(POEM ENDING WITH A LINE
BY MICHELANGELO)




               SPEAKING FOR ITSELF AND NOT RESTLESSNESS
                    PER SE

It can't be the imbalances
Yet if it has to be--I'm not saying it has to but if


               AS LIVID WORLD

The net balance: after the imbalances

               DEAFENING

My endless banner spent.  Covered
Head to toe


               AS IN SNIPPING A THORN

It isn't that those I represent
Oweme anything, but the promise entailed


               INLAID WITH WASPS, FAINT THOUGH DISCERNIBLE

A flatness
A membrane including desire
All things minus their outlines


               O FILLED

As for scumbling


               THE SUMMER OF THE LONG NECK

Some of them that do fish
Will go for a midnight swim, yet
Taking into view the soul's errant swim


               FROM NATCHEZ TO MOBILE

Irremediably shadowed.  East
Is pragmatic, south the verging of
Two phenomenologically pure states


               MORE STUNNED THAN APPEARANCE

Another way of putting it
Not merely the whole of the difficulty
But the parts as well, and not in discrete sectors
That have the effect of radiating logic
Minus its fragrance--excluded from the corporeal
Land mine


               GIVING

My eyes the days, my heart the nights






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The East Village Poetry Web
Charles North