^oG.Ha£ DAVID JAFFIN Light Paths Charles Seligcr (American, 1926-2009) 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 a 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 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 Art of This Century gallery. 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, forming close friendships with gallery artistsMark 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 2003, 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 to 2009. in 2012, the Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina will present the traveling exhibition Seeing the World Within: Charles Seliger in the 1940s. Light Paths ^oC.HaC 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 978-1-84861-174-0 (Shearsman Books, UK) Production & cover design: Neufcld Verlag, Schwarzenfeld, Germany Composition: Markus Neufeld, Bamberg, Germany Copyright May 2011 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 Seligcr (1926-2009) Crystal Moon (detail), 2005 acrylic on Masonite 11" x 14", signed rcdit Line: Courtesy of Michael Rosenfieid Gallery, LLC, New York, NY' Printed in Germany Contents Against forgetfulness 13 Ca 70. AD 33 Left behind 14 Faith 35 Star phrasings 14 Close-thinking 35 “To the bottom of it” 15 A cause 35 That house 16 That house 36 Imagined (2) Moissac a) At the shirt 17 (Meyer Schapiro/David Finn) 37 h) Scenes of childhood (Schumann) 17 Church bell 37 Cynthia 18 Garden 38 The first 18 His mind a 38 The less 19 Age 39 That speck 19 Organ music at St. Peters (Munich) 39 He’d 19 When there’ 40 In-coming 20 Subway 40 He closed 20 Games (7) Sized-down 21 a) Soccer 41 Waiting 21 b) Chess 41 To touch 21 c) Tennis 42 Mendelssohn d) Golf 42 (Trio op. 66, slow mvt.) 22 e) Boseboll/f siting 43 Eb (minor Trio, Haydn) 22 J) Ping-pong 43 A standup 23 g) U. S. Football 44 An over 23 The tree 44 Widowed 23 Stream 44 Dark 24 Climb 45 When the 24 Old Black Joe (Steven Forster) 45 Each poem 24 “Swing low 46 Small bird 25 “Far from the maddening (Hardy) 46 David (Donatello) 25 Holding back 47 Mar)- Magdalene’ (Donatello) 26 Schubertiade 47 Black-cvok 26 Blued 48 For the Rose 27 Look 48 Climbing 27 Dream 48 Subdued silences 27 The wave 49 4 poems for him Summer 49 ii) Time hod 28 Curtain 49 b) reeling for others 28 Is a woman’ 50 c) Triettd 29 Shading 50 d) Only once 29 She took 51 Inconsistencies 30 The lake 51 Last A major Sonata 30 When 52 Burda 31 Words 52 Palin Sunday 31 He had 52 Roman portraiture 32 A fish 53 Severalled 32 Evening 53 Does taste 33 The slow 53 Chroniclers 33 If I could 54 Roman 34 The rose 54 Women 54 Even 55 The cool 55 Polonius’ Advice 56 The long- 57 Raphael (our retarded son) 57 Accordion 58 There 58 The strange one 59 We lived 59 Corning back 60 If cloud 60 If there’ 61 These cloud 61 Last time 62 “Not many (S. L.) 62 If one 63 “I would have” 63 When two (S. L.) 64 For Rosemarie 64 Less-than-dog 65 The wind 65 Crowded 66 Listen 66 Can 67 Sunshine words 67 Too hot 67 It became 68 Rail track 68 A round-a 69 Aborigine 69 Gorilla (for Warren and Carol) 70 When a Jew 70 Some have 71 Isaiah 43:1 71 One of them 72 First time 72 I saw 73 The swan’ 74 Mozart (Flute Quartet k. 285 b) 74 The holo 74 Schumann’ (op. 102 cello and piano) 75 An assem 75 That little (in Munich) 76 When 76 A sense 77 Prearranged 77 65 years alter 78 Haydn-gone- 78 Schumann’ (Is1 piano trio) 79 A fear 79 Beyond “the real” (4) a) Saul 80 b) Faust and Gretclien (Goethe) 80 c) Beethoven’ (op. 71,1) 81 d) Macbeth’ 81 Italian 82 Mozart’ (Quintet k. 581) 82 Tatoo 82 Trite 83 When 83 Desenzano 84 If 84 The lake 85 Money-mi ndedncss 85 The glare 85 That 86 When 86 The bird 86 She felt 87 Boats 87 Desenzano 87 Pink 88 Is a poem (for Warren) 88 Shoe 89 A multi- 89 His 90 Do real 90 T. V. 91 Mountain 91 Hymnal trium 91 Weeping 92 The brigde at Borghetto 92 For Rosemarie 93 Castle at Borghetto’ 93 Madonna at Borghetto 94 Business 94 In love 95 Bombed 95 Only 96 Through 96 Italian 97 A fisher’ 97 The other 98 My life’ 98 Faith and fair)- tales 99 A distant 99 Theprett 100 A flotilla 100 “Newborn” 101 She took 101 She swing 102 Intact (for Ingo) 102 For Rosemarie 102 The sparrow 103 Upswing 103 A flutter 104 Predated 104 She 105 Shoot 105 “Shake it off’ 106 A calm 106 Cypress- 107 Amos’ 4th vision 107 With him 108 The form 108 Outfacing 109 That sound 109 Hades-times 110 1915 110 The “Idea of Progress” 111 Early 111 Afghanistan 2010 112 The reading world 112 Dream-waved 113 Told 113 Phantomed 114 Was if 114 Have these 115 Gauguin’ 115 The youth 116 Aging 116 Dogs 116 Burgonvilla 117 I 117 For Rosemarie 118 A two-sided investment 118 Change of 119 She-that 119 Perhap 120 As a Vermeer 120 That aging 121 When pain 121 History 122 Framed 122 The older 123 Apollonic 123 Do women 124 The great oil-spill 124 She flute 125 After-sensed 125 Named 126 That pale 126 Charles 127 The Tempest (Shakespeare) a) Spirit 127 b) Extra Nos 128 c) Forgive 128 d) Storms 129 e) The church 129 Moraliz 130 Drawing the line 130 Aging’ 131 Violin Sonata (Debussy 1st mvt.) 131 Op. 41.3 quartet (Schumann 1st mvt.) 132 A museum 132 A room 133 If Atlantis 133 Survivors 134 For Rosemarie 134 Wallace 135 He a 135 When the 136 Kabale und Licbe (Schiller) a) When love 136 b) Greek-like 137 c) Can a modest 137 d) A choric- 138 e) When words 138 f) Lady Milford 138 g) Wurm 139 While list 139 Mutations (for Warren) 139 Eden-time 140 Love-death 140 When 141 At a loss (for Lenore and Doris) 141 The rain 141 2nd hand 142 Rain 142 After 143 An unseen 143 Forbidden 144 In memory (Charles Scliger) 144 Do 145 Cows 145 The ferris 146 For Rosemarie 146 The butter 147 Off 147 An emptied 148 The Idiot 148 Rules 148 For Rosemarie 149 She (for mother at 102) 149 Does the 150 Time-sense 150 He 150 Where 151 Leave 151 Recurr 152 At 13 152 Too long a 153 Pain 153 When (2) a) When 154 b) When 154 Found-in 155 Sometime 155 Robert Volkmann’ 156 Only love 156 Formed 156 After a Landscape (by John Marin) 157 Sparrow’ 157 Shored 158 Charles 158 Pin-up 159 Sail 159 Snow far 160 These 160 Misplaced 160 Night 161 The Jews 161 Dark 162 These sound 162 There was 163 If man’ 163 Lizard 164 River 164 Amphytrion (Kleist) a) Two identi 165 b) Concealed i 165 c) The slow 166 Computerized 166 Bird- 167 In-step 167 These swan 168 David meeting Abigail (Rubens) 168 Counterfeit 169 Dandelions (in memory G. M. S.) 169 Tommy 170 Ugliness 170 Adolfv. Harnack 171 Short-changed 171 If one 172 Classical 172 Ben Jonson 173 Did language 173 That woman’ 173 For Rosemarie 174 White gulls 174 Brahms Quartet (op. 67; 2 sides 1st mvt.) a) dialogue 174 b) slow nwt. 175 c) agitato (3"1 nwt.) 175 d) last nwt. 175 Beethoven (Quartet op. 59,3; last mvt.) 176 Italian Serenade (Hugo Wolf) 176 Langenargen 176 Books 177 A good family (Thomas/Claudia plus) 177 Dogs die 178 A cause 178 With him 179 Tired spells 179 Dementia 180 Some room 180 Schumann’ 181 For Rosemarie I 181 For Rosemarie II 182 Pfullendorf 182 Aging 182 The sun 183 Quartet 5 (M. Weinberg slow mvt.) 183 Amphytrion (Kleist the ending) 184 Leaf-touch 184 Robert 185 Still life (Mirandi, Munich) 185 Weinberg’ 185 Therapy’ 186 Mirandi’ 186 Uncertained 186 Umbrella 187 Guardi’ 187 Pin-whcclcd 188 Quartet 7 (Weinberg l5t mvt.) 188 Totally ini 189 Why docs 189 This room 190 Poeined (what it is for Warren) a) Key word 190 b) Surprise 190 c) Half- 191 d) Repeal 191 e) When the 191 J) Only words 192 Weinberg’ 192 One-stop trains 193 Bow-tied 193 As they 194 A dark 194 Autumn 194 Arcrca (Gauguin) 195 Seed voyage (Seliger 1994) 195 Her face 195 Standing 196 Berlin 1945 (for R. G.) 196 No one 197 The road (for W. W.) 198 Morandi 198 When 199 Dream 199 The parrot 199 Dark 200 Wind-evoking 200 M. S. 201 For my Rose 201 Rooted 202 Autumn 202 This autumn 203 Pretty 203 A tired 204 That tiny 204 Ifyou 204 When 205 These small 205 The golden 206 These fall 206 St. George and the Dragon 207 Madonna and Child 207 Some medieval 208 Taste 208 Autumn 208 Butter 209 Lost 209 For Mother (at age 102) 209 On his 11th birthday 210 The first still life 210 Annunciation (Antonella da Messina, Munich) 210 What could 211 With Kleist’ 211 If we stand 212 Returned 212 Weinberg (1st solo cello sonata) 213 Childing 213 Otherwise 214 For Rosemarie 214 Moon-souling 215 The Siena 215 No answers 216 Reiterquartett (Haydn op. 74,3; last mvt.) 216 Harvest 216 Predator 217 As the Adam 217 Dark imag 218 Mosquit 218 Even at 219 Life 219 Rewritten 220 Oneness 220 Chamber Symphony (Weinberg 1992) 221 N ' 221 Was it 222 Unseen 222 Weinberg’ 223 A church 224 Meyer-Amden’ 224 Are these 225 Unsaid 225 If taste 226 A stain 226 How can 227 When speed 227 In to the 227 Too late I 228 Teacher’ (Dr. Voltz) 228 Annunciation 229 Even 229 Some of us 230 A last chance 230 Mantegna 230 Gladioles 231 His tie 231 The heaven 231 Jacopo 232 When her 232 Age 233 Illmensee 233 The fog 233 “Finding yourself’ 234 Holding on 234 Pedestailed 235 Lightmeres 235 Train stat 236 A world 236 Jeweller 236 Is 237 The blind 237 Colorings (4) a) Autumn 238 b) Pin-wheeled 238 c) Butter 239 Marians Vesper (Monteverdi) d) contrast 239 “One-track-mind” 240 For Rosemarie 240 Paws-down 241 Serioso Quartet (op. 95, Beethoven) 241 Preaching 242 There 242 Middle- 243 Beethoven 243 Our skin 244 Waiting room 244 Forbidden fruits 245 Quartet 1 (Schonberg, 1st mvt.) 245 Quartet op. 20,3 (Haydn slow mvt.) 246 Mooned (for Rosemarie) 246 His own way 247 Closer 247 Wind 248 To keep busy 248 “Open ended” 249 Chilean 249 Concert (Munich, Oct. 14) a) Piatto/Woodwitid Quintet’ (Mozart, k. 452) 250 b) Trout Quintet (Schubert, slow nwt.) 250 c) Piano Quintet (Dvorak, slow nwt.) 250 d) Piano Concerto’ no. 11 (Haydn, last mvt.) 251 These star 251 Raphael 252 Raven sburg’ 252 Dark 253 Self-revealing 253 Death-processional 254 Dead 254 When lang 255 The family’ 255 Penthesilia (Kleist) (5) a) way ahead of 256 b) Penthesilia 256 c) She did it 257 d) Love-to-death 257 e) Where those 257 Orchid 258 Rain 258 The time 259 Rain 259 Wasn’t 260 The home 260 If man’s 261 Cheer-leading 261 For Chung 262 When 263 For Rosemarie 263 The touch 264 Purim 264 Israel’ 265 Soul-descending 265 That late 266 Dark motion 266 These leaf- 267 Mother 267 “The last one” 268 Wilhelmina 1 269 Wilhelmina 11 270 Money girl 270 Richard III (Shakespeare) a) ‘‘a horse for 271 b) Richard 271 c) Evil 272 Not yet for healing 272 Last chance 273 Kingdom of darkness 273 Changed 274 At 73 274 African fantasy 274 Hunting-eyes 275 Found-out 275 Arcarea (Gauguin) 276 The alligator 276 Learning from books (3) a) Sie knew 276 b) a iwo-sid 276 c) her dream 277 Learning from life (2) a) The world 277 b) always Til Autumn’ 278 To mind him 278 The scape 279 Spidered 279 Ergo 280 The Gauguin (La Orana Maria) 280 The Jew 281 The thought 281 Are the 282 Goodness 282 The distant 283 Light-screaked 283 A sell 284 Poems from Crete 2010 a) Shrub- 284 b) The mount 285 c) The sound 285 d) Our hotel 286 e) A butter 286 f) The caqyet e 286 0) Pomograti 287 hj At Chersonisos 287 1) These mass 287 j) Silent mem 288 k) The harbor 288 l) Light-phasings 288 m) A rcade ’ 289 n) The tired 289 o) The tide 289 p) A court 290 q) Tile 290 r) The scare 290 s) Perhap 291 t) One can’ 291 u) Grass can' 291 v) That aban 292 w) Street 292 x) Aron 292 y) A letia 293 z) Blind alley 293 aa) When 293 bb) Sea-salt 294 cc) He sat 294 dd) He became 294 ee) Ktiossos (9) 295 iff) 2. Blood- 295 gg)3. Opened 296 hit) 4. Blue ladies 296 ii) 5. Wave-curv 296 jj) 6. Linear 297 kk) 7. Cyclade 297 U) 8. Bull-spring 291 mm) 9. Dolphins 298 nn) Isolat 298 oo) This cliff- 299 pp) Warned 299 qq) The poem 299 rr) Night 300 ss) Out of 300 It) Light-spending 301 uu) Birds 301 vv) Out 301 ww) Mythed 302 xx) War-minded 302 yy) Dreamed- 302 zz) After Brueghel 303 aaa) At Knossos 303 bbb) Light-panor 303 ccc) A white- 304 ddd) People 304 eee) Either way 305 fff) At parting (for the 4 A’s) 305 Silence 306 For Rosemarie 306 2"d Commandment (Moses) 307 Vacant 307 For many 308 1st Sextet op. 18 (Brahms) 308 Those left behind 309 Out-of-bounds (an answer) 309 Uncle Irving 310 Wintered 310 Ice-skat 311 Ice-fish 311 For closure 312 In the dark 312 Poems (from Alsfeld, to and from) ll a) Wind-thoughts 313 b) The inert 313 c) Late autumn ’ 313 d) After-sensed 314 e) When 314 J) It’s blu 315 g) Wilhelm 315 h) Tivo-lined 315 i) Passing 316 j) Curtain 316 k) Dead-tir 317 l) Wind-rain 317 m) Giraffed 317 ti) Brahms’ 318 o) 1001 318 p) Do the 318 q) Dried berr 319 r) Leafed- va 319 s) Doesti ’ 319 t) Rows of 320 u) Time-sitting 320 v) Curtain 321 w) A life-view 321 x) One could 322 y) Alfeld’ 322 z) Some 323 aa) The light 323 bb) Rows of 323 cc) Stairs se 324 dd) A moon 324 ee) Trees 324 jf) Pink ’ 325 gg) That old- 325 hh) Silhouetting 326 Darkly 326 Interior 327 Ifl 327 Holding on 328 Foreseeing 328 Played out 329 A no man’s land 329 The first 330 Pink’s 331 The wash 331 These 332 Islanded 332 If guilt’ 333 Snow 333 Repentance and Prayer day Contrasts 333 a) Untamed 334 b) She possess 334 Day of the dead (Totensonntag) 335 Eye-shyness 335 Bow and arrow 336 Cezanne (still-life in Munich) 336 The pianist 337 Beethoven’s 7th (first 3 mvts.) I 337 Beethoven’s 7th (2nd mvt.) II 338 Schumann’ 338 Suspicion 339 Candy-color 339 An open-un 339 Is this 340 Cezanne’ (Munich 1870) 340 Night-light’ 341 Smoke- 341 Kaminski’ (Psalm 130) 341 Life goes 342 Here a dy 342 Tunnell 342 I saw 343 Outflown 343 The Boccher (op. 31,2) 344 The last Walzc 344 3 Quartets a) Hatp Quartet (Beethoven) 345 b) Dvorak’ 345 c) Haydn’ 346 Ambiguities (3) a) A turk 346 b) Liebermann 347 c) Jaffiti 347 Non-week 348 That 348 Left behind 349 It was 349 Angel bringing light to the dead 350 Italian Concerto I (Bach, slow mvt.) 350 Italian Concerto II (Bach, 1” mvt.) 351 The inner 351 A child’ 351 Cynthia’ 352 She 353 When 354 Chaperoning 354 “mine is the moment” (Andreas Gryphius) Against forgetfulness Writing a gainst for getful ness the e asing away as melting snow from what had landscap ed his mea sured view of time’s so elusive call mgs. Left behind The field s of flow ing grain we’ ve so sad ly left be hind us as if their seed wasn’t deeper sown imbedded in the depth of their alway s recurrent phrasing s. Star phrasings The season s however self-fulfill ing they may appear circl ing us a round as a ferris-wheel through a night of end less starphrasing s. “To the bottom of it” If he never got “to the bottom of it” as our Ver rnont lake with out one It was more those soul-immersing darkness es that kept holding him down to where the ends never meet. That house seemed strange at first dark iy inhabit ed I felt my way through its emptied rooms (each somehow in their way vaguely fam iliar) until I found the key at last turned the light-switch through my ever-loom ing past. Imagined (2) a) At the start of winter butterfly- thought s color ing his i magined needs for light-in stinc t s. b) Scenes of childhood (Schumann) as if music had become the true source of lighting the imagin ed realm s of child hood. Cynthia She learn ed so well always (even as now in her 60s) a school girl with a fict tive sachel of books upon her bend ing back to that scholar ly look of prepared-pa pered aware ness. The first light snow but a glimp se of time’ s instinct ively re calling. The less he could hear the more the world fa ding from dream-like. That speck of a bird sudden ly there excited its wings color ing a person ally imagin ed sit-down place. He’d seen so much of the world that he couldn’ t find him self back to where home had become but a stopover station. In-coming He felt the snow incoming the way animal s predeciph ering a close ness of light and air that needed the soon of re lease. He closed his eyes in to that darkawareness of those soundless depths with in. Sized-down He needed to be sized-down to where his clothes could fit tightly secure. Waiting with only the window s listen ing in or out becoming transpar ently alone. To touch ever-clos er to the sounds of color mg lightvoiced. Mendelssohn (Trio op. 66, slow mvt.) A simpli city of song as a truth al ways known Now merg ing in to voiced re sponse. Eb (minor Trio, Haydn) as remote as that key a seldom sadness that touch ed through his vague ly afar oft' from. mirror tabl ed-alone reflect ing thought s he’d al ways seen but never really known. An over flow of leave s clouding the winds in solemn remem brance. Widowed Coming home to a house emptied of his being there increa singly shad owed. Dark rain’s pre vailing shad ows heavy with the numbed si lence of all these satia ted leave s. When the rains left us burden ed down with the weight of our selfenclosing fears. Each poem as a girl firstly- dressed to a colored-surround ing self. Small bird swinging its branch ed becoming into the sky thm of some unknown co lor-swell. David (Donatello) more a poet than a warr ior here beautify ing a one ness of faith with that out reaching sword Christ would deny to defend His peaceable kingdom. Mary Magdalene’ (Donatello) s spiritual eyes aged with clothed-suf fering over flowing pen etential gar ments. Black-evok ing birds en circling the sky in to their cruel darknessbreeding in tendon s. For the Rose marie of mild winds that have soo thed southlike the current s of my irre vocable call mg. Climbing the steps of a ladder in tervalled to a time-re ceding full ness of grasp. Subdued silences (after a photography by H. B.) The lines of snow left an after touch of sound-im pression s. 4 poems for him a) Time had swept him a lone rock- bound the tides inhab iting his daily ebb and flowing in to the time lessness of a no-way-out. b) Feeling for others Can one feel for others not knowing their when and why we’re al ways on the o ther side of that not-be ing-there. c) Friend ships (how ever fully manned) though sailing un der foreign flags can’ t harbor when most needed at that lost-from-home. d) Only once Being pre pared for what can only happen once he tried i imagining (as he’d al ways done) still repeat ing that only once. Inconsistencies It’s those unaware in consisten cues that make more of us than righting things just right ly-wrong. Lost A. major Sonata (Schubert, slow mvt.) An irrepres sible sadness that took hold of the all-of-him rhyming to the where of winds invis ibly touch ed. Burda A wander mg ghost neither man nor woman with search ing eyes imprison ed in cloth. Palm Sunday Never was a king less of what He was supposed to be Donkeyed an eternal sadness in a royal city of misguided acclaim. Roman portraiture seldom beauti fied as the Greek so real istically there that one still fear ed those o pen-eyed in tendon s. Severalled If there’ s a one-per soned me irre vocably same ed Why am I the many-sid ed otherwise ness involv mg. Does taste change as or with time’ s revolving seasons unde niably yet my sterious ly sourced. Chroniclers Why that need with which they (meticu lously pen-minded) chroni cled their med ieval time s papered a gainst death’ s undeniably short-liv ed claim s. Roman cities street- plans all that practical-im perial abund ance layed- out as if soulless ly imper soned. Ca 70. AD they (the Ro mans) carried a way all the re galia of that onesome temple as if they could outgod it from the dark ness of His own indwell mgs. Faith is only when it’s be come more of us than our overhear ing self. Close-thinking as touched- cloth so fine ly felt as a woman dress ed and color ed her self-defining sense-in-be mg. A cause If we need a cause from that vacancy of self It’ s because we’ve not yet been docked tied-in from the rising tides of those self-reclaim ing wa ters. That house When that house was finely finish ed the dream of their through-to gether ness It stood (somehow) outside its own sense- of-being as if dream could become awaken ed to stone and touch. MoisSdC (Meyer Schapiro/David Finn) famous ly document ed with all (every-sid ed) that art could ex plain But the faith that created it somehow left alone for the monks who otherwise inhabited it. Church bell s claim ing the time-beat of celes tial distan cings. Garden ed in to the illumin ating voice s of all these wind- surround ing flower s. His mind a drift with the light-timed phase s of dawn’ s awaken ing silence s. Age has become a slow-down time of these indwelling shadows reigning ever longer deeper with in my need for find ing a way out. Organ music at St. Peters (Munich) Oceans of sound-soar ing waves to their golden ed-ceiling ed heights with hard ly a single tone clear ly discern able. When there’ s none of that little-girl—of—thenn shyly reced ing into the playgame s of youth’ s partly-re minding inno cence. Subway ed into a sea of nonreclaiming faces tunnell ed through dark sound’ s secluded realms of van ishing self- identiti es. Games (7) a) Soccer Have we been kicking that self-inflat ing ball-of-a-world round ed to its final goal ed-out fin ish. b) Chess with each move so care fully preplanned u pon a spac ed-out world that those figures seem ed touched even before the time to be telling them so. c) Tennis netted more of his downplaying fear s than e ven a spider could insect in-to a web of time-hold ing appetite s. d) Golf met the over flowing dis tances of his eye-sensed callings into the lighten ed roundness of a tiny well-placed ball. e) Baseball/fishing He left-field ed most of that sun-de dining af ternoon when the ease of fishing would more likely have awakened the pull of a hooked-strung mo ment. J) Ping-pong eye-rhythm ed reflex ed those met ronome Chopin-called finish es. g) U. S. Football left the field of com bat warrior s flatten ed out Much as Shakes peare’s her oic ending s. The tree s so still and high a hove the long ing reach of even these ex pressive ly words. Stream s running through the bare-faced stone’s glis tening aware nesses. Climb ing roses beyond the breadth of their coloring find s. Old Black Joe (Steven Forster) cotton ed me to the time less aging of those picked-out fields that have left me just as bated and barr en as that black man’ s calling. “Swing low sweet char iot” I heard the silent arc of its slowly draw ing near but the angels (I feared) may have been turn ing their shin ing faces from my holl owing dark nesses. “Fayfrom the maddening (Hardy) crowd” an in timacy of just-between- us that spac ed a unity of touched-phrasing s. Holding back If you don’ t say what you think (wisely dis creet) the thinking may become ever louder while hold mg itself back. Schubertiade Always with friends twovoiced in the midst of sur rounding loneliness. Blued The sky blued in to the depth of its always finding there. Look ing the o ther way un til that o ther way take s one off on its own oneway of timed- forgetful ness. Dream s persist ingly close-sensed to a past that’ s now irre vocably pre sent. The wave s so soft ly reminis cent left her mind to a dream less world in creasing ly afloat. Summer winds breathtouching a whisper ing need for response. Curtain s drawn-down through a touched si lence that left the night faintly star-sensed. Is a woman’ s beauty more of a pre-form ing mask pro tectively full-length ing what’s deeper known than the wak ing eye can possibly con ceive. as if these trees were en veloping us in to the shadows of what they’ve so secret ly known. She took on the pro portions of her loss that one looked long to find those eyes once vibrant ly toned. The lake may know well the quiet of its conceal ing voice listen ing long e nough to the softness of its remem bering wave s. When the grass cut to the freshness of your first spring-smile. Words must be felt in to de sign the touch of their singul ar meaning s. He had that look of loss about him that one wanted to find what he couldn’ t vacant ly expos mg. A fish silver-seal ed quite sudd enly surfac ed that mir roring mo ment last ingly surpri sed. Evening bells silen cing in mood of these sun-fading times. The slow ing lines of the wooded hills merged gently in to the rhy mes of their in-spoken sadness es. If I could only sense the flow of her slight ly whimsi cal thought s might leave a faint im pression of one rare ly touched. The rose s small chaste with a childlike affin ity for de scribing colors. Women were once a better spec ies as Mary suffering the loss of more than self-denial Creating through their inner quiet a unity of home and fam ily Women were once ... Even the thought of a snow-felt land scape evoking a lasting sense of ser enity. The cool summer shad ows us in to its dense