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 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 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 66 67 67 68 68 69 69 70 70 71 71 72 72 73 73 73 74 74 75 75 76 76 76 76 77 78 78 79 79 80 80 80 81 81 81 82 82 82 83 83 84 84 84 84 85 85 85 86 86 86 87 87 88 88 89 89 90 90 90 91 91 91 92 92 93 93 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 242 188 188 189 189 189 190 190 191 191 192 192 192 193 193 194 194 194 195 195 195 196 196 197 197 197 198 198 199 199 200 200 201 201 202 203 203 204 204 205 205 206 206 207 207 207 208 208 209 209 210 210 210 211 211 212 212 212 213 213 213 214 214 215 215 215 216 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 ively do a marriage of 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 s catching up to the where of not being there before I could breathe but a touching sense moment arily now. Side-sensed acuity of the cut-down stone’s off-rhythmic touch. ly- between stop oblique 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.”