Dying    In Middle April    Honey Locus    April Along  the Crane's Nest River
Along the Clinch River at Dungannon, Virginia     City Inside the Blizzard     Night
 
Autumn, and Lady Day Singing "We May Never Meet Again"    
Summoning     (Back to TOP)
 

City Inside the Blizzard


dark storm-beaten city of stone
pure lilting of electric flutes
gold spheres bright as glass a radish leaf
nightfall descent of snow and seeds

the moon enormous, dull and rufous
light shines from gold slits of windows

 

he came to this country
with opals and aventurine to pay his way
do not think of him as man or woman but as the four registers of voices

there are things that outweigh comfort

blossoming pear tree in spring snow
fields of snowgrass
groves of white trees white leaves
no wind and cairngorm shadows at the
mouths of caves

rain falling the dust of summer
the city with its carbon heart
trees with pale-scarlet roots
zinc oboes playing
 
silver of rivers in the distance
ice rivers under frozen rain
the air is sullen as an old otter in a cage

he sang an unknown liturgy
and paid three opals to have his future told

can one read a cat's face
deep bright eyes that do not change expression

starcarbon seething from the sun's white rim
she would not tell him
the day that he would die

what do you call it, this world