David Jaffin Wind phrasings For sixty-five years, Charles Seliger (American, b. 1926) has passionately pursued an inner world of organic abstraction, celebrating the structural complexities of natural forms. Like many artists of his generation, Seliger was deeply influenced by the surrealists’ use of automatism, and throughout his career, he has cultivated an eloquent and poetic style of abstraction that explores the dynamics of order and chaos animating the celestial, geographical, and biological realms. Attracted to the internal structures of plants, insects, and other natural objects and inspired by a wide range of reading in natural history, biology, and physics, Seliger’s abstractions pay homage to nature’s infinite variety. His paintings have been described as “microscopic views of the natural world,’’ and although the characterization is appropriate, his abstractions do not directly imitate nature so much as suggest its intrinsic structures. Born in New York City but raised in Jersey City, Seliger spent his teenage years making frequent trips back across the Hudson to Manhattan’s many museum and gallery exhibitions. Although he never completed high school or received formal art training, Seliger immersed himself in the history of art and experimented with different painting styles including pointillism, cubism, and surrealism. In 1943, he befriended Jimmy Ernst and was quickly drawn into the circle of avant-garde artists championed by Howard Putzel and Peggy Guggenheim. Two years later, at the age of nineteen, Seliger was included in PutzcTs groundbreaking exhibition A Problem for Critics at 67 Gallery, and he also had his first solo show at Guggenheim’s legendary gallery, Art of This Century. At this time, Seliger was the youngest artist exhibiting with members of the abstract expressionist movement, and he was only twenty years old when the Museum of Modern Art acquired his painting Natural History: Form within Rock (1946) for their permanent collection. Shortly after, in 1950, Seliger obtained representation from the prestigious Williard Gallery, owned by Marian Willard. While exhibiting there, he formed close friendships with several of her other artists, including Mark Tobey, Lyoncl Feininger and Norman Lewis. By 1949, Seliger had his first major museum exhibition, at the de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, and since then, he has had over forty-five solo exhibitions at prominent galleries in New York and abroad, including Galerie Lopes AG in Zurich. In 1986, Seliger was given his first retrospective exhibition, at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, which now holds the largest collection of his work. In addition to the Guggenheim, he is represented in numerous museum collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York; the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut; and the British Museum in London. In 2003, at age seventy-seven, Seliger received the Pollock-Krasncr Foundation’s Lee Krasner Award in recognition of his long and illustrious career in the arts. In 2005, the Morgan Library and Museum acquired his journals - 148 hand-written volumes produced between 1952 and the present. Scholars like Michelle DuBois - who is completing the first doctoral dissertation on Seliger, “The Structure of Becoming: “ Charles Seliger’s Complex Expressionism - now have access to his introspective writing, which cover a vast range of topics across the span of six decades. Today Seliger is best known for his meticulously detailed, small-scale abstractions as well as the techniques he invented and uses to cover the surfaces of his Masonite panels - building up layers of acrylic paint, often sanding or scraping each layer to create texture, and then delineating the forms embedded in the layers of pigment with a fine brush or pen. This labor-intensive technique results in ethereal paