#15 decembrance 2025

Here a warm cup on a cold day in the studio.
Here spilled seeds saved for next year.
Here the cancelled appointment.
Here the beautiful sunset.
Here the cold toes when I come back into the house.
Here sitting by the wood stove in our basement.

Orange Cosmos seeds

Here

Here a snail on a wet leaf shivers and dreams of spring.
Here a green iris in December.
Here the topaz light of the sky.
Here one stops hearing a twig break and listens for deer.
Here the art of the ventriloquist.
Here the obsession of a kleptomaniac to steal red pushpins.
Here the art of the alibi.
Here one walks into an abandoned farmhouse and hears a 
     tarantella.
Here one dreamed a bear claw and died.
Here a humpback whale leaped out of the ocean.
Here the outboard motor stopped but a man made it to this 
     island with one oar.
Here the actor forgot his lines and wept.
Here the art of prayer.
Here marbles, buttons, thimbles, dice, pins, stamps, beads.
Here one becomes terrified.
Here one wants to see as a god sees and becomes clear amber.
Here one is clear pine. 

—Arthur Sze, from The Redshifting Web: Poems 1970-1998

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *