A Gathering of Poems
Spring 1984
Exhalation
Clouds converging from opposite directions: the clothes on the clothesline can’t find a rhythm. No chance anyone’s arriving today. The dead are never coming again, not in this language or […]
A Gathering of Poems
Spring 1984
Dark Water
Mattress slung over the windowsill to dry: fat white tongue lapping at the brightness. Why do some sleepers wake up feeling empty and others inexplicably full? Family of eight in […]
A Gathering of Poems
Spring 1984
All Souls’ Day
Dancers: the saddest of all the artists. The body with its two words—defy and submit. The bells have not stopped reeling since dawn, contradicting each other, suddenly agreeing, disagreeing again. […]
A Gathering of Poems
Spring 1984
A House and a Vein of Water
In the bars that face the pier they always knew.Each night a house lifts free of its foundation,undertakes the long sail. At dawn it returns,nudging awake the still groggy formthat […]
A Gathering of Poems
Spring 1984
Open Window
Nothing to hold fast to. A strange bird’s song—gold needle, gold thread—slips through its own weaving. It’s as if, eased by the indolence of the day, even words have lost […]