Monday, December 8, 2014

HEART THREAD Parts Eighty-Five and Eighty-Six

85.

Every page is precious especially the blank
the story here is her round face her round eyes wet
nothing more to say hence ready to begin again
a man is a wheel on a mountain road
I’m talking tantra but to an empty room
xenolith they built the structure on as if to say
earth gives us something like a day
where is nurture in all this where is Bernini
the woman shape that taught us how to pray
boys in the clouds hair comes through the hat
the sun moves secretly from house to house
but no one knows the father.
 


86.

The breeze knows these
legends of the mother-house
her hands pressed firmly on the territory
noises annoy her most
no one’s children clattering in grass
and in the sky they mow the clouds
the mother-house is guilty of the sun
she made it cooked it over pine cones in her cave
till it glowed ardent hell and hydrogen
then she sent it to the sky to measure us
mind us little children and a rock she spat up too
to light our nights from tryst to tryst.

Sunday, December 7, 2014

HEART THREAD Parts Eighty-Three and Eighty-Four

83.

The square root of someone else lives in your mind
curious behavior of measured things
caught the comfort from the cushion and sold it to the skin
of course I want to anyone would but I don’t will it
if I willed it heaven and earth would have to comply
will makes you crazy wanting makes you sane
we live decently when we recognize our lack
a child is all waiting
how came you from so far and still a citizen
woke before the birds again still never alone
boat humming in weather of the mind
Mozart love-hate flute I want to kiss his sister too.
 

84.

Time is the dimension in which we unwrap space
we and only we there is no time apart from us
distinguish shade from shadow
one of them licks your hands
to be poor is to be burdened with memory
the doctor waiting on the porch alone with the wind
not many people do it anymore the young the very old
he opened his mouth and Persephone spoke
language is the mouthpiece of another
the strangest thing about the caves is that we think we’re out of them
this is the Dordogne the dream time
Athabaskan wilderness men with eyes of a wolf.

 

Friday, December 5, 2014

HEART THREAD Parts Eighty-One and Eighty-Two

81.


Just looking out the window I have no window
so you have to pull the sound of words apart
to guess the moonlight through
you’re riding on a ram up Mount Erigal
the three moons of folklore roll up beside you
slower than gravity, the earth cries
resist me if you dare, outmoded primate
mere folk, graverobbers, oilsuckers
foible-witted blank-hearted market-minded
lip-serve liturgists flower-fondlers bird-handlers
cow-killers ocean-sievers word-wasters
swooning philosophers, heartbreakers, men. 
 

82.

Picus four woodpeckers next door pileated fledglings
no’j day of the woodpecker probe for knowledge be a girl
the things the weather tells us
Marx for breakfast Aquinas for high tea sleep fasting
nothing matters but matter doesn’t know it
materials seem as if there were some other
language told me to be silent in so many words
read this as commentary on Book VIII of the Aeneid
upriver journey into your own country never seen before
your new arrival in yourself sunglare on windshield
I have something to tell you you have to tell me what it is
space between self and other shaped by two dreams.  

Thursday, December 4, 2014

HEART THREAD Parts Seventy-Nine and Eighty

79.

Talk turns into a masked ball with everybody
all I know is no one must know
otherwise the words don’t work, tell only the true
never the new the one you never
the moon shining under the skin of the sea
the long hair of the law the only power
windswept and sound pressures the heat that fell
from the absent sun so long ago
the weather is a spaceship bearing messages
we have to catch new senses to perceive their text
don’t be afraid to say hello we’ll all be gone
three seeds plucked up by a pilgrim bird. 
 

80.

Three are the gates of paradise
a blazing letter stands before each door
of course it’s in the dream it happens
it matters only when you’re not awake
the vast blue bird perches on the roof
wet towels of the swimmers drying on the rail
in sun and wind the changes come
difference is a molecule apart
there is no nurture in the metal world
bonfire on the beach atomies of amorous madrigals
but if I were a folk I would tell you clear
in wordsongs true as stones along the beach.  

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

HEART THREAD Parts Seventy-Seven and Seventy-Eight

77.

Peaceable vortex a thun is a time set apart
to be itself alone and nothing doing in it but itself
a session on the other side of the self to call it
door shut mind open listen to listening
kept wanting more of it the cheekbones
the tail feathers of equal length the pinions
rimmed with blue though they look black
magpies on the road in Colorado home on the ground
dig deep to find the surfaces of things
I am left with a zodiac on my hands
can I interest you in being me a while
while I sail your white ship into the typhoon?
 

78.

Woodpeckers four fledglings from a locust tree
one more priest one more shepherd
sheepless a crowd of unbelievers
a perfect place an island think of Latin
it never hurts to ask how red your poll
sweet predators Mavors’ insectivore
do you hear his chimes beneath the sea
no that is the wind that is Schubert all alone
no one paid attention to the clumsy instrument
the beak a young man has to know the world
I slept my way out of more towns than this
town or dream what difference she lifts her skirt.

 

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

HEART THREAD Parts Seventy-Five and Seventy-Six

75.

O the street the street is a hand that goes everywhere
why is there thistledown on your feet
I looked up mirror in the book it showed my face
but only as others see it liars and poets and thieves
maybe I also once stood beneath the cross
ponderous useless unable to help him
pointless witness of so much catastrophe
unless the act of witness has some meaning too
everything that happens waits to be observed
we are just iron filings summoned to its shape
soon enough dispersed and baffled ever after
but we know I saw this happen but I don’t know what this is.
 

76.

Analysis is his vulture
browsing on human thought
write it down change it later pretend you know
pretend it’s living steal rose petals from the shore
you’re only borrowing the colors light lent them first
I spoke mentally you understood physically
what are all those prairies for
the linked absences that define sensibility
fervent mistakes “ambushes of young years”
but I knew no worse so did what I could
the shattered teapot the car too fast
so many pregnancies in the lost museum.

AUDIO FILES ONLINE

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RK reads from The Book of Persephone, 22 November 2014 in the Woodstock Public Library

RK on writing, 22 November 2014 in Woodstock