house s recall
ing what time could never
retell now mutely self-
assuming.
The village
at dusk
curtain ed to the
instinct s of its
light-re
ceding
voice.
Georgia O’
Keefe’s ab
stract co lorings
the flow of their prime
val source.
A piano
no longer
finger ed from
sound is like a wo
man untouch ed to the
very chord s ofher be
ing.
Ugly hand
crevice
d/boned their jewell
ed-imitat ing reflect
ions.
He wrong
ed himself by being
right so often as if
truth had been housed
in his own personal re
solve.
Double-sensed
Reading
world/real worlds of
die lines be tween that
speak her out transient
ly double- sensed.
Full-sized
mirror that
asked the en tire length
of why only his focus
ing eyes.
The older
he became
the more night encom
passing his being tomb
ed in per petual dark
ness.
Aloned
Night a
loned in an unknown
city mask ed in con
Crete si lences.
King David
given the
too much of wanting more
than the bounds of his
imploring faith could
possibly en dure.
Drift
ing water
s the mind loosen
ing as a flag search
ing for co lors.
Cut free
There was
a niceness about her
softness of response
as a flower so petall
ed but some how cut free
from its time-intend
ing source.
Palm tree’
s wavy-light
summer-entran ced a some-e
vocative
remembran
ce of what couldn’t
quite be brought back
to mind.
Overwhelm
ed he felt
himself as a wave ri
sing beyond the tides of
too much too soon all at
the once of not know
ing where.
Endangered
species
not many of them left
if only spott ed in some
remote re gions of
mostly a bandoned li
braries that they
became a sort of pro
tected spec ies off-bound
s of the kind one didn’t
need to hunt down any
more.
A cloud-be
spoken day
that could n’t quite come
as some self- deceptive
persons be yond the en
closure s of such
curtain ed non-re
vealing
s.
How do
clams feel
closed in a no-way-of
getting out sea-wash
ed bottom- ground sway
ing indeci pherable ac
cords to the taste of
their prede tor’s whole-
wrenching
claws.
Theirs
was like a
race of drawn horses a marr
iage of who’ s pulling a
head in that continuing
contest of superior
brands.
A Jane Austen type
He took her hand (tight
ly pressed) so straight
into the im ploring depth
of her ex change
ably protect ive eyes
that she took him (off the
real mark) for genuine
ly true.
Those
predetor
women as giant vultur
ous birds hov ering over
their most ly shy inno
cently manlike self-ef
facing consum ed-by-choice
victims.
Incomings
Pink impli
citly felt- down the self-
conscious whims of his
color-implor ing tie
d to an e vanescent
ly incom ing from self.
Touch-stones
If color im
plies sound It’s because
man’s the touch-stone
of his own self-preclud
ing thought s.
Ulysees returned
Penelope
weaving the rhyme
s of color and the touch
of her in finding hand
s to that seldom unity
of person ed-place.
Lost
It was e
ven more than a child
that she lost even more
helpless ly innocent
snow-seized with the dy
ing pains of her milk
less breast s.
The psalmist’
s fear of
life’s bottom less pit clut
ching him eternally
down Emptied to God’s speech
less hold.
The light
tower ris
ing above the sea stone-con
firming that blanked sil
ence of unheard word-
decipher
ings.
Flower
s melt
ing in to the dried
touch of his voiceless
pulse.
Sub-freeze
in Florida’
s like be ing felt
through a strange hand
pressing down to untouch
ed blood-le vels.
Afterglow
The fire’
s afterglow the ash
of stone-re membrance
s.
Warren’
s house of
light and spaced him
to the un known peri
pheries of his imagin
ed self.
A safety
She sought
a safety a refuse
from what she didn’t
want to know at that bott
ornless depth- ed-ground
less self.
Unanswered
The death of
her from God unanswer
ed brother left her as
a candle burned to the
wax and its melted and
cold.
The feel of
Getting the
feel of an other person’
s like land scaping the
where of what’ s beyond one’
s own sensi bilitie
s.
“Thy will he
done” ’s the
very quest ion mark
ed at our own out-per
soned being.
“Taking each
day as it
comes” when it’s really
taking the time out of
your being prunned-bare
d of most ly self-flav
ouring intent ions.
Self-effac
ing can also
become a mean s of con
cealing (though at
times) more from oneself.
Hedges
rowed so
highly fore boding en
closure s of where
fear can’ t shadow
its beyond ness.
Morning
lights awak
ening through those paled
dreams of long-lost for
getfulness.
“Giving in
to oneself’
s the quicksand to the
lower level s of where
she’d alway s been fall
ing.
Worst enemy
If I’m my
worst enemy Only love
can overcome me from that
combat zone of seif-den
ial.
Dolled
She wanted
to be pitied Dolled her
self in to those open
ing/clos ing eyes of
untouch ably chaste
plaything
s.
Renewals
Flowers
freshly co lored his
hand’s scent- clasping re
newals.
Wave-timing
Even in
that embrac ing chill
the pool o ver-lapped
the turn ing tides of
his armed wave-tim
ings.
Walls
not person
s Two in a room of
nothing to be seen
except those cold self-en
closings.
Closeness
He’d never
seen their height shad
owed in their dark-impend
ing close ness.
Illuminat
ing manuscript’
s signify ing letters
as if word s were but
colored for space-lined
appreciat
ions.
Klimt’
s flower-
flow through the lush color
ing’s al ternating
rhythms.
Berrie’
s touched-
glow of moon- escaping
sensed-moment
s.
Haiti’
s so poor
that there was little
left to sat isfy the quake’
s unresolv ing hunger
for more.
Owl-night
hollow
ed to the depth of where
fear defie s its voiced-
frorn presen ce.
The parrot
caged in
trying to speak aloud
the reach of its own plum
ed feather s.
For Rosemarie
Only your
love could fast-hold
the sand bars of my
islanded
loneli
ness.
Pale sand
s the cloud
s mutely e vasive as
shy pre-adol escent girl
s dressed so scarce
ly indistin ct.
Dead fish
on the beach
The cold shocked the
color out of their
sound-increa sing light—
intensit
ies.
Of no return
City of lights at
the end of the sea va
candy re claiming
those lost voice’s no
return.
A sorrow
ful couple
blank at the center though
unified in their long
ing-loss of oneness.
Character study
The curve
of the palm so slender
ly self-ab sorbing.
Haiti (3)
a)		Voodoo’
s pin-cush
ioned call ing the dead
spirits to reinhabit
that fail ing land a
gam.
b)		Cain
took the
blind path in to those
unknown land s of his blood-
insisting deed s invisibly
marked with that unknow
ing sign ed redempt
ion.
c)		Why then
this peace
fill morning air after
night had been so soft
ly claimed for the rest
fill sea tam ed by its
master hand and the un
resolving quiet of an
all-impending
fear.
Revealing
He couch
ed beyond their skin
ned-surface with that
scapel that only words
could reveal the depth of
wounds but scarcely
scarred-o
ver.
Sit-down chair
That little
old lady with braided fine
ly-combed hair and small
but decisive lips self-pro
claiming in renewal im
portance of her own design
ating sit-down chair.
Masked
His was a
choric Grae cean mask en
circling self- deceptive
rhythmic
phras
ing.
Dog-racing
They used
those speed- empower
ed racing dog s money-driven
to their own self-enchanc
ing end ed by aband
oning them to the winds and
weather of their helpless
ly broken-down aging needs.
Classically
felt stone’
s chaste scent of its
cooled touch time-decipher
ing awareness es.
The palm
gently silou etting a trop
ical idyll icly caress
ing softness of serene
touch-silen
ces.
Desert
cactus
flowers
caused in the scent of their irre vocably re
fining light.
Side
streets
deserted
lanes that led him off
through the unknown of
those self- follow
ing path s.
Dead fish
braced help
lessly on the beach mu
ted to the un known depth
of their co lorless
plight.
Dialogued
Young wo
man with pram wheeling the
untold dis tances of
their speech less unity
of phrase.
Of sound-touch
Tiny celebra
ted flower s momentar
ily infelt rarity of
sound-touch.
Follower
His eyes
younger than thought
s could re veal a little-
boy-look of a world not
yet round ed for
light
touching.
Overstated
Some color
s too rich ly self-en
dowed as truths irre
vocably o ver-stated.
Virgin-
souled-child-
like as a tideless
moon scarce ly night-sur
facing.
Holding back
Passionate
ly holding- back the grasp
of some un known fear
reigned tight ly-secured.
Focused
Can time fo
cus itself in tensed to
that soli tary moment
of only then only now.
Reflect
ions in
glass less ened the fresh
ness of co lors out of
their sus pending re
sponse.
Just right
Having it
just right The table set
to her glass- defining
touch ed the ap
pearance for her read
ily expos ing guests.
Returned
He return
ed to the city of his
youth listen ing for the
voice of where he
couldn’t find himself
again.
Half-confessional poetry (in memory Robert Lowell)
staring me
back as if I was ask
ing why these dream-sun
years have aged my skin
as those rings indebt
ed to a weath erless tree.
No way out
of a bank
rupt marr iage except
by paying those excess
ive bills back.
Are
night-waves
why my heart’ s dark-puls
ing its un resound
ing shore s.
Repeating
She repeat
ed herself so often
as waves always sam
ed to a dullness
of sense as if time
hadn’t real ly moved on
with her.
2nd commandment (Moses)
Recreat
ing God in to the i
age of why we’d alway
s be need ing him less.
Her fear
as if time
had encir cled its no-
coming-out
labyrinth
in to a
maze of selfwandering s.
Rosemarie’
s always
the reced ing ebbed-
quiet of my increasing
ly flow.
Windowing
It rained
so secret ly the night
through-window ing its self-
reflect ing glass.
Barnacled
She barna
cled him holding fast
to a sunken treasure
she couldn’ t surface be
yond its self- escouncing
darkness.
A wared
Becom
ing aware of the dark
ness slow ly start
s seeing us through.
4 Poets
a) For Richard Wilbur
to regain the
composure of your lei
sured-polish ed ease word
ed mostly right You’re
the Macke of a securing
poet’s world.
b) Elizabeth Bishop’
s poetic-
prose of her same-voiced
closely-felt
narrative-
length.
c)		E. E. Cumming’s
surface
play of why language
can be so newly cropp
ed.
d)		Blake
needed more
of that ti ger imagery
dense and fierce
ly forcing him from his
child-like
simplici
ties.
Autistic
She became
the lesser space of what
her shadow could scarce
ly complete.
Twerns
tiny bird- escap
ing shadow
s still scarce
ly sensed.
Color
less pain
more bone- taught
than word s could less
er define.
Unseen
night-per
sons curtain ed in to
shadow s of selffinding fears.
When
she slept
she sensed his awake
ness as if dream could
become trans parently
alive.
Read wrong
If I read
him wrong It’s because
he’s become the through-
going chap ters of a
book bound to other
times and places re
mote from my own touch
ing-downs.
Emily D.
and Hermann M. The time
s didn’t take them well
off-side from their
self-suffi cing voice
d America’ s icons of an
unrequited
loss.
Sick
to his hold
mg grasp for time’s re
lease of words and sense he
couldn’t find back narrow
ing down.
A tidy
old lady
who kept the little
things she so needed
to see and feel her sam
ed-in one ness.
A. long
bridge of
the kind that left him
wood-escap ing unremem
bered land
scapes.
Back doors
they may
never have ta ken down to
those dark- dim cellar
s cold-scon ed Walled in
their imper soned be
mg.
6 Times imaged
a)		Emma (Jane Austen)
She saw so
much of what she wanted
to see that she didn’t
really see at all time
s prevail ing over per
sons as i mages of her
less-reveal mg self.
b) That passah
bread Christ
took to the freedom
long-time reach of his
crucified
body-claim c) Ulysees
tied to the
mast held- fast from the
singing wa ters of his
flesh-invok ing harmon
ies.
d)		When
Burnham Wood
s moved e
ver closer instinct
ively near er to Mac
beth’s deathbaring time-
embedded fear s.
e)		Bald eagles those highflying nation al icons
nested to the fragile
reach of their egg-
protect ive warm
th-sharing
s.
j) King Manasse
unable to bear the irresist
able words of God’s overreaching hand severed the
prophet Isiah’
s body in-two the muted
wood of his own sharpen
ing fears.
Focused
He focus
ed so long on that black
spider’s mot ionless de
signed him in to its web
of fast-catch ing fears.
Remembered
Why he re
membered this and not
that feeling ofbeing
haunted from an unknown
whereabout
s.
Time-excluding
Why that 12
th century tower’s aband
oned to a lonely pre
existance of not know
ing why it’ s still stand
ing remote ly time-ex
eluding.
Haydn
retones me
to an allu sive phras
ing’s form- defining.
Deep-doum feelings
This day
heavy with dark reclus
ive thought s hanging
fully weigh ed the impend
ing depth of those unheard
deep-down
feeling
s.
Eye-directioning
Hop-scotch
ing between those untouch
ed lines of peripher
al asides to the light-
weighted chalk’s eye-
direction
ing.
There
The thought-
touch of a slight wing
ed bird co lored almost
inpercepti vely there.
Saturday
retired to
an any-other- day if it
wasn’t for that snow-
like feel ing of open-
space field- imbuing light-
currents.
Kiss of death (HildeDomin)
She kissed
her husband and lover in
to a sweet ness beyond
all human means of re
calling.
Art’s
become a
money-mine The deeper
you dig the lesser of
gold nugget’ s brought
to the sur face-shine
of dollar’ s infalli
ble touch.
Rivered down
He wrote un
til river ed down to
the barren pulse of
drought-ap
praisal
s.
Birth-waves
This early
spring land’ s soften
ed down e veil sensed
for its
through-fill
filling
birth-wave
s.
Softening
Do these
spring-star s as the
earth-sound s us even
closer to a soften
ing of phrase.
The few
who dare
say what o thers think
most often left alone
as a man with his pipe smok
ing distan ces of leisur
ed time-shar ing.
Stop
was most
always a go on signal
for his straight a
head no sha dowing world
as a train landscap
ing the speed of whatever
its having been left be
hind.
Undone
His shadow
sun-straight staring in
to a length less void of
irretriev able silen
ces.
Insinuating
Her sweet
ness of voice so unassum
ingly inno cently insinu
ating the se cret confine
s of what would leave
him for her nakedly vulner
able.
That house
When his sis ters left
that house grew
beyond the width of his
knowing why each room spoke
in untouch ed colors se
cretly aware of the moon’
s rising.
Joseph’s robe
Rosemarie’
s retold the many co
lors of my childhood
fancies cloth ed in a
chosen ness of
voiced- through per
ception
s.
Oboe quartet (Mozart k. 370)
Such li
quid sound- flowings
a river’ s birth
ed light- touched call
ings.
Orpheus
Do we need
eyes to see love or can
the voice claim for a
realizing
touched-
meaning
s.
Faceless
Putting a
good face on a bad sit
uation’s like those in
terchange able masks be
lying a face less detach
able person.
Ode a Gluck
Controll
ed passion column
ed against the restless
sea of man’ s surging
tidal
claims.
One of theirs
I wasn’t
one of their sensing a
foreign blood- instinct offtrack derail ed desertblooming.
For Rosemarie
born to the
year of our death-warrant
You’ve re born me be
yond all those life
less claim s of self-
reliance.
Uneasing
Pale windblown moon hanging the
claims of a faceless
kite strung to its un
easing hand s.
She
in her mid
to late 50 s half succ
essfully
adolescen
ing back to those
self-finding ways she u
sually miss ed in a marr
iage ofless er self-con
Tiding con venien
ces.
He
as stable
as an old hickory ca
bin wind- tight even
against his wife’s re
course to such child
ly flourish ing ways.
Lifeless from voice
His mind
ran blank grasping
for what couldn’t be
told as a stream bedd
ed in the in ertia of its
dried-down stones life
lessly voic ed.
Nightmare’
s
searched down
self-fear ing the mir
ror’s reflect ionless re
volvings.
No better than
Man’s no
better than his wanting
to be more.
The flute’
s silver
tonali ties finger
ing lightwaves
through.
Snapshots
quicker
seen then longer known
the even more of your not
being other wise.
The ancient turtle
heavy with
the weight that has been
carrying him about centur
ies ofwea thering ex
posures.
Of what it wasn’t
Imitat
ion brick made-to-seem-
wood that house inhabi
ted by the appear
ance of what it really
wasn’t.
So multicolored
That bird so
multicolor ed singing
through the tonalit
ies of its flight-sens
ing wings.
A bottomless well
These time
s impend ing down the
depths of fear a bottom
less well walled through
its indescen ding claim
s.
Esther
the Israel
of God’s chosen dressed in the
radiance of a purity even
beyond the brush-touch
of Chagall’ s sensual
ly curving so manly describ
ing instinct s.
Rats
at the under
ground gnaw ing at the
flesh of my unseen fearexposing clawed-through
imprints.
Thereabouts
Behind those
self-decept ively dress
ed-through smiles of
her parting at the lip
s a secret ly therea
bouts.
Cloud-transforming
The change
abilitie s of those
cloud-trans
forming
thought s wind-drift
ing sound lessly be
yond.
In the air
Snow in the
air a cool ness of sound
transcend ing even those
voiced dis tances of
touch.
Intelling
Red fox
at the wood s edge night-
staring the distant
star’s in telling glow.
Cold-time
houses
holding the hills down to
their vacant sense from
loss.
Pale blue
but sun-dis
tancing morn ing as a
young girl dressed to
the touch for trying
its color s out.
Late winter snow
but slight
ly heard as a remind
er of what was or could
have been va guely appar
ent.
After Breughel
Dark bird
s spoken out of the realm
s of fear
wing-command
ing that snow- lit landscape
protect ively shadow
mg.
On Good Friday
as Christ
died so self lessly a
lone His blood- felt wound
s echoing far and wide
so soundless ly unheard.
Awakenings
Scarce
ly felt the slight step
s in fresh ly fallen
snow only touched u
pon the sur
face of its
awakening
s.
Illmensee
shadow
ing in depth of feeling
the shift ing winds
and through- describing
clouds a dis tant releas
ingjoy un told but en
lighten ing still.
For Michael (f 2007)
When the
words are wanting for
where you a ren’t Even
the dead can speak if
one tries to answer their
thoughts a loud.
But it wasn’t
He seem
ed as if born for a
nother world That out-ofplace kind of look as if
asking for what wasn’t
It was but it most
ly seemed as if he
wasn’t.
Her room
the only
place that was alway
s hers took on the com
pelling co lors of its
secretly re creating
moments.
Realizing
Portrait of
me age two- and-a-half
I didn’t
know you then
or you me But if we’
re the same being growth
for that not- knowing reali
zing.
Closing churches
They’re clos
ing church es down here
Up for the highest bidd
er As if the world was clo
sing down a gain on the
Christ of its sold-out sal
vation.
Snowcat
as if its
secret under brush ways
could be told and held
so steadfast ly self-assum
ing.
Programmed
They programm
ed him with a switch-light
number that he be
came irre trievably
lost from being name
less.
Pavane (Ravel)
a dark
under
streaming
sadness flow ing beyond
the reach of words or time
as if death beautified
even more than life’s
realizing.
The new synagogue in Munich (6)
a)		lined with
the names of those sent to
the death camp s to the glory
of the mute liv ing God watching
over the re mains of what
once had be come His home
less people.
b)		Jewish life
in the midst
of Hitler’s city stoned in
protected a gainst the pre
vailing fears of that liv
ing past.
c)		Thousands
coming to
witness a re birth of the
living dead once extinguish
ed to the con fines of ash
and bone.
d)		Auschwitz
here Golgatha there Christ
martyred in the image of
His own deny ing people.
e)I
neither German
nor “Jew” but the last of
the oneness- both mourning
aS a. pO^t-
time witness
at the grave of these flow
ering hope s.
f)		Israel
unredeemed in the blood
of the cross How many more
muted lambs for their avid
slaughter houses How of
ten holding the other cheek
for the church triumphant
How often the guilt to be
found not by the others
but in the palm of self
Israel unre
deemed in the
blood
of the cross.
Timeless
in a sea
of chang ing winds and
the current s of inresolv
ing tides
Ulysees through-
steering re solved that
only course for home.
Dull days
closed heav
ens in grey ed numbness
not even voiced reson
ances echo ing for long.
High above
that vast
ness of seasensing-time
in dream-wave s so silent
ly forgott en.
Don Carlos (Schiller)
a)		Posa
poised high above his
times The Span ish Schiller
preaching his pre-enlight
ened mes sage.
b)		Why Don Carlos?
as unstable
as those Fleni mish colonie
s up-in-arms though more
against his mostly un
tamed self.
c)		Father/son
conflict as
old as David and Absalom
as German as Lessing’s Phil
otas Phillip here more down
staired than his imperial
nature could conceive.
d)		Love
as if cupid’
s arrows most ly misdirect
ed marking them deeper
in a ten sioned/fash
ioned plot.
e)		dated?
no A minimum
wage needed now as then
for all those so overwork
ed letter carries worthy
servants of a needy state.
Coloring exposures
The fall
ing of these leaves me
through
nakedly-
coloring exposure
Moon-touched scent
Flower
s blooming through
the dark’ s moon-touch
ed scent.
Of transcending dreams
The night
cloud-surr ounding a
world of transcend
ing dream s.
It “dawned on him”
through
those cloud s of evane
scent sleep from a dis
tant shore’s time-seclud
ing.
These hill
s in soft ly flow
through the wind’s
time-releas
ing.
Dark bells
the night
ringing
through
shadows of falling leave
s inescap ably heard.
Instinctive needs
Sensitive
to the fleet ing sound of
silk the running light
of waves that touched her
hands even be yond their in
sdnctive need for
flight.
Chmelnik
He knew
he was the last one
though he’ d never been
there A shtetl as remote
from life as those kill
ings that left their last crie
s still through- resounding
his unheard silences.
A fear
There’s a
fear some where at the
bottom of where touch
can only be told numbed
through from voice.
Statued
He dreamt
of a no way out Walled in
from the shad ows he’d left
behind a no where place
of his stand ing there
statued time lessly ex
posed.
Spohr’s
quartet-sweet
ness surface- flowing from
romantic un dercurrent
s as a maid en dressed
in the frill s of a through-
desiring
self.
For Rosemarie
My world’
s so soft ly revolving
the sphere s of where
your eyes insensing
me through
Niced
He niced
himself in to the sweet
after taste ofher
fleeting ly affect
ions.
K. 590
I must
have heard it wrong af
ter the seduct ively disarm
ing predeces sor It sound
ed me astray couldn’t find
back to an eased place
of mind “Mo zart gone wrong”
discredit ing the fluent
desires of my own self-creat
ing blissful solitude
s.
Horses
immov
ably stanc ed generat
ions of not knowing o
therwise than that hillconsuming pose breath
lessly in ert.
Mute
he became
because word s couldn’
t answer what he’d seen
Only that i mage ofhis
raped and dy ing mother
spoke louder foreigned
in a dialect of fear that
braced him for its world
of self-den ial.
Adrift
He seem ed as a
boat strand ed ashore
to the rock- bottomed
unevenness of wave’s in
telling a drift.
After-timed
Cloud-
fields thin ly escap
ing wind- breezed mo
ment’s after- timed.
Smoke
invisib
ly ascend ing prayerlike offer ing to the
God ofno where seen.
Umbrellaed
Her uplift
ing smile umbrella
ed the round ness of con
versation al color
s.
Star-sensing
Lights
pulsing the night through
the birth of star-sens
ing silen ces.
A loner
the street
s night- bare at the
sounds of his voice
less com ing.
Checkered
This check
ered table cloth
ed me in squares of
its cross- lined appre
ciation
s.
Quietly voiced
You have
to read me closely
like listen ing intent
ly to what you haven’t
seen increas ing quietvoiced.
The church
at Sosa
cleansed a purity of re
fined light- sense.
Karlsbad
a period
piece of make believe
its time s al
ways here pleasur
ably pursu ing a turn-
of-century
fashion
able complete ness.
Wild geese
instinct
ively aflight fleeing
from their fear of snow
drawn in to the shadow
s of that rhythmi
cally puls ing urge.
Hovering spaciously
Eyes
grown out as a rabb
it’s carrot- ears thought-
revolving more sensed
than heard where they
meet hover ing spacious
ly-
between stop
s catching up to the
where of not being there
before I could breathe but
a touching sense moment
arily now.
Side-sensed
oblique
acuity of the cut-down
stone’s off- rhythmic
touch.
Grandhotel Popp (Karlsbad)
so through-
whitely be stowed cere
monious ly encircl
ing a final ity of place
as if time was record
ing itself here nothing
but that all- inclusive
resolve.
Moon-shadows
transferr
ing light e ven beyond
the bound s of where
touch can be heard si
lently em bracing.
Dusk’s
hushed si lences draw
ing us in closer ap
proaching the no
where more of then dis
solving in the palm
of stars.
A gaiety
of clothfinding patt erns dancecoloring child-like
implied in nocence.
Bric-a-brac
artifact
s soulless ly imitat
ing where blood thin
s and eyes still seek
ing for gain.
That fearfor loss
His hand
s held long tightly
grasped that fear for
loss to the boned bare
ness of his uncertain
ed touch.
Painted over
He like a
painted-o ver picture
hidden deep er than all
futile claim s for form
ing that o ther side of
his unreveal ing now.
That old Roman road
wooded in
the density of its own
self-declin ing silence
s running its routes still
to the breath of the wind’
s whisper ing-receding
echoing
s.
Dialogued for Charles
To paint
it as you see it look
ing through in brushed
manner of your eye-sensed a
wakening
s.
At the hair dryers
She sat
at the hair dryers out
curled es teemably
prim and pro perly afterset eyes peering a
youthful spring air
that had left her irredeem
ably behind.
These quiet rhythms
of snow fall
ing through a softness
of touch ed-longing im
pression
s.
Those longing snow depths
The train
never came although
voiced with the lights of
its futur ing glow Some
said it was consumed in
those long ing snow-depth
s of their never finding
out again.
Rooster
at the top
of the church roof wind-
deciding the weight of
Peter’s un timely guilt.
So faintly reminding
The snow
released as of word
s from their shadow
ing-touch ed moment
s so faint ly remind
ing.
The date
uncertain
but at that time all the
clocks stopp ed in their
house what was said e
ven thought a continu
ous repetit ion of what
had once been a pro
cess in be coming now
became noth ing more
than that.
Of heard darknesses
The snow a
wakened
lighted-
thoughts trans parencies of
sound that voiced the
night through a continui
ty of heard darkness
es.
Listening aloud
What these
windows viewed through
so speech lessly immune
to words could only be
told when this mute si
lence would be listen
ing aloud.
Iced over
The lake
iced over with voiced
reflect ions and the
unheard pre scient color
s of its fish moving
so silent ly sound-
through.
What’s unsaid’
s echoing
somewhere through the
spaceless voice of night’
s irretriev able silen
ces.
Quiet resolve
This winter’
s quiet re solve heavy
with the weight of un
spoken words its barren
trees speech lessly recall
ing.
Red brick
enclos
ures of these shut-down houses pro tecting in
shadows of their out
lasting
past.
And Theodor Fontane
We both
grew younger- old the dry
ing blood pressing for
the sap of outwaiting
years.
Dark moon-
night the
snow awaken ing soundless
ly voiced those unheard
silences of an un touch
ed world whisper
ing aloud for light.
This room
with its dark- wooded-knots
swollen from birth drying
down now from those
blood-arous mg fear
Our answers
We all have
our answer s right or
wrong those last lines of
defense the dug-in moats
castle wall s protect
ing from with out the lone
liness of our breached
through secur icy within.
Of stuffed animals
the prolifer
ation of tam ed stuffed an
irnals may be protecting
against those more aggress
ive ones with in or with
out so soft ly self-accom
odating.
I see him
now my father
taking the snow deeply
felt though not touching
through/real izing the emp
tied winds of his voice
since those falling stair
b iiau icti so much of
his being behind.
Annunciation (Petrus Christus Berlin)
The pristine-
refining-pur ity of the
Virgin’s chaste ly aspiring
whiteness
through-
describing
lily.
The line
between
the truth and that unsaid’
s more than taste can ac
quire as an artificial flower water ing down
from growth.
Archduke Trio I (Beethoven Beaux Arts Trio)
Pressler
toned the Beet hoven down to
its fineness of intrinsic
thought through mosaic
wave-coal escing one
ness.
Archduke Trio II (last mvt.)
a light
ness of re lease after
the depth-per suasions of
its slow mvt.
A tradition
as with Mo zart or (and)
the contrast s of a resol
ving through flowing unity.
Tt'lO Op. 100 (Schubert)
So much ex
quisite beauty of
themes that overcome
the inbet weens of re
petitive
stop-going
s.
Moon-cloud
s night veil
ed obscured even from the
dark of shad owing its
own untouch able self.
Rock-tensed
The rush
of these dark cold winter
ing stream s rock-tens
ed in fear of their
ceaseless no wheres
from coming.
For Rosemarie
The soft love
of age cushion
ed in the lowering
lights of a voiced-ap
pearing one ness.
Of tenderly forgetfulness
My hands
lightly
pursuing
the silent waves of
your hair in to stream s of tender ly forget
fulness.
A cold
so barren-de
fining even in distant
stars con fined the thin
cause of sol itary still
nesses.
Confined
Even the
streams frozen down
to the rock- source of
their voice less confine
ment.
September song
It’s that time
less long ing tinged
with the leave’ s beautify
ing sadness of what’s so in
effably
becoming.
As Lot
I don’t look
back to those fields of
blood and ash As Lot
I’m the be ginning of
each day each poem’
s unknown need for the
where of its becoming.
Reading him
If I read
him by his hist ory as far
as he’d allow to touch those
scarcely per ceiving bor
ders the twi light phase
s of his un reconcil
ing person.
Paintings in the New Pinakothek (Munich 19c.) a) Woman ironing (Degas 1869) More cloth
es hanging out impersoned her
looking from self-imaged.
b)		Henri Rouart and Son (Degas 1891)
If it was
only the glove s in telling
their same self- distancing
generation s beside
s.
c)		Landscape in Martinique (Gauguin 1887)
When that out
lasting for est instinct
ively bright became too
largely loom ing through.
d) Portrait of Frau Gedon (1869 Leibl)
These cloth
es hand-apprai sed combing up
touch-wise
the reach of her fai-
sounding eyes.
e)		The Weaver (Van Gogh 1884) Hand-touch eyes secur ing what
ever dark ness he could
be sens ing through.
J) Plucked turkey (Goya 1810)
Feather
s out hang ing down as
if war-consum ing/corps
ed.
g)		Young woman sewing by lamplight (Kersting 1823)
Intense
ly quiet in wardly shad
owing a world’ s silent re
frain.
h)		The visit of the sovereign (Spitzweg after 1870)
His carriage
as isolat ed from the
daily poor as those al
most fairytale house
s irrelevant ly estrang
ing.
i)		Marquesa Cabellero (Goya 1809)
Tightly
and decora tiveiy dress
ed beyond all that protruding
vapid empti ness of per
son.
j)		Portrait of a Lady (Courbet ’55)
He landscap
ed her vis age in-to the
contours of his abstract
ing mind.
k)		Fir trees in snow (C. D. Friedrich 1828) as if snow
could be as perfectly
punctuat ed as here.
I)		After the Storm (C. D. Friedrich 1817)
Ship-wreck
ed sky an geling its
rock-bottom
end.
m)	View of Dedham Vale from East Bergliolt (Constable 1815)
The sky’
s landscap ing these
fields in to its out
spreading
shadow
ing domain s.
n)	Convent school outing (Spitzweg 1860/12)
all dressed
up and umbrell aed artifici
ally fields a bandoning.
o)	4 Breton woman (Gauguin 1886)
reverent
ially inward- danced to a
slow rhythm ic color
ing.
Luncheon in the studio (Manet 1868)
That youth
ful man ei ther posed
for an uncer tain self-suffi
ciency or to appear blat
antly insol ent.
Impressioned
When word s break
through crush
ing snow with your mindimprinting boots have
left in new ly created im
pression
ed.
The law
even the
letter of it despite Christ’
s loving will kept his first
chosen through ages of en
during oppress ion so close
ly knit to gether as
of cloth tightly re
sistant.
The last of snow
melting
from place as those rem
nants of thought
still not quite reveal
mg.
Raven
over
sized comm anding the
tree with its black-endur
ing feather s plumed for
a visage of unaccount
able distan cings.
Mouse-
minded
quick
ness of where
it was before it wasn’t
wind-haunted hushed through
that tatter ed cloth’
s wind-evok
ing.
Cliche
s are like
voices you’ ve heard too
often a same ness of out
used facade s.
Involving
The word
between the word’s a
glance a touch or e
ven chat stillness-
found invoiv ing.
Light-glancing
Ice
light-glanc ing a lady
cooled in the refined
visage of jewelled-ap
pearance
s.
Aging actor
He’d seen
too much to see at all
the memor ied texts
that held his hand
s through those vacant
shadow ing appear
ances.
Macke’s world
was whole
some genuine ly so refresh
ingly normal his coloring
canvass es' light—
trans
forming.
Mute
He couldn’
t speak mute to the word
s that would sense why he
saw in to the enduring
silence s of thing
s.
Thanksgiving
family day
without the family each gone
its own way that the tur
key so stufl ed with fam
ily pleasure s sat resign
ed to the center place
it deserved juicily-unat
tended.
She
was too mo
dest too sweet more meant
for the light ly touch of
desserts slightly seen
ted tea and well-wishing
s.
1 Kings 3:16-28 (1 Kings U:26-40)
Why did the
wise Salomon endowed with
God’s resplent ishing gifts
brothel the Holy Land with
foreign idol s and the
wrath of a pro phetically di
viding God.
These wood
s nakedly
darken ed sound
ing so for saken in
their life less indwell
mg aloneli ness.
Friedrich Ebert (Social Democrat in the 20s)
statued here
in Ottobrunn stoned-tight
from a time that left him
so motion less unresolv
ing vacant ly passed.
Ode a Eichendorff
the pale stat
ues of a fogfading Danzig
secretly re minding
though
voiced-from
steps scarce ly decipher
ing.
“The meek and humble (in memory m. b.)
shall inherit
the earth” A tower of a
person he was yet soft and
pliantly bend ing to the
lesser con cerns of our
retarded son warmth with
a still last ing peace
able smile.
In memory M. B.
He died the
last day of the church
year buried for me in that
reassuring height and
health I saw him last ing through that resurr
ecting smile ofhis.
“Dinosaurs”
Michael called
us The left o ver remain
s of a faith-
fossilled
stone-aged
text-book ed to the
sense of a living touch.
Let the snow
have its fi
nal say cover ing over what
the naked wounds have
left to be
mourned Heaven
ly tears these.
At the end
of the black-
bound book closed to a
finality of lifeless re
membran ces Shelved
for fu
ture possible
reference
s.
Little dot
ted flower
s breed ing new life
into the pulse of their
light-awak ening bud
s.
Stately
at the end
with that ac ademic assur
ance so wise ly conceal
ing that life is not only
there to be taught.
Cactus flowered
Out of the
stoned arid dryness of
these bared desert sound
s the cactus explicit
ly colored.
The poet’s
This room
the poet’s keeps me in
tently list ening through
its soundproofing
walls.
She
pillow
ed through those undulat
ing sounds of sleep-depth
s snow-reclin mgs.
His master’s voice
If sheep al
ways remem her their mas
ter’s voice Why have we
so often been called
through for getful
ness.
Vaughan William’
s Sea Symphony
left me a drift with
those un dulating
waves ofWalt Whitman’s
self-indul gent endless
ly oneness.
Andreis Schiff
s Haydnes
que off- starts of min
now’s glimmer ing shore-
downed inflect ions.
Painted over
When they dis
covered the ab stract purity of
Romanesque
sculpture’s
painted o ver (I did) in
the disenchant ing belief
that scholor s often dis
cover too soon what they
haven’t found out for la
ter.
Overreaching
This black-
deciding bird’ s overreach
ing the naked ness of its
landscaped
abstract
ions.
Overcame
snow-
drawn hard to the fro
zen ground’ s grasp
ing iner tia.
F Minor Variations (Haydn)
The clos
ing tacts of Haydn’t F Minor
Variation s kept my seat
on the watch ing edge of
its up
right sound-
ernerg
ings.
Night-loom
owls deep
ly envelop ing woods of
their moon’ s haunting
silence
s.
Waiting
No one
came The wait ing was like
crossing a bridge that
didn’t start where it be
gan feeling for air and
space birdlike without
those necess ary wings of
time-return
mg.
Underlooked
When she under
looked me from her wheel-
chaired roll ing aspirat
ions that I felt foot-
blinded for a momentary
off-balanc ing self.
Move sensed ...
Snow so
slight ly down as
those fine ly felt mo
ments more sensed than
realized.
Michael
if I think
what you’d think of what
I’ve thought It’s a deadway alley now not even whis
pering re turns.
Truer
“The moment
of truth” if it was only
a moment be came all the
truer for that.
Dark snow
the night re
fleeting this moon-
down feel ing of such
obscur ed uncertain
ties.
Birches
so slender
ing white ness of
their dance- escap
ing form s.
The way
The farther
I went the longer that
way became winding
through those receding mo
ments end lessly un
finding.
Sundown
that never
came up A world trans
piring in dulled same
ness heavy with its un
heard re sponse.