ly reclus ive enclos ures. Polonius’ Advice Don’t play the dead-down oldie stoop ing when you should be high-heading Or the grand pa doddling with play- made smiling exposure s Or the young er-than-fit panting for breath at un seen offside appearan ces But be true to your self if there’ s still a self left to be true to. The long- length stork eloquent ly nesting a top the local town hall im penally staling spacious ly beyond those lower ing instinct s of man’ s mostly sub ordinate claims. Raphael (our retarded son) He scarce ly under stood the word s he sang a live to a voice that became more of him lyrically self-attuned. Accordion sounds as from a distant time and place transform ing the where of now in to a longing for a world only remote ly recalling. There they came up the winding stairs a whole troupe of tiny children bell- chiming inter vailed to their touchassembling ac cords. The strange one Nothing to be seen except his hands tight ly-feared fending off an unseen though all-apparent danger. We lived each day a life unto it self a length of realiz ed meaning though each day lived us but mostly its own way out. Coming back We knew we wouldn’t be coming back He knew but did n’t want to know as we left that last time as if it wasn’t really so. If cloud s speak vague ly insuffi cent at time s it’s be cause their message re mains inde cipher ably ob scure. If there’ s a season of wholeness-completion it’s that summer ease that still s time mot ionlessly self-fulfill ing. These cloud s having tra veiled breath lessly far left behind a sense of their tran sient incom pleteness. Last time the room empty ing out until he stood a lone his voice unseen though still vibrat ing through his former re solve. “Not many (S. L.) pleasure s left” he felt resign ed his voice lowered as a room continual ly lessen ing from use. If one. could only live through one’s child ren their times their dreams their hopes as if re-person ed blood-cy cled. “I would have” as if I were he and became into that placetime would have denied such identi ty-transfer s. When two (S. L.) friends die at the same time he felt twinn ed to mourn more of him self than his fragile age could body-soul it out. For Rosemarie who’s be come more of me than I could find back to a former vacant ly incomplete selved-being. Less-than-dog The shy in nocence of that somewhat less-than-dog felt my hand s in to the depth of his eye-descend ing dream The wind s reflect ing their night-escap ing silen ces. Crowded shadow s echoing those un spoken not quite selfdefining thought- moment s. Listen ing through glass to the other side of sound less impress ions. Can thoughts travel dis tances of their own creating miles of lost image s. Sunshine words Little girl so prime-dressed that she seemed like a flow er posing sunshine words. Too hot to take hold of why I’ m still so self-assur edly un known. It became so hoc so long that we couldn’ t quite feel the form of our own be ing ghostlike scarce ly inhabit ed. Rail track flower s closely-feared scent ed rushed-upon wind-re minding dis tances. A round-a bout track circled him in to a con tinuity of repetitive self-enclos ures. s with that need to wan der to move on desert-mind ed search ing out secret ly interned. Gorilla (for Warren and Carol) s may be peaceable reclusive ly mount ain-orient ed But then-sudden appear ance as those darkly-savage dreams of ours. When a Jew doesn’t look like the one you’ve been taught to see and doesn’t be have that way either it wasn’t a Jew at all but only an ap pari ti on of mistaken i dentity. Some have been so marr ied to money that their way-of-life seemed as if coined far below its minted value. Isaiah 43:1 If we were pre-created as only us into what mothers most ly realize well before the start Why do so many of us seem cloned into the comm on mind-set feelings ot others. One of them He so want ed to be one-of-them that he imitated their speech took on their manners read their favor ite books un til fashion s changed and he felt him self on the outside a gain. First time She was feel ing us out the way dog s sniff litt le children scream, until they know more than they should without giv ing much of themselve s away. I saw through her though she was hardly trans parent Even her pained-life more a performance that took on a plaintive character on the stage of where she remained still more of what she wasn’t. The swan s’ wave-mov ing shadow s left only their touch ed-silence s behind. Mozart (Flute Quartet k. 285 b) ean chandel iers light- curving ton al-transpar encies. The holo caust twinn ed German and Jew in to a ground-zero of speech less identi ties. Schumann’ (op. 102 cello and piano) s year rhy thmicaUy marked uneven ed contours of romantic reminisen ces. A n assem blage of an cient statue s staring through their histor ic past irre deemably lost from view. That little (in Munich) Hellenist ic child so closely rabb it-envelop ing the warm th fur of its dead-time past. When art become s so close ly-real dia logued to the mind’s touch of spaceless af finitie s. A sense of sameness o ver came her the way cloud s cover the heavens with a oneness of al ways now. Prearranged She married more the way she wanted him to be pre arranged as an emptied table so fine ly silver-set. 65 years after How can one remember what one can’ t like look ing in to a blank sky for stars that aren’t. Haydn-gone- wrong his last trio seemed to find the true length of its rhythm ic being as a camelion turning co lors too quick ly to body more than those elusive change-overs. Schumann’ (Vpiano trio) s rhythm ic impuls inga once- of-fear voice less at its tone-felt cen ter. A fear that his pen would dry-down as a well shad owing only its emptied hollow ness. Beyond “the real” (4) a) Saul called up the witch of Endor from her depth of primeval dark ness that strange wo man who knew the untouch able secret s of what no man should e ver require. b) Faust and Gretchen (Goethe) lovers of the deep pair ed to those strange oc cult rhy thms of that eter nal dance- ot-death. c) Beethoven’ (op. 71,1) s “ghost trio” s eerie-sleek sound ing me un touchably through dim-silk-sens es. d) Macbeth ’ s witches called from the waste and water s of the mind’s eter nally blank- down dark nesses. Italian ate summer watered the cool-stone-touch of the moon’s light-apparent source. Mozart’ (Quintet k. 581) s clarinet soothing ly flowed through streams of unrehears ed light-sad nesses. Tattoo ed skin-blem ishing more than the sur face of one’ s falsely self-identi lying pose. Trite novels for paper-weight ed minds searching through with that lost-off look for what they haven’t real ized. When what’s seen focuses an intensity of timeless ly now. Desenzano that myster ious city a cross the lake with its silent ly time-e hiding street s. ¥ we’ve only become a ware of the lake’s sur face-sound s as with some person s reflect ing speech less unrecall ing depth s. The lake soft-down serene ly thought ful of its wave-like es caping pre sence. Money-mindedness That determm ed glassframed-tighteyed smile matching his mind’s irre verent money- mindedness. The glare of Van Gogh’ s glass-lit eyes star- flaming. That boat-ease distanc ing moon- celestial light-ac cords. When he found his voice im itating the inflect ions of a dead friend’ s aliveli ness. The bird searching out in wing ed loneli ness the sea’s time- resound ing shore s. She felt through the shore-resign ing waves years of her unremem bered past. Boats anchored through the night-escap ing winds but still be spoken of their dark and time less dream- flow. Desenzano city at the other side of the lake self- encompass ing the after math of why time had left it so motion lessly there. Pink checker- shirted his two-sided cross-bridg ed life-style of that most eloquent man-at-the- middle. Is a poem (for Warren) a dialogue with the un seen reader almost on e qual terms Or docs it help read him into those (until then) uninhab ited sphere s of being. Shoe shop’s open- faced model’ s empty-foot ed claim ing a perpet ual on-the-move rest lessly a dapting lifestyle. A multicolored litt le girl up swinging her anticipat ing eyes un til she sat so profound ly no-where s-else. His locomot ive spirit had puffed him out to a slightly mis taken middle-aged post- appearan ce. Do real people live here or only touristic im itations Sun-shine per sons weathering over a few weeks from those vacant appearan ces of smil ing hotel fa cades. T. V. took their eyes out staring hours-on-end through the soundsofva cant image s. Mountain s shadow ing an al most iinper sonal expanse of their time less expos ures. Hymnal trium pliant the final move ments ofSch umann’s D minor trio so self-suffi cient as if he’d re discovered Columbus’ world-round edness. Weeping willow’s down-phased mourning some untold though per petually en dearing loss. The bridge at Borghetto A passage of the mind this as if stone could recreate those un seen though still muted thought- steps. For Rosemarie Only through the wavelike realm s of our to getherness could we calm to the lake-seren ity of these self-surround ing water s. Castle at Borghetto s still shelter not persons but distance s between time’s voice lessly e hiding presence Madonna at Borghetto Can one im itate the timeless sanctity of a pre dated i mage. Business people’ s black suit cases elon gating the profit-pre sence of their self- conclud ing smile. In love with love Pink land scaped the mysteri ous calling s of unknown yet vastly beautify ing women. Bombed out ofher security- shelter ing self She appear ed more like a ruins of life-appear ing fapade s. Only in the se eluded close ness of Sir mione’s win tered street s stone-en visioned the still e choing of its awaken ing medie val past. Through whisper ing blue the light mist lifted to its own self- revealing wind-appear ances. Italian ate morning slowly awak ening through the cloud s of dream ed-remembr ances. A fisher’ s finger ed line scarcely touching be yond the self-immer sing depth of its un told silen ces. side of the lake scarce ly apparent dreamed through the mist of a prehistor ic dawn. My life’ s becoming the all of this now timeless ly self-en closing. Faith and fairy tales If we did n’t imagine our child ren through a world of faith and fairy tale s How could they accept a dream less world faced fact-down. A distant far-off boat drifting si lently through the mists of these time- receding wa ters. ied pretend ing charm of those dress ed out young ladies color s my mind and sense with the delicate touch of su gar-plumed transpar ent sweet nesses. A flotilla of ducks following the mother’ s nonturna bout claim s of float ing-samed obedien ces. “Newborn ” Why is the newborn so often reborn as Christian Communist Zionist that his feature s often fade and blend into much of that sameness of his former self She took quickly in charge color ing their marriage with the in sistent call of her voice-modula tions. She swing ’s into the cloud-immer sing realm s of self-re velation s. Intact (forlngo) They row ed intact to the breath less water’ s time-re ceding. For Rosemarie That smile as the smoothholding touch ofyour hand’ s so placid ly reassur ing as this peacable lake level ing down to its pristine inclinat ions. The sparrow hop-jump ed the speck-taste of an implicit mo ment. Upswing ing the child-like impression s of heaven ly release. A flutter ing laugh a bout her butterfly ing the less er hold of some unbespok en branch- length. Predated I knew too much about him to see who he real ly was pre dating the other right s of false assumpt ions. She couldn’t make up her mind so she made up her face cream ed and powder ed to a mir rored though not quite self-realiz ing sameness. Shoot ing gepard s in Africa Taking aim at her faith less husband precision ed to the eye-sensing speed of their failed marr tage. "Shake it off” they advised like a tree leafless ly autumn-spent But the bared branch es however tight held on tenuous ly aware. A calm summer morn ing the sky a silent ly spoken blue the lake recalling its self-same shallow wave s increasing ly ashore. Cypress- moon dense ly aware precluding the night’ s growth- darkness es. Amos’ 4rh vision These over ripe times too heavy to bear the weight of their downfalling con elusions. With him there wasn’ t any blood-link left him alone to a world homeless ly self-find mg. The form of our feel ings is often why the poem recreate s its self- escaping im itation s. Outfacing So many-si ded he ap peared as if always out facing from that self-con cealing center. That sound less boat’s slowly mov ing the wind s through their remote ly untouch ing thought s. Hades-times Where they more bodied appearan ces soul less shad ows inhabit ing these Hades-time s of our s. 1915 20 steps down-in those dugg ed out tren ches to the bottomed depth where death would bury their blood-sus taining fears. The “Idea of Progress” (J. B. Bury for Arthur Haberman) That great motion less under ground war’ s silent ly unseen death of the myth of pro gress stillstanding self-defeat morning swim cooling oft' the dream- flow through night’s darken ing pulse. mg. Afghanistan 2010 When all the ways out lead only to more way s in to a labyrinth of self-de ception s. The reading world If the read ing world’s (also) a real one pa pering over a soulless world with its own imagin ary claim s. Dream-waved This early morning quiet softly en tranced in the gentle flow of a dream-wave world. Told She told me with her silent eye s and word less touch what I’d al ways known became real. Phantomed These gull s flying the unheard realms of their white ness shadow ing self-be yond. Was it Monet’s re finding eye or the depth of his mind’ s envision ing the shall ow-light-i mage of that momentary thereness. Have these leisur ed waves been creat ed in Co the image of that moon-increas ing night. Gauguin’ s last paint ing that snow scene where the sense of purity over comes such self-longing distance s. The youth ful weeping willow’s more a touching- transpar ent sadness not yet doom ed in its all-encompass ing darkness- flow. Aging eyes mute the depth of coloring expressive ness. Dogs live timeless ly innocent of death’ s realizing their always- now. Burgonvilla flower mg through those stoned- in medieval walls with the affluen ce of color ing persuas ions. I only became a Christian through the Jewish ness of Christ’ s redeeming passion. For Rosemarie listening to your eye s star-mov ing these windless time-pursu ing nights of ours. A two-sided investment If she inher ited his age as she would his money spent on keep ing her re linquish ing beauty touchab ly intact. Change of place change of person It’s like re discover ing a street you’d once known (its shadow ing indwell ing touch-feel.) She-that Did I see her shoot ing wild in nocent an imals in Af rica Or at her digni fied desk document ing deeds of local person al relevan ce The same person or was she-that. Perhap s it’s that sense of re volving sea sons always s reminds us of time’s lost-becom mgs. As a Vermeer lady-room ed in those eye-touch ing object s continu ally rede fining their familiar self-ac cords. That aging sense of loss when e ven our voic ed-shadow seems trans parendy ex posed. When pain sits deep e nough It’ s become a part of us as a mouth or a hunger con tinues to feed upon its own persist ent need for growth. History (Altdorfer Alexanderschlacht, Munich) painting s only succ eed when light and space over time their visually in herent cause. Framed Picture s must be so framed that those aliven ing faces ol color and sound frontal ly kept in tensed. The older I’ve become inhabited with those longing s for a stea died deep ening time lessness. Apollonic Can self-de scribing beauty without the shadowing phases that immerse man’ s fallen na ture still re main true-to- life. Do women select their dress ed-for-color s to match an intricate sense of per son Or to ex press an em bellishing longing for another yet secretly hid den self-real ization. The great oil-spill If no one’ s responsi ble then it didn’t happen That thrust ing blackcoating death plaguing man fish and fauna from th eir dollar- and-cent’s re fining calcu lation s. She flutt ered about bird-like caged in time-spend ing hurried eyes uneas ed at the center of a no-finding- where. After-sensed It rain ed down to its silent after-sense until an un seen bird voice-color ed that spa cial-depth a new. Named He became named for a disease (famed in the annals of med ically record ed history) as if he him self had per soned the cause of all that hopeless suffering. That pale moon as vague ly decipher able word s shadow ing what’s untouched only partial ly reveal ing. Charles may have lost track of some of his paint ings so intrin sically his own outward ly displayed on foreign walls I write for an in visible aud ience as if my voice could still be heard dis tantly paper ed to un seen thought s. The Tempest (Shakespeare) a) Spirit s enlighten that island-world of their s to an un seen (airy) identity. b) Extra Nos Only out side the realms of man’s dark est urging s can he be come reattun ed to a spiritual awaken mg. c) Forgive ness Prosper o’s reclaim ing man from his soul less dark-in debted de signs. d) Storms can carry us through to those un landed realm s of a new ly realiz ing-self Or they can break this restless boat of our mast-and- all. e) The church can’t refuge this Jewish soul of mine from a world it’s become so much a part of my need for H im rock-of-sal vation from this ship- wrecked-soul of mine. Moraliz ing’s usual ly proudly stanced at the blind side of those self-mirr oring truths. Drawing the line Where do we draw the line if we’ve be come so much of both side s at either end as those 1st World War trenches dug deeper even than death could hold a common faith nationed a part. Aging’ s an uneven process Some look older than their mind would reveal while other s feel the call of roman tic instinct s wheel-chair ed and protect ively nursed. Violin Sonata (Debussy V mvt.) Muted mo ments heav ily held through the rain-ripen ing glow of autumnal afternoon s. Op. 41,3 quartet (Schumann Is' nun.) Short-breath ed but in tricate ly involv ed mirror ing dark ly imbued sub-strata s. A museum of science replete with relics of its own holy perpetuat ors as if man was en abled to re create the final reach of this inner puls ed vastly un told univer se. A room ofbared walls empt ied sound s as if nothing could be listening back. If Atlantis that phantom kingdom sunk into the si lent and un discover ed depths of a sea-down underworld Who’ll remem ber the doll ars and cent’ s faith of our own high ly polished-up post-cul tural king dona. Survivors Few survivor s even fewer returned that emptied land blood-soaked estranged from its still unspoken remem brances. For Rosemarie Beauty may age blem ished with time’s un yielding cause But it still remain s a lasting image of its always becoming- for-now. Wallace Stevens wrote this 15-year-old oncom ing poet “You must be your own strict est critic” I can still hear him now more the voice than that scalpel of his own mostly blood less poetici sings. He a woke in the midst of a star-reclaim ing night that even dream merged in to distant but still self-de fining phrase s. When the fogs came (as if they hadn’t al ways been there) We couldn’ t see beyond the outline s of a lost (but yet) self-emerg ing world. Kabale und Liebe (Schiller) a) When love transcend s all else even the source of its life-intrin sic being. b) Greek-like tragedy’s static per sonae hold ing fast (as little as they could) a gainst those oncoming ir resistible wave-likes. c) Can a modest. musician’ s daughter claim the high-flood of Schiller’ s rhetori cal expan ses. d) A choric- like back ground Miller’ s wife Hof marschall Kalb and Soph ia dead-timed convention al “correct ness”. e) When words “falsely sign ed” can pap er death’s all-ensuing claims. f) Lady Milford the lone Brit ain’s truly ten sed ambigu ity of per son. g) Wurm pre-dating the death-op portune killers of our time. While list ening to his self-reflect mg thought s a strange voice he heard listening intently back. Mutations (for Warren) A poet’s image and i dea may mutate from its in itial cause to a subtl er finality of mind-sense. Eden-time The air heav ily rain-sens ed fruit hanging an un touchable ripeness full-flesh ed the eye’s seminal grow th. Love-death One would almost think (if theatre’ s the rneas ure of a high er realizing truth) that love impass ions its own self-resolv ing death- calls. When his mouth ran dry pro filing those inhibited rocks sound lessly out pulsed. A t <2 loss (for Lenore and Doris) ol person re finding what you were (that inner pulse of former be ing) before he wasn’t. The rain weighted be yond the mean ings ol what my mind could hold Too heavy- encompass mgs. 2nd hand persons are like listen ing through translat ions of a too-familiar word-sense. Rain bows however softly phas ed still re mind more of the great flood than of those light ening winds of promise. rain the e After ver green’ s sheen of light-pearl ed pre-Christ mas star-sen sings. An unseen silver-sens ed fish break ing the sur face of its underworld seclusion s. Forbidden fruit at the threshold of where touch become s the lush taste of death-con suming word s. In memory (Charles Seliger) You canvass ed those pre enduring color s releasing in messages of sounding-accords. Do crowds crowd us out shadowing unseen ap pearance s or silen ce us in to a corner of self-kept pri vacies. Cows heavy with the weight of lesser con tentment s timeless ly wind-sha dowing. wheel ed him spac iously alight ing moontime appear ances. For Rosemarie 49 years on was it beauty that caught his re fleeting eyesensing soft nesses myster iously awaken ing instinct s as yet for eign to his void at the center of self. fly’s tenta tive wings tremulous ly leaf-ex panding. bounds the lines clear ly marked chalked-out delineat ing a no wheres be yond here danger breed s its own un touchable darkness es. An emptied vase flower lessly dried out of its withhold mg light. The Idiot Maybe he couldn’t think right but he could hold that stone tight to its numb ness color s. Rides They didn’t play by the rules they’ d never known but theirs which ruled out our own helpless ly self-pro tecting. For Rosemarie Do hands (their flow) stream us gently in to the kissed- warmth of our self-harbour ing accords. She (for mother at 102) who mother ed us with the wombed en closure s of a fami lied sense became the last to keep those resil ent home-fires from finally burn ing out. Does the mind see or is it the voiced-touch of these waves timeextending. Time-sense This late sum mer grass cut down to the scent of its intimate time-sense. He couldn’ t find back to himself but an i mage of most ly where he wasn’t. The map on his out-liv ed wall of a world that wasn’ t anymore Countrie s renamed boundar ies other wise that he began to wonder where had actual ly become of him. Leave s overgreen ed turning yellow that she feared for her sail ow face-mir roring. Ream ing image s as dream-spells uneas ing the sum mer flow ed mind-se quence. At 13 his first orphaned picture s that par ented the blank claim s of his un known ori gins. Too long a lone only the indwell ing shadow s darkly a live to the fears that personed her through-echoing. Pain (if nothing else) defines the most exact ing presence of timed- space. a) When parents haven’t been awakened through the eyed and mind of their child ren’s inre vealing life’ s renewing source. b) When teacher s have learn ed more from their blank-ended paper ing books than from their pupil’s open-eyed life’s quest ioning need s. Found-in Landscape s rarely re main static They move softly in to a view as silken -touch-teel They walk us through their woodshadowing enclosure s until we feel secret ly found- in. Sometime s he felt these window s had been looking through a spaceless view of time’ s unrecord ed past. Robert Volkmann s quartets left me un evenly satis fied with a world at time s out-focused from its own self-continu ing sense of source. knows more than these illusive unanswer ing quest ions. Formed A little girl with a light-color ed-ball lar ger than her eyes could hold the wind took its own way increas ingly form ed. After a Landscape (byJohn