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From the Genre of Silence (For M.S., in memoriam)
1. At home in this rustic valley: swifts and bees, trilliums and buddleia. Mud daubers bob for shady corners, in crumbling walls, to build their homes in. Liberties and Allemandes pucker up in the shade of home trees. On the cold shoulders of extinct volcanos glaciers grind their cornerstones to dust which stains chill rivulets, […]
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What Woke Me
not the minor quake but the dissonant taste of a paint chip
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Inside the Ghost Factory
Inside the ghost factory there are many small machines. They are very important but they do not make ghosts. The ghosts are in cabinets, though sometimes you may meet them in open fields. No need to greet them — they are shy and speak only with the greatest reluctance. It has been said that the […]
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For Fanny Howe 4.20.07
You clench your sieves and sift them out the body hangs like threads pours down its raiments rain-like The weather inside is never the weather outside That death’s head is just a symbol a distraction Spirit still follows In the textured plots we planted no graves but cuticles grew A house appeared Could […]
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Terrarium outtakes
Slept rotten inside your anger every hour reminder up early out the door scared to see you after • • • Not letting it get me down it getting me down • • • Toxic life ingredients everything has something in it too integral to be excised This poem is didactic in essence but should […]
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Recovery
I have been in love and I have been in the airport and I have been to London to visit the Queen. I have thought about her both dressed and undressed. Take my hand. I have been feeling ill lately, and my trips to the pharmacy have been of no help whatsoever. The old man […]
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Further Down the Purchase Funnel
Fat, bewildered days stretch into the distance Music becomes a clatter then music again The end not being accomplished by attainment so much as being proven to have been attained long ago a time when we finally turn and see what was there despite our having […]
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Travelogue
Gulls at low tide, unconcernedly quiet. Weather’s the only explanation. __________________ Driven inland (downpour’s approach) we cross yellow roses thriving among dull brush. __________________ Stalled here, we argue. Our words dislodge fog. __________________ Obdurate waver, my late portrait, take your […]
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Hotel Ellipsis
This is how I do it. First, I tell myself not to be frightened — it will be OK. Then I read the books, the ones that are already written. It may be a relapse but that doesn’t matter either. Gestures are gestural, but they are also symptomatic, procedural. Proceed three blocks in any direction […]