Time-receding
The train
moves these landscap
ing hills time-reced
ing.
City
of unanswer
ing quest ions hill-
tensed night- receding.
Whisperings
Wind
s whisper ing in to
those hidd en realms
of their own cloud-con
cealing
self.
Poised
Her hair
so artifi cially cur
led a whirl pool of re
assorted quest
ioning s poised.
Of no return
She had that
look of loss about her
as children in the dense
quiet of wood s trying
to find back from their
way of no re turn.
Bottomed out
When her hus
band died Some thing
bottomed out from her
a void so im penetrably
deep as a well echoing
remote and un finding dis
tances.
Close to life
She lived
close to the life of
talk shows psychodrama
s “the truth of’ headlin
ed the little that had been
left for li ving her
own life out.
A library for Leroy
by the sea
where the mind of book
s free-float ing the ebb
and flow of all those
self-enclos ing shore-
finds.
At first hand
Impecca
bly refined even facial
ly distin guishing
the satin ed white
ness of his close-form
ing glove s Nathaniel
Pink espied at first hand the aristo cratic nat
ure of man’ s failing
past.
Musical virtuosity ’
s like lingui
Stic rhetor ic It’s an al
ways-running-a
way-river
shallowed from its deep
er resound ing needs.
Taneyev (1st quartet 3rd mvt.)
rushing as
stream’s curr ent-pursua
ding rock- clasping a de
lying end of where it wasn’
t for being there.
Songed
A bird
sat the empt
tiness of those blank-
down branch es plead
mg sadness Songed to a
vacant ness of sky.
Polar bear’
s white
ness thaw ing to the
flow of that desolate
fragment of ice wind-
bound.
GcntlcnCSS (in memory M. B.)
in a man
is like a tree that
bends through the softness
of its wind- creating mo
ments.
Smoke
rising in
to a vacant ness of sky-
unseen as prayers re
leased beyond even the
dreams of a starless
morning.
Raped
as a child
They took more out of
her than that little
frame could cry herself
back to a wholeness
again.
Moving
through
those
soundless
steps ever so silent
ly as a ship atop that o
ceaned bott omness
from self.
Language
can be form
ed immutab ly aware as
of clay’s light-surr
ounding
s.
Anouilh’s Antigone (1943)
a)		Creon’s
become more of a person
sensitive to the need
s of others on the surface
less of the law and order
kind of king.
b)		Creon
between per
son state and family divi
ded in a weak ness of con
trary need’s forced to de
cide.
c)		Antigone
now one-dimen
sional Her selfcalling martyr
dom stripped of most other rites
religious fraternal Was the
French resist ance so fanati
cal as her de monic occupier
s.
d)		Anouilh’s
slight
but tender edjabs a
gainst the happiness-
endings in a bourgeois-
marital soc iety.
e)		King David
protect
ed his up start son Ab
salom again st all those
laws lesser than that
of pater nal love.
j) Has Creon
grown up
from a less er self as
He would have it with his
son’s final contempt of
a father
ranged beyond
love and fam ily to a day
by day dicta torship.
g) Anouilh’s
not placed
so certain as he would
appear Stag ed beyond a
conflict of values to the
absurd-nothing’ s really better
after its out ward appear
ances.
“He’s gone”
he said
perhaps some where over
the fields that didn’t
turn back a breathless
way not even the stone
that letter ed him in
could in re membering
the where’ s why.
Prescribing route
Some train
s change track s so smooth
ly involv ing as if that
prescrib ing route des
tined from re calling distan
ces.
Instead
If life’
s a no-win-
game because
its ending ends us But
what if that ending’s the
beginning of all that’
s reclaim ing instead.
Hide and seek’
s most al
ways a selffinding game
If you are where you aren’
t to be found Who's shadow
ing who then.
Schtitz I
es’ Christ mas Story kept
me so close to the voice
of that text ed prist
ine presence timeless
ly rehears ing.
Schtitz II
es’ first-row
ed double chor uses’ antiphon
ed us a
ship ebbed and
flowed in crossrhythmic assym
etric unbalan cings.
Corelli’
s “pastoral”
mother and child flowdipping in gentle stream
s the loveli ness of the
Christ child in the midst
of a star-re vealing light.
Turnabout smile
Her turna
bout smile left me off
standing out balancing
the where of what’s from
leaving me behind.
W]ien to stop
Not knowing
when to stop took him
through that no-turn
ing back im mensity of
woods the al ways more of
darkening from return
s.
AdaglO (Bach Brandenburg no. 1)
as a boat
even-flow ed echoing
in the still ness of time’
s passing mo tionless
ly unspoken.
Drab day
as post-war
women dress ed in their
washed out color’s ex
pression less non-stay
ing smile.
Of dreamless imaginings
Snow fall
ing through the night
of his dream less imagin
ings as a boat releas
ed from the depth of
its still flow ing tide
s.
Why did Stravinsky
so early
turn neo-class ical the strea
ming blood of his dance-
effusions dried down to
pulseless
wind-echoing
s.
An illusion
His life
more start s than con
elusion s a success
ion of co lors only
matching as an illus
ion a shell sea-sound
ing hollow ed out ex
posure
s.
The more
was not e
nough for him That aching
need at the desert of his
heart burning even beyond
the bright ness of that
cold moon' s desolat
ing.
Ringwald
could only
find the shad owing self
of where he wasn’t as a
room ever so faintly lit
because the moon couldn’
t be sensed even there
in the full
r •
ness oi ns callings.
At the bottom
of the stair
s Blood pool s of drying
silences where he lay
the always of being more
of what couldn’t be
washed a way.
Oedipus at Colonnus
a)		between
sin and re demption
the “unknown sin” of the
Jewish bible and the redempt
ion of
Elijah’s “not be
ing better than his fathers”
though
cloud-en
raptur
ed.
Oedipus
b)		blind to the
truth of his blood-incest
uous guilt in the dark of
what eyes have seen and
known the un veiling of
those dread fill deeds.
c)		Oedipus
the forsak
en wander er as the
Jewish people landless de
fenseless with the only
hope of divine intervent
ion.
d)		Sophocles’
Oedipus at Col
onnos at the end of his
life concei ved the middle
portion of an unfinish
ed trilogy Not the reflect
ive ripe ness of an a
ging ageless wisdom but more
the youth ful pathos
of Athen’ s self-in
flicted en during de
feat.