Marin) Rough sea s the wind s as if sudd enly alert to why those small boat’ s sound-cur ving. Sparrow’ s impecca ble devot ion to a finite cause. Shored This sea still shor ed with the futile re mains of long-aband oned cause s. Charles sought out the secret ly intense forms of na ture’s un seen design s I seek the same through the hidden densities of scarce ly unspok en words. Pin-up couples tann ed for just the right smile s lastingly-in-love as long as the vacation’ s sunning ly high-noon ed. Sail boats wind- surmising their ever- whiteness es’ free-fmd mgs. off in the mountain’ s highest en closing a sense of timeless ly there ness. These soft water s sound ing me in to the flow of reflect ive silen ces. Misplaced He misplac cd her smile d an evas ive sense oflost- phrasing s. Night waves dream lessly appar ent as if the winds subdued from their illusive shadowing s. The Jews who wanted nothing more than being German died in those o vens perfect ed by the highest le vels of Ger man science and technol Dark birds se cretly e merging wave-like through the flow of night’s re current call mgs. These sound less wave s as if a risen from their own feeling a sameness of time’ s repeat ing cause. There was something premature ly worn from her dead-cen ter looked-a bout smile. If man ’ s his own worst enemy Why doesn’t he finally face-up to what re mains so in visibly apparent. Lizard s voiceless ly inhabit ing the cold- stone-touch of their allu sively vibrat ing sense d moment s. River s find their own ways out instinct ively puls ing the land routes of their pre determin ing course. Amphytrion (Kleist) a) Two identi cal I’s talk ing back at each other (perhaps an inner dialoe ue) despite their other wise creden tials. b) Concealed i dentities (in the Shakes pearian sense) here even con cealing from one’s own ap parent self. c) The slow boat to Des cenzano wind-drifting e pochs of re vealing hist ory slowed down to that momentary now. Computerized He kept close to his compu ter always in touch as a lover who fin gers the key s of her feel ings and screen s her beauty far removed from the mode s of convent ional usage. Bird- tree inhabit ed with that momentary urge for short- flighted touched-en deavor s. In-step Walking instep common rhythmic arm-swing ing the o ther’s sha dowing same ness. These swan s’ supreme ly self-justi fying the ele gance of their statu esque appear ances. David meeting Abigail (Rubens) Rubens’ his torical op ulence over spreading the delicate- intimacy of those first- finding fruit s. Counterfeit She looked as if she’ d always been looked at that way a'counter feit of what once (per haps) had become real. Dandelions (in memory G. M. S.) may be thought of as a common breed But for him they be came a wide field spread ing out all— of-his-imag ined color ings. Tommy had that look of “ don’t ask a gain” like all those who’ ve outliv ed what can’t be forgott en A hurt at the heart of that no- where’s-now. Ugliness defies a 2nd looking back I fear ed at my own blemish ed Christian appearan ces. Adolf v. Harnack When that most esteemed Christ ian theolo gian refused to converse with a “lowly” Jewish rabbi Was Jesus him self perhaps listen ing in to the innuendoe s of that more-than-in formative non-dialogue. Short-changed So many feel that life has short-changed them High hope s meagre re turns they feel somehow specially cheated as if life it self had squan dered away its own unlim ited possibil ities. If one could only hear behind those unspok en silence s list ening aloud through a wall’s vast ly shadow ing under breadth. Classical cats roaming the ruins of a once rever ed past as if they them selves age Icssly oppor tune. Benjonson eye-pledg ed the li quid intent of even more than touch can seem. Did language begin as voice or as sign What’ s seen contin ually vibrat ing word-sen sed. That woman’ s cat-like eyes closed an intensity of night-glow ing awareness es. For Rosemarie The soften ing length of your hand-e voking smile s much of my impending darkness es away. White gulls as wind-recurr ing dream s increasing ly sound-sens mg. Brahms Quartet (op. 67; 2 sides V mvt.) a) dialogue d dense col or-finds. b) slow mvt. Where’s the classical ly depthed to a no- wheres-but- now. c) agitato (3rd mvt. passion ately defy ing all else but its ur ging need for release. d) last mvt. a let-down theme weakly varied to a look-back, for what should have been left behind. Beethoven (Quartet op. 59,3; last mvt.) where begin where end a start ing-stop rhy thrnic fireworks. Italian Serenade (Hugo Wolf) Ice-cream umbrellae d loli-pop? s free-find s. Langenargen lake-landscap ing the width of interior- withhold ing fapade s. Books (though prin ted out of dried wood) can recreate the sap-lines of a world’ s self-real izing. A good family’ (Thomas/Claudia plus) s oneness spaced with the breath ing light-flow of flow ering diver se color mgs. Dogs die different ly instinct ively realiz ing a death that’s been so much a part of their abounding lifeful ness. A cause She always needed a cause the way some women all-dressed—up to that some thing more of self-conceal ing- With him some theme s couldn’ t even be touched break able as valu ed china care fully closed- locked be hind glass fa cades. Tired spells Those tired spells that age use down to a bottom-deep where only dark shallows outsold timeless ly through. Dementia We knew he was wear mg down that way for getful of where he was n’t looking a side from that center less self straight to the eye-length of only that now-him. Some room s space fully attun ed can e ven open out the width of such unseen colors. Schumann’ s 4th George Szell pulsed it more than it sang to the no-return of rhythmic wave-streams. For Rosemarie I Thinking out a world without your being the more of me than I could possi bly conceive For Rosemarie II the blue- touch of your recept ive smile d me in to those realm s of sea- bottomed stillness es. Pfullendorf a small city finely kept rehears ing an appear ance of what it really-wasn’t. Aging If he’s still the same person he always was Why these in creased sha dowings at differing lengths-of- feeling. The sun after these long rain-spells de dared such a cool bright ness almost untouch ably heard. Quartet 5 (M. Weinberg slow mvt.) a ghostlike remem brance of what’s still playing his mind through danced-re callings. Amphytrion (Kleist the ending) Do “the gods” make fools ofour turn ing them in to express ions of our own ungod- like creat ions. Leaf-touch ed remembr ances as if their au tumnal color ings awaken ing his hand’ s time-sens mg. Robert never found back to where he’d never been as if lost from a beginning that started him out emp ty-handed. Still life (Mornndi, Munich) as if lift ed from the very-source of its be ing sound lessly a wake. Weinberg’ s circul ar sound’ s a depth- feeling empti ness at the void-center. Therapy’ s often a lifeless alternat ive to the one you did n’t lead. Morandi’ s picture s as if mysterious ly rubbed through with the faintly re vealing urge of an indelible hand. Uncertained I couldn’ t certain her to the where of my own becoming s known. Umbrella s landscape the color ing round ness of our impervious ly redund ant world- sense. Guardi’ s light-re fleeting glassed i mage of why the world’ s masked from its touch eing. Pin-wheeled When the words ran out as a child’s pin-wheel color lessly wind-stilled. Quartet 7 (Weinberg V mvt.) A loneli ness so con suming as if voiced in an empt led land scape that couldn’t be echo ing back. Totally im mersed when the problem s of other s inhabited more of him than his own ways for gett ing out. Why does the ivy keep climbing its shadow ing way up wardly light- obscuring. This room (the poet's) voices an intimate quiet of its own re ceiving a pre-given need for light. Poemed (what it is for Warren) a) Key word s that satis fy a poem’ s inherent tonality. b) Surprise endings that turn upon themselv es to a complete (as yet) circling off. c) Halfwords weave in to phras ing musical accords. d) Repeat ing image s seeing through those elus ive other sides from self. e) When the senses inter- create a spell-work beyond their own one-faced meaning s. j) Only words that shape and shadow their sens ed-through being. Weinberg’ s lonely vio lin trans cending those desol ate height s even of funerall ed ash-fire s. One-stop trains These only one-stop trains stat ioned for death closed- tight the fears of their blood-dull ed forebod ings. Bow-tied His words forgotten (however im portant they might have been) but his bow- tied smile d me still. As they caged Pound in his irrev erent abuse perhaps its intended bird could have ta ken that i rnaged flight away. A dark lake sunk in phantom s of the past moon-intensed. Autumn al shadow s enclos ures of a darken ing forget fulness. A. rcved (Gauguin) She fluted the flower s to a dance- semblance of color ing-light. Seed voyage (Seliger 1994) ’s minute ly celeb rat ing intri cate flight-appearan ces. Her face as over used word s paled out from their freshly blooded time-sequen ces. Standing on an immov able rock solemnly contemplat ing his al ways-need for distinct ing him self out. Berlin 1945 (for R. G.) Dark places sound proof strange voi ces uncloth ing his mo ther’s crie s vibrate his own in audible sob s left him always life- lonely. No one knows the way out of this one (nothing really spec ial about his return ing home in a semi-dark ness) his steps went only so far until they disappear ed into the thicken ing wood s of a timeless night. The wad (for W. w.) stopped un paved it was that moment that turn ed his life around to where it started no wheres but now/then. Morandi Rough and smooth sur faces that left those untouch ed moment s behind. When the light darkened and only the winds became sense’s nightconsuming. Dream ed-sleep un revealing waves of a time-sunken past. The parrot colored my reti cent voice with the caged-in wings of its shadow ing silen ces. Dark streams a wakening through the moon’ s voice less call ings. Wind-evoking Her hand so slender as reed s wind-evok ing. M. 5. Secretive she was e ven beyond the need of self-protect ing her own tightly-clos ed most in timate of thought s. For my Rose marie dream ily lightcoloring as breez es of a cele brating morn ing’s first- found open ing flower s. Rooted What became of what once was — You can’t judge a tree by its rough bark the in visible roots grow th deeper soiled to their dark re claiming depth. Autumn time the winds have blown their shadows in to these re sidual depth s of fear. This autumn al day too bright to realize the depth of its own self-con suming shad ows. Pretty daint ily color ed flower s ornamen ting the fa cades of their own darkly-felt interior s. A tired ness over coming of clouds that took him down even lower-lev elled. That tiny whiff-of-a- girl’s bright eye’s trans parently smiling. If you can’t de cide on marr iage don’t do or it will do you out. When' parents would create their child ren to their own self-secur ing image they’re mirr oring without thought of what can’t be looking back. These small white flow ers tight and prim lyjewell ed as if from scent and stone. The golden age of music levelled deeper seclu sively dark er than that mere appear ance of sound. These fall days bright beyond the reach of where I can feel myself through. St. George and the Dragon (Altdorfer, Munich) The shining glance of woods envel oping man and beast in an eternal ly envision ed light-depth. Madonna and Child (Privateli, Munich early 16. c.) as classic as Bellini’ s oneness of person ed-place statical ly sensed-a live. Some medieval paintings so lost in their flowering symbols that the less-cent er’s most ly fragile ly untouch ed. Taste and person seldom match a unity of other sid edness. Autumn night the moon strong er sensed than even the depths of darkness could heaven ly describe. Butter fly color s more wind-sound’s a wakening s. Lost she became in the leaf-expanse of sky-immers ing memor ies. For Mother (at age 102) She became so much of this world that even as times chang ed with her becoming for us almost time lessly there. On his 11,h birthday A late start er they call ed him as if the be ginning wasn’t then at all of a growing up after-thought. The JlVSt Still life (Jacapo da Barberi, Munich) just hang ing down a casual mo ment from time’s last ing place. Annunciation (Antonella da Messina, Munich) Maria strange ly reach ing out to an unseen world even beyond touch-find s. What could have been wasn’t the fear resolv ing ca dences of steadied stream-like after flow. With Kleist’ s all or noth ing a moral ist poised with in his own uncertain ties left him the nothing ness of hav ing said-it- all. I f we stand at opposite ends of our self-being the battle field of un resolv ing conflict s. Returned Ulysees and Tolstoi’ s Pierre re turned with little else to bring back than their long ing need for it. Weinberg (Is' solo cello sonata) cello ed me in to the in tervals of his self-de fining reson ances. Child ing My father could oft child him self down to their hop-jump impulsing s. Otherwise To trace with genuine ly ascrib ing finger s the geneal ogy of why he’s become so remote ly other wise. For Rosemarie You can’t possibly (at age 72) with that subtlely wind-describ ing hair of your being so beauti fully self-revealing as now. Moon-souling That autumn al night spacious ly moon-soul ing the dark ness from her self-pre vailing emp tiness es. The Siena of his fine ly eye-de scribing birthed spiritual innuendoe s. No answers When there are no answer s left only the quest ions long-lin gering as a flag half- mast. Reiterquartett (Haydn op. 74,3; last mvt.) croach ed down take the mark for the chase pur suing its own wherea bout’s find. Harvest moon impuls ing the grow th of ripen ing secret ly accord Predator A nest at the top cat climb ing steal thily paw ed to an in stinctual need for easing in nocent blood. As the Adam s and Eve s clothed themselve s deceptive ly hiding be hind decora tive phases of that other self-creat ing self. Dark imag inings e ven the wing s of the ra ven’s flight- encircl ing blood- enthused forebod mgs. Mosquit o’s touch- sound stirr ing the va cant air’ s blood-de cipher ings. Even at dawn the moon timefading in to its invis ible realm s of night-evoking shadow s. Life became for her more a self-dialog ing its ill usive time- flows. Rewritten They re wrote hist ory didn’t change what actual ly happen ed if not now why only then. Oneness A field of sun-flower ing the green foliage with an image of scarce ly identify ing oneness. Chamber Symphony (Weinberg 1992) Its archaic beauty so much of a century ear lier the kletz mer clarinet soulful lone ly express ively sad and o pen realms of distant unrequit ed longing s. N had become an apparent inclinat ion of her therapist’ s suggest ive-insinu ating voice dream-evok ing- Was it stone that he touch ed-in that hot summer day or the feel of his own mind’ s awareness es’ seeing through. Unseen If we can’ t see oui-self only through the eyes of o thers or mirr ored from a pre-select ive pose But if we list en hard e nough we can still hear the unseen i mage of our self-confin ing voice. s charred vis ions of his family’s ash ened remain ed still a beauty of es cape a world they couldn’t hear but through the living tonal ities of his sounding them through- alived. A church dead-ston ed worn down from its im posing shad ows to a time when they closed the doors onJesus and his discip les jewed to their inex plicable loss. Meyer-Amden’ s faint re miniscen ces of what could have appeared almost real. Are these flowers colorless ly night- awake. Unsaid Some thing import ant unsaid over-look ed that it plagued his memory re peating in unformed syll ables word lessly a live. If taste distin guishes the essent ial person Why are most inconsist ently prone to contrast ing self less express ions. A stain- on their past as with Lady Macbeth’ s no means of rubbing it off no night-wander ings either as if the morning light full of forget fulness. How can you forget what you can’ t remember History rare ly dawns on us as wind s over the horizon’ s edge. When speed train-length ed merges in to the silence ofbared-down resolv ing field s. In to the dark of where time hesitant ly touch-ob scuring. Too late I realized the resonan ces of his e vil eying me as a poison ed snake readied/cur led-to- strike. Teacher’ (Dv. Voltz) s seminar like malle able clay still-form ing in to a mode of more than self-de signing in stinc t s. Annunciation (Pleyendotff, St. Lorenz, Nurnberg 1460) as if The Father gold ed-chained history in to the pur ity of Mary’ s celebrat ing recept ion. Even these light winds leafphrasing caressing ly mild. Some of us become more what we do than what we are Schubert releasing music from his scarcely real izing self. A last chance as if she could have chosen other wise a fin ality of now’ s the never realizing. Mantegna cold/hard and heathen without e ven a breath of Bellini’ s touching softness. Glad ioles elongat ing the reach for their color ing-touch. His tie more like perform ing the co lors to his own attun ing smile -lengthed importan ces. The heaven ly blue Bellini in spiring a purity of untouch ably light— distanc ings. Jacopo Bellini’ s paralleleyed Madonna s as if The Virgin rout ed to a Christ-same ness. When her husband died only the tiny depth of a little— become-dog could lick her apprecia ting finger s back to a need for life and love-ap peals. inhabit ing a new ly discover ed land which had always s been map ed out but neverthe less became. Illmensee fading in to the mist of its cloud- evolving sha dowings. floating through midair time-sus pending. The fog s so deep “Finding yourself” You just have “to find yourself’ they said as if those mute shad ows darkly in habiting a terrain of their own could (how ever silent ly) answer ing back. Holding on She needed to hold on to some thing as the cool railing of her tilt ing ship se curing a grasp that de fied the space Icssucss of her own self-impend ing shadow s. Pedes tailed When those deciding mo ments (as if pedestall ed to a now or never) step down from their self-assum ing sense-of-importance. Lightmares Her train fog-bound in the depth of its own impervious sound ing out ee rie light mares. Train stat ioned in the wee morning hours empty- voiced self-inhabiting. A world adrift in the fog-light of its echo less self-i imagining s. Jeweller exact ing touch-pinned his finger s reliab ly sensed. Is the fall ing of leave s a sign of sadness or the va cant loneli ness of a world naked ly self-find mg. The blind singer felt more the trans parent light of its voic ed-through intonat ions. Colorings (4) a) A utumn al sound- sense d that lies itant inspok en stirr ing of predescend ing leafed- coloring s. b) Pin-wheeled That small child pinwheeled the vibrant touch of its wind-color ings. c) Butter flies inno cently coloring the un evened flight of their own self-elud ing moment s. Marians Vesper (Monteverdi) d) contrast ing the in timacies of voiced soundtouching the dense coloring s ofVenet ian festivi ties. “One-track-mind” Those plag ued with a “one-track- mind” may dis cover that missing the train could time-table them to the consuming vacancie s of obscur ed destinat ions. For Rosemarie Aging love continue s to warm us young with the em bering coal s of these thirst ing fire- finds. Paws-down She had that look of a boneless dog about her on-the- scent paws-down modulat ing. Serioso Quartet (op. 95, Beethoven) That kind of music can force the is sue on its own terms dia loging a deep ly dissatis fying unanswer ing self. Preaching the unseen Easter-revel ation’s like angelical ly transfer ming the im purity of our down-to-earth lifted flesh and blood. There he was before he wasn’t always s one step a head of where his feet were taking him down to the stair’ s bottom-felt blood fulness. Middle- minded med iating bet ween two sides that left her bridged from an ac cumulat ing deep. Beethoven forced his always-will self-deter mining be yond the home- for-enclos ures of class ically final ized. Our skin doctor’s Sherlock-Holm es-like light-scann ing whatever percepti ble clues could be touched-back to mind. Waiting room The waiting room filled with those time-shar ing fears that left each-of-them (however different ly clothed) as a unity of a pre-call ing presence. Forbidden fruits That scare crow (even if it didn’ t scare us) scantily cloth ed a field of protect ing bird-like shadow ing intake of all those (but for us) forbidden fruits. Quartet 1 (Schonberg, V mvt.) They all started be fore it be gan tuning up an over flow of “I’m my only voice”. Quartet, op. 20,3 (Haydn slow mvt.) The cello depthed in the darken ing flow of a child’s timbre of its own voice dis covering. Mooned (for Rosemarie) My world’s only become complete through your moon-en circling other-sourc ed brighten mgs. His own way He had his own way of overstat ing what ever he could hardly be lieve dialog uing a need for a temper ing respon se. Closer I grew clo ser to him than his stand-off ish-word- profess ings could decide. Wind still the trees unmov ed as if time-con templating the depth of their autumn al exposure s. To keep busy She tried to keep busy as if the thought of her being left alone could open out unheard shadow-whis perings. “Open ended” They call ed it “open ended marr iage” as if love always would need a secret es cape to its backstair ed down-way s. Chilean mine worker s praying the dark ness through to the light of their earth-depth ed enclos ures. Concert (Munich, Oct. 14) a) Piano/Woodwind Quintet’ (Mozart, k. 452) s inner harmon ically calm ed shadow ings as of wind-sensed cloud-trans parencie s. b) Trout Quintet (Schubert, slow mvt.) The water or the trout’ s transpar ent unity of sound-flow. c) Piano Quintet (Dvorak, slow mvt.) as if the world had been slowed to a self-contem plative a wareness of its own un fathom able beauty. d) Piano Concerto’ no. 11 (Haydn, last mvt.) s strange ly foreign irresist able dance d intonat ions. These star less autumn al night s enclosing even the touch of their un heard light-dis tancing. Raphael We couldn’ t get to the touch of those empt ied space s he left so immune to our own sell-relying sen sibilitie s. Ravensburg’ s sun-dimm ed warmth southern-im itating med ieval light- paths. Dark words sha dowing a woods of un spoken phrase s. Self-revealing If we could see through those secret ly hidden thought s of other s might bring our own to their self-re vealing light. Dea th -processional No death-pro cessional I’ve ever seen more ser iously in tensed than of those sum mer ducks en circling the forbidd en death of that lonely one-of-their s. Dead end side street s us to a no where s beyond the range of self-im pending en closure s. When lang uage began self-tun ing its strange (and yet vastly fam iliar) accords. The family’ s the last barrier to fall from man’s being freed to a lasting lone liness from self. Penthesilia (Kleist) (5) a) way ahead of his time’ s feeling to that Kafkaes que identi ty crisis but way oft (as well) from a believ able human frame-to-be mg. b) Penthesilia emancipat ed Amazon-warr ior let love in only-so-far as a sunlit view clos ed down cur tained to her overbear ing darkness es. c) She did it killed her scheming lover fed on the flesh and blood of her own self-denial. d) Love-to-death a passion ed flesh and blood unity of a more than life can hold. e) Where those dogs and ele phants of her animalled instincts opposed to the Greek’ s veneer of a higher sense-for- meaning. Orchid s holding on to the tropical ly color ing inter iors of this late autumnal glow. Rain drops prefiguring the touch ofVermeer’ s pearl- like innuen does. The time ornament ally clock ed to an artific ally stone- environ ed wall’s steadied-down pace. Rain winds cloud ing the touch ed persuas ions of these scarce ly envision ed inter ior echo mgs. Wasn ’t She wasn’ t what she was before time refash ioned her i maged to its self-forebod ing appear ances. The home less out on the street s with no shelter left but their time-endur ing feet. If man’s the solemn maker of his own self-deny ing history he keeps writing to paper over the flesh and blood of what usually turn ed out wrong. Cheer-leading Alena at age 9 cheerleading all the rah-rah dance-impet uating form s of team less self-ex posure s. For Chung Clean ing up clear ing out what she’d left be hind the cloth es select ed to match colors and touch-felt de signs the jew els not meant to sparkle but to cool and cleanse what death had claimed for the rest and its own safe-keep ing. When thought be came that blank-stare of his win dowed into a framed com pleteness. For Rosemarie To ask why I love you is like ask ing the flo wers why they’ re colored white blue and red I’m not I not com plete with out you Ask God He color s the flow ers too. The touch of a rose folds me in to the realm s of its through-fmd ing scent. Purim What Hainan couldn’t Hitler ful filled a dance not joyous ly triumph ant but slow ly inbecom ing danced-to-death. Israel s national hymn in the minor key of its mediev al longing s for a re turn to that God-given land of its blood-ful filling re demption. Soul-descending Is it the sadness of the entire world fall ing with these late October leaves down to the emp tied bareness of man’s fut ile attempt s to master himself and his sovereign claims over the many-color ed designs of this world’ s soul-de scending. That late autumnal night moonclouding me in to its surround ing celest ial bright ness. Dark motion less morn mgs as a boat anchor ed to the depth of its not finding from where. These leaf- descending trees as Adam and Eve with nothing left to hide from the naked ness of their self-reveal ings. Mother at 102 age lessly endur ing her child ren’s loss of their life- consuming strength. “The last one ” “I’m the last one” he said after a fun eral “All my classmate s are bur ied mostly here” I saw him wander ing grave stone to grave stone as if i magining the down-depth of his one ness with those class mates of his indelible past. or the power of the broom stick the wish-fulfill ing image of a minister’ heart Mary and Martha all-in-one the inward prayer and sermon-recipient of all the necess ary clean-up work as well But beware if a woman dared come in pants to the week ly bible group Beware of her penetrating eyes and not-so-closely kept mouth. and the power of the broom- stick-Saturday s cleaning up for the pur ity of The Lord’s Day the swinging of the broom the rhythmic im pulsing mod esty of her Mary and M ar tha’s heart. Money girl One could see through the self-cer tained way she dressed and spoke her hands a live to the shifting of monies taken in as if she could only be lis tening through the artifi cial light of that se para ting glass. Richard III (Shakespeare) a) “a horse for a kingdom” Richard tra ded his own soul for a blood-aspir ing phantom-kingdom. b) Richard tempted o thers (some times with success) for his amhiti ous designs as if a sha dow of his own self-re vealing heart. c) Evil justifie s its own ways not in mind but in the continu ing act of its alway s being so. Not yet for healing The leave s are fall en the rose curled down to its dy ing scent only the thorn re mains and those open ed spaces not yet for healing- times. Last chance Her last chance d it quick er than she could de cide and left her chance lessly un done. Kingdom of darkness Only Christ could affirm the depth of that kingdom of darkness that we could n’t even see/ feel oursel ves through! Changed It may have been the same person so chang ed that I couldn’t re member even less of why he hadn’t been so/then. At 73 death’ s calling’ s become as common as this leaffalling sky-hold. African fantasy Exotic names and their color ing over dressed-ap pearance s seemed to be exposing more of their insuffi cently voic ed-innuen does. Hunting-eyes If some ani mals can see the dark ness through their hunt ing-eyes al ways aware. Found-out A poem’ s that-al ways-there until it’ s sufficient ly found-out. Arcarea (Gauouin) Wild dog sound-felt in stinct ing color. The alligator pre-histori cally armour ed for time lessly mindfloating. Learningfrom books (3) a) She knew more while always reali zing less. b) a two-sid ed view of her own self- dividing. c) her dream s paper ing over scarce ly decipher able imag ery. Learning from life (2) a) The world outside those inner rooms of self refresh ingly other wiseness. b) always in dialogue as if life could be learn ing from you. Autumn’ s reflect ive not only when it spaces in to a solemn depth of pre ordained quietude s. To mind him It’s only when he him selfbegan to hurt the feeling s he’d done the same came back to mind him. goat with its final blessing released in to a de sert bloom ing strange ly untold flower s. Spidered A dark-view spidered him unseen in to the hold of its alluring phantom-pre sence. Ergo She at the height of her littleness stance d more hand s than mind ing her week ly rub-in therapeut ic voice-likes. The Gauguin (La Orana Maria) he awoke in the mid st of this bare-down sea son to a strange ly foreign feeling of densely con suming color. as Cain with that stigma of be ing marked-off from o thers yet as Abel most in timately God-invok mg. The thought of Crete abstract ed his mind’ s-touch to a bareness of sound-in flection s. Are the Don Juans perhaps a fraid of a woman becom ing more of them than they could so easily leave be hind. Goodness can still stand alone as an un armed warr ior over the fields of Freud’s con suming de bris. stone-scent fires awaken ed somewhere in die depth of his mind’ s vacant fields of a bandoned longing s. Light-streaked Shoot ing pain s they call ed its not coming back light-streak ed. A still life because it stilled bis eye- touch to its space-defm ing presen ce. Poems from Crete 2010 a) Shrub- down bottom-ground of a rock-fed cul ture long since last ing its time s out. b) The mount ains at a height of forgetful ness still witness ing centur ies of lost remembran ces. c) The sound of the sea resign ing itself to that un change able voice fate-evok mg. d) Our hotel in patio style flower ing an inti macy of selfenclosing after thought s. e) A butter fly’s wing s uncertain ly echoing its need s for ingra dating light-touch ing moment s. f) The carpet e longating into a mos aic of sound less impress ions. g) Pomogran ate’s close ly held juice-inten sing its me ticulous self-refin ing taste. h) At Chersonisos only the floored mo saic remain s ofan an cient church hill in creasing invisible faith-find s. i) These mass ive unspok en cloud s conceal ing a depth of celest ial light- j) Silent mem ories increa sing in to a sha dowing un ease. k) The harbor at Chersoni sos encir cled our sense-of-seeing its boat-awaken mgs. 1) Light-phasings Wind creat ing moment arily lightphasing s. m) Arcade’ s interval s of step-re claiming voiced-e choing s. n) The tired ness of a ging as these tree s shadow ing their in creasing ex panse. o) The tide s seem slow ing down here as if time were shifting in to the se curing length for a perpet ually encom passing warmth. p) A court yard flower ing enclos ures rarely fathomed secret ly intens ed. q) Tile floor’ s cold i mage reflec ting a faint ly incomplete momentar ily there. r) The scare crow scar ed no one but his own poorly dress ed thinly disguised self-deciph ering es cape route s) Perhap s the bird’ s circling lonely o ver the sea’ s unfathom ed message-wings still unrealiz ing. t) One can’ t read a per son’s eyetouching decipher ing respon se. u) Grass can’ t really ripen here it leaves an impress ion more of barely-felt exposure v) That aban doned scope of the Vene tian harbor at Heraklion imperson ally time-e hiding. w) Street lights o minous ly night-a ware at the dawn of their voice less pre sence. x) Aron nimbly awak ening fleet ing stone- bred impress ions. y) Alena at 9 more girl than wo manly round ly coloring her selfextending smiles. z) Blind alley way cat’ s stealth ily pawing self-decept ions. aa) When left alone to vacant ly shadow the ship’ s out beyond sound- appearing s. bb) Sea-salt ed scent pungent ly wind-re minding. cc) He sat there for hours silent ly contempla ting more i mage than words as if through a continui ty of cloudstreaming s. dd) He became too close to himself as a tree clutch ed down to the weight of unripen ed fruit. ee) Knossos (9) 1. Can an cient stone s speak in strange dia lects recount ing where rains and winds have left them so desolate ly unheard. ff) 2. Blood- stones mute ly sacrifi cing the un answered animal’ s rhythmi cally respond ing crie s. gg) 3. Opened sky anoint ing the col umned God’ s wind-implor ings. hh) 4. Blue ladies Three women ornament ally dress ed out to their hand- encompass ing eye-sens ings. ii) 5. Wave-curv ing origin s of where flowering s growth-touched. jj) 6. Linear eye-length ed the “ Lily prince” ’s sound-col orings. kk) 7. Cyclade idol’s arm-encircl ing vision of an un seen sit-down worldview. 11) 8. Bull-spring ing his e thereal air -enchant ing acroba tic somer saulting s. mm) 9. Dolphins peaceably coloring a world of vanish mg light- flow. nn) Isolat ing palms as proud ly sourced ladies lux uriating their lush- green heaven ly aside s from this coarse and nakedly stone- bred island. oo) This cliff- down culture of wind-de sc ending timed only now to the tide’s eter nal expos ures. pp) Warned She couldn’ t be warn ed as flash ing light s calling her ever-so-closely to that inevi table no- wheres-else. qq) The poem ed intensi ty thought-imaged a focus pre cisely un heard. rr) Night city-light s on dark waters re fleeting a tideless continui ty of sound- flow. ss) Out of the dark en closure of unremember ed time the world creat ed each (and only that day) anew. tt) Light-spending Smooth winds self-re assuring as a mother’ s hand calm ed to those withholding inner silen ces increase ingly lightspending. uu) Birds attenuat ing a wired evenness of sound less expos ures. vv) Ont lines of a house color-bare hold ing down these wind- climbing hills. ww) Mythed Crete may have been mythed from its sea-a risen shoresensing s. xx) War-minded body built to muscle- out those strange ly recurr ing fear s of his. yy) Dreamed- night as the outspread ing clouds timeless ly expos ing. zz) After Brueghel Children gaming life in to their imaginary self-express ive playtimes. aaa) At Knossos the stone- down ruin s of a sky- enchanc ing bright ness-cult. bbb) Light-panor ama of these white-wash ed house s message a tenuous purity of hill-confin ing. cce) A white- bred flower earth-trans cending the singul ar whole ness of its petalled-re fining touch ddd) People s can’t fully and freely live without the dawning past of their self-aspir ing heroic myths. eee) Either way Those who can see thing s either way may become in tellectual ly cross-ey ed blankly star ing at the center. fjf) At parting (for the 4 A’s) A touch of sadness at parting not deep and swell ing but as a slight re miniscence already in passing. Silence s (those thrown up at you as walled barr iers) can de fend even harder than stone. For Rosemarie It’s that left-over little girl innocence that woman s you even more attract ively mine. 2nd Commandment (Moses) He created himself a new in his own image that left God staring through those blank-down spaces of his. Vacant A room left vacant because I’ ve become a ware of the window’s darkness es being left so vividly behind. For many some quest ions aren’t asked but simply lived out as leave s tred upon until they’ ve become no better oft' than those self-same images down ed. F‘ Sextet op. 18 (Brahms) A rich dark ness prevad ing the con trasting co lors of depth ed silence s. Those left behind Do the win ter bird s (those left behind to the vacant still ness of their snow-sens ing shadow s) feel a kind of sad ness through their lesser winged need s for flight. Out-of-bounds (an answei What’s new (because it couldn’ t be other wise) out- of-bound s beyond that close-kept court of gram matical re straint. Unde living that most ly modest self-refrain ing listen er always in voked the last word as a judge wis doming the voice of un answer able truth s. Wintered The sun kept down closer to the horizon’ s edge as some person s cooled to those lesser vista’s self-re strain mg- Ice-skat ing the e lusive ly rhythm ic feel of sound lessly in herent self- escaping s. Ice-fish ing below the endang ered surface of our noescape route For closure A word less inde scrib able void as an empt ied pre-fash ioned well filling to its brim- needs for closure. In the dark person s become phantom s of shad owing fear s untouch ably pre sent. PoentS (from Alsfeld, to and from) a) Wind-thoughts The train’ s wind-thought s at the speed of hav ing been there. b) The inert flow of these hill s timeless ly forgett mg. c) Late autumn’ s green-down fields bar ing for co lorless find s. d) After-sensed Threaten ing wind-clouds con trasting sun-bred af ter-sensed. e) When what we don’ t know only momentar ily assur ed like your hand-pulse reclaim ing my vi sion of now’ s otherwise ness. f) It’s bin ing up to a skied-mirr ored through appearance even if the trees escap ingly self-fmding. g) Wilhelm ian moust ache glar ing eyes at either end of a self- deceiving out-timed appearan ce. h) Two-lined highway one-direct ioning par allel cau ses. i) Passing through Niirnberg even the name deaden s down crowd s of still— obscur mg evil ac cords. j) Curtain ing off dark rains of a strange and foreign city as if list ening to some un known where at the depth of his im person ing self. k) Dead-tiled Hades of an under worldly flow of time less forget fullness. 1) Wind-rain the curr ents of sound dark ly phras mg. m) Giraffed The wooden ed reach of that high- phasing gir aff lowered him down to an upward s aspir ing of skysensing’ s evermore. n) Brahms’ First Sextet continue s to intone me with the poetic stream s of its out lasting time lessness. o) 1001 Wax candle’ s cold-shine glimmer ing through stone-reflec tions. p) Do the blind hear more out of the dark ness of our strange ly-felt voice. q) Dried ben ies sun-ripe hard Octob er-clear Now as but a lessen ed remind er of thing s past. r) Leafed-va cancies dulled-shine of November’ s wayward light. s) Doesn’ t the out er eye of ten become us closer than the mind’s heart-re vealing. t) Rows of emptied chairs lis tening as hard as wood could be sig nifying some thing more than eyes or even ear s could poss lbly retain. u) Time-sitting She became so used to herselfby being no wheres o ther than where she al ways was time-sitt mg. v) Curtain ed morning still ness as fine ly felt through as these trails parencie s of light ening wind s. w) A life-view Can look ing through window s reveal a life-view as those o pen court yards in De Hooch’s paint ing us be yond even where the eye could be come timesensing. x) One could perhaps com pare plugged-in-music- dweller s to the cavemen of prehistor ic tim ing their per sistent beat to the resid ual accord s of loom ing darkness es. y) Alfeld’ s old e nough with its half-tim ber houses to remember why its past’ s become so time-elud mg. z) Some collect rare stones to discover un told color ings with in their own sound-bear ingtouch-finds. aa) The light darkly un told switch ed-on the sudden touch ot space-reveal ing. bb) Rows of window s lifted his eyes beyond their glass ed-through shadow ings. cc) Stairs se cretly climb mg the cir cling of some- other-thought s being left behind. dd) A moon less night grey and dead-drab as if the sky was sear ching still spaceless ly unatten ded. ee) Trees darkly e merging from the wind-kept secret ly moon-tim ed phras mgs. jf) Pink’ s youthful side of his sunny-set bright ly adorned suit ed that parr ot-like smile of his cag ed-in part ly subdu ing reminis cence s. ao) That old- <±X±>/ chuckling face of his reminding of a far liter’s bean stalk and the wind- rained fm ality of a scare crow’ s persis tent there ness. hh) Silhouetting Can the mind be silhouet ting reclu sive downtime imagin mgs. Darkly timed squirr el lithely skipping o ver spaced affinitie s to his in tuitive ly rehear sing poetic phrasing s. Interior side-show s the u sual could- have-been s dressed out to the full-length of false ap pearanee s. Ifl mostly see my own face through the disclos ing eyes of others Do they really mirror-me-back or their own decept ively recall ing self-con templation s. Holding on Cluster ed they were dried-down the last leaves as if holding on tight to their only-time sapped out. Foreseeing I’ve seen it before she meant but couldn’t re member the why or when but only this now’ s foresee ing. Played out A play in which the charact ers couldn’ t find them selves out only their shadow s echo ing a spaceless void. A no man’s land It wasn’ t too late (though there seem ed to be little time left) to where he took that same path as before dress ed in his u sual thought s but the further he went beyond his farthest doubts in to a no man’ s land with no possible means of re turn. The first snow unreal ized at first scarcely heard fall ing the night’s out reaching silence s. Pink’s morning dressed in the usual pink-blue of his alterna ting break fast ensemble occasion ed that outlasting brightness of his most self-enthu sing chari table smile. The wash ed over white ness of these self-appeai-ing house s almost lost in the forget fullness of the first realms of snow. These bird-felt wings word lessly de daring the lighten ingtouch of their skyinfolding s. Islanded He island ed some sides to his less comfort able person to(o) far off and mostly un named region s of the mind. If guilt’ s always where I’m not Let’s change its name to ap preciate more of the same doubledealing. Snow white house s spotless ly self-i magining. Repentance and Prayer day called oft the calendar a blank at the heart of a people to make way for higher (economic) concerns. Contrasts a) Untamed Some thing un tamed about her as cag ed-in ani mals night ly but bright- glaring eye s. b) She possess ed so little of self-assur ance that not even self-pity could in habit the most of her. Day of the dead (Totensonntag) the last day of the church-year As if death had run out of its fully armed arsen al to make way for prefiguring the birth of Christ. Eye-shyness He couldn’ t look me in the eye-shy ness of fear ing I could penetrate whatever he hadn’t found of him self in there. Bow and arrow He knew more than he could real ize why the word had found its pre-intend ed mark. Cezanne (still-life in Munich) it ran me as kew over-lapp ing cloth finding oft' to a nowhere s depth of holding me back/up. The pianist wasn’t built the way she played with her pre-sup posing pre sence lyri cally attun ed. Beethoven’s 7th (first. 3 mins.) I Those wood winds sound ing a call classical ly intoned to my apollon ic Beethoven perfectly measured dramatic ally undersleeve. Beethoven’s 7th (2nd mvt.) II perpetuat ing relig ious accords as a pilgrim’ s progress beyond the where of it’s becom ing now. Schumann’ s piano con certo’s poet ic lightstreaming an enchanted world dia logued to his Clara’s melt mg finger s. Suspicion Suspicionchanging co lors in the blood-stream ing out dark bird’s shadow ings. Candy-color ed matching strawberr ie’s sugar and cream’ s lighter tast ing value s. An open-un inhabited feeling more the loss of not realiz ing for space d self-defin ing. Is this cold-down city wind ow-eying my transpar ently reflec ting through. Cezanne’ (Munich 1810) s railstrip left me crosslining the light-blue sky’s releas ing a com ing or go ing heaven ly out. Night-light’ s lake re fleeting silent wind s and the im mutable i mage of these vastly perpet uating star s. Smoke- clouds as the incense of priestly prayer-aris ing the voice less realm s of an in visible God. Kaminski’ (Psalm 130) s double-voic ing choir ing the depth s of a fath omless deep. Life goes on even for those wind-emptied voi ces of burnt ash surfac ing from the blood-cries of their ghet toed past. Here a dy ing faith with thejew-ash remain s of Christ’ s Auschwitz- crucifix ion. Tunnell ed in to the dark fore bodings of a sleepless ly encompass ing night. I saw age in that baby’s inno cent face Was it those dark eye brows simu la ting what they weren’ t and that face-sitting pose grown-up to a fully as suming statu ed presence. Outflown A bird flew out of the winter ed wood s and left me shadow ing silen ces behind. The Boccher (op. 31,2) ini quintet’ s last move ment serena ding a Span ish open-night’ s star-re vealing. The last Walze (Schubert, String Quintet, last mvt.) dark-death ly dancing a final fare well from his world-re leasing plea sures. 3 Quartets a) Harp Quartet (Beethoven) dramati cally spaceopening the recall ing touch (as of a harp)’s time-seclud mg. b) Dvorak’ s op. 105 quartet ab stractly folk-evok ing ro mantical ly too much feeling ness. c) Haydn ’ s op. 77, 1 alway s in becom ing as if sound’s life-process ing almost cosmical ly related. Ambiguities (3) a) A Turk (the only one) alone in a fully-packed wait ing room I felt for him Wasn’t the Jew samed that way in the past an outsider His people poised (now) against my own. b) Liebermann the most hon ored of Ger man painter s stripped downed to his Jew ish roots nakedly un inhabited. c)Jaffin (as he call ed himself “the last of the German Jews” neither German nor “Jewish” ly proud of his false i dentity. Non-week That nonweek last Sunday in church-year to first of Ad vent as if the dead were in waiting to(o) candle their dream less sleep for that re mote star dawning so bright ly inbecom mg- That unchain ed dog’s re lentless ly still ed eyes fix ing her for fear. Left behind The bird s left be hind to win ter their short-sensed flight in shadow ing reflect ions. It was more an e veiling of descript ive caution not daring to touch where wound s could bring to the surface as skater s circl ing on ice of impene trable depth. Angel bringing light to the dead (Christian Rohlfs, 1925) transpar ently touch ing through the source d otherworldly light-i maged. Italian Concerto I (Bach, slow mvt.) As if the finger-touch inward ly attuned to the realm s of silen ce could o pen out where space has found the voice of its own a wareness. Italian Concerto II (Bach, V' mvt.) as a stream running through the rhythmic ac cords of its own need for stone-color mgs. The inner quietude s of Kerst ing’s souled- silence s. A child’ s meeting- eyes more of having been seen. Cynthia’ s husband ed his daily quiet-routine rarely spoke but then what his book of correct manners de dared to be social ly accept able behav ior. She a natural ly born and bred scien tist groom ed in that common stable when asked about God’ s wondrous creation couldn’t science that one in to a scholar ly accept able answer. When the news be coming more like a talk- down show’ s searching for a comm on denomin ator as if peace had be come why we couldn’t be last ing it out. Chaperoning “My foolish heart’s ever constant moon” chaper oning the ebb and flow of her kiss- aware d in stinctual touch. 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 of Winter, Abelard-Schuman. London 1975, with an illustration by Mordechai Ardon. 4. As One, The Elizabeth Press, New Rochelle. N. Y. 1975. 5. The Half of a 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 andjohannis, Lahr, Germany. 12. That Sense for Meaning, Shearsman, Kentisbeare, England 2001 andjohannis, Lahr, Germany. 13. Into the timeless Deep, Shearsman, Kentisbeare, England 2003 andjohannis, Lahr, Germany. 14. A Birth in Seeing, Shearsman, Exeter, England 2003 and Johannis, Lahr, Germany. 15. Through Lost Silences, Shearsman, Exeter, England 2003 andjohanms, Lahr, Germany. 16. A voiced Awakening, Shearsman, Exter, England 2004 andjohannis, Lahr, Germany. 17. These Time-Shifting Thoughts. Shearsman, Exeter, England 2005 andjohannis, Lahr, Germany. 18. Intimacies of Sound, Shearsman, Exeter, England 2005 andjohanms, 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 and lohannis, 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, Exeter, England 2009 andjohannis, Lahr. Germany. 25. A World mapped-out, with an illustration by Charles Seliger. Shearman, Exeter, England 2010. Book on DavidJaffin’s poetry: Warren Fulton, Poemed on a beach, Ahadada, Tokyo, Japan and Toronto, Canada 2010. “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 or less.” Edward Lucie-Smith “David Jaffin’s Precautions 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 Sewanee 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 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)