Wooded-horizons
This snow-
fallen land’ s breath
ing its cool ness out to
the longing- needs of its
wooded-horiz
ons.
Of Jesus’ birth
Did time
stay still then static
ally in telling the
timeless ness ofje
sus’ birth.
of a white
Christmas” the purity of
an outspread ing snow
concealing all the wound
s man’s in flicted
through the seeds of his
self-destruct ive instinct
s.
No answers left
As of a bird
atop its leaf less time-bar
ing tree peer ing out the
vacancies of where the
wind’s echo ing through
its time less untell
ing distan ces.
He survived
not knowing
why an is land in him
self-surroun ding all that'
s been left be hind.
Atoned
They kill
ed God nail ed to the
warped wood of their own
blood-blem ished convict
ions Left Him hanging alon
ed and forsak en a symbol
of their god less self-as
piring world.
Felix
that black
lithe squirr el nutted me
into the con viction that
a good feed pawed and
clawed to its tasty finish
ing off-shell s worthy of
all those win tering tail
ing rounda bouts.
Winter out-fitted
Pink with his
rosey-red hat concealing
all his inner conviction’
s pirouett ing a waltzskating cir cular sense.
Poetry books by DavidJaffin
1.		Conformed to Stone, Abelard-Schuman, New York 1968, London 1970.
2.		Emptied Spaces, with an illustration by Jacques Lipschitz, Abelard-Schuman, London 1972.
3.		In the Glass ofWinter, Abelard-Schuman, London 1975, with an illustration by Mordechai Ardon.
4.		As One, The Elizabeth Press, New Rochelle, N. Y. 1975.
5.		The Halfofa Circle, The Elizabeth Press, New Rochelle, N. Y. 1977.
6.		Space of, The Elizabeth Press, New Rochelle, N. Y. 1978.
7.		Preceptions, The Elizabeth Press, New Rochelle, N. Y. 1979.
8.		For the Finger’s Want of Sound, Shearsman Plymouth, England 1982.
9.		The Density for Color, Shearsman Plymouth, England 1982.
10.		Selected Poems with an illustration by Mordechai Ardon, English/Hebrew, Massada Publishers, Givatyim, Israel 1982.
11.		The Telling of Time, Shearsman, Kentisbeare, England 2000 and Johannis, Lahr, Germany.
12.		That Sense for Meaning, Shearsman, Kentisbeare, England 2001 andjohannis, Lahr, Germany.
13.		Into the timeless Deep, Shearsman, Kentisbeare, England, 2002 andjohannis, Lahr, Germany.
14.		A Birth in Seeing, Shearsman, Exeter, England 2003 and Johannis, Lahr, Germany.
15.		Through Lost Silences, Shearsman, Exeter, England 2003 and Johannis, Lahr, Germany.
16.		A voiced Awakening, Shearsman, Exeter, England 2004 and Johannis, Lahr, Germany.
17.		These Time-Shifting Thoughts, Shearman, Exeter, England 2005 andjohannis, Lahr, Germany.
18.		Intimacies of Sound, Shearsman, Exeter, England, 2005 and Johannis, Lahr, Germany.
19.		Dream Flow with an illustration by Charles Seliger, Shearsman, Exeter, England 2006 andjohannis, Lahr, Germany.
20.		Sunstreams with an illustration by Charles Seliger, Shearsman, Exeter, England 2007 andjohannis, Lahr, Germany.
21.		Thought Colors, with an illustration by Charles Seliger, Shearsman, Exeter, England 2008 andjohannis, Lahr, Germany
22.		Eye-Sensing, ahadada, Tokyo, Japan and Toronto, Canada 2008
23.		Wind phrasings, with an illustration by Charles Seliger, Shearsman, Exeter, England 2009 andjohannis, Lahr, Germany
24.		Time shadows, with an illustration by Charles Seliger, Shearsman, Exter, England 2010 andjohannis, Lahr, Germany

“David Jaffin is a scrupulous weigher and weighter of words — by which I mean that a poem is, for him, always a matter of collaboration with the true spirit of the language. Every word is given its value, neither more nor less.”
Edward Lucie-Smitli
“David Jaffin’s Preceptions is a fine book. Jaffin’s poems, slight on the page, entice, engage, amuse. Yet their brief touchings often reach wholeness, and they are poems of philosophical consequence out of keeping with much of modern poetics. The poems catch perceptions in the act of happening, to be, the short-line verse appropriate to what becomes.” Paul Ramsey, The Sewancc Review
“Jaffin’s poetry is as “modernist” as abstract painting while still poetry in the traditional sense, whose purpose is the verbalization of basic human experience and whose form derives from a serious exploration of language ... it is remarkable what depth of experience Jaffin manages to relate through his severely limited vocabulary and imagery.”	Victor Terras (Brown University)
“Mr. Jaffin uses words with a real fineness of diction which emphasizes a characteristic understatement of emotion. One recognizes a cultivated sensibility. He adopts a theme and mode which one cannot help but admire. He writes very well indeed.”	the late Norman Holmes Pearson (Yale University)
“Jaffin’s Through Lost Silences offers a rare display of manifold poetic variety'. Succinct and challenging enforcers of new insights and deeper understanding, his poems soar in far higher realms than those of prosaic description and rational analysis ... There is sincerity' and conviction in Jaffin’s crisp, multi-sensory poeticisation of ideas. Existential and philosophical shapings of language, simple and complex at the same time, draw out the true nature ofhis chosen subjects in an original way overwhelming the faint echoes of older poetic traditions and leaving behind a profound aftertaste of experiences lived through for the first time.”	Edward Batley (University of London)
“David Jaffin is a master of the restrained but purposeful statement. If his poems do not have quite the briefness of the haiku, they have a good deal of its light-dark inflection and rounded perfection of form ... Jaffin’s poems almost always give an impression of “light reflecting light”. The fact is, that if one wants restraint and elegance, he will find it in abundance here. Jaffin’s subtleties are, in short, dazzling.”	The Library Journal on Conformed to Stone
www.bogpriser.dk/Denmark Denmark:
Om Dream Flow
“David Jaffin is a prolific American poet whose work uses the minimum possible means of expression in order to reach for the essentials in his subject matter ... The limpid texture ofhis work resists quotation or excerption; his deceptively simple surfaces use the tensions inherent in the vocabulary to open up new horizons. Delicate creations, his poems tend to be wonderfully light lyrics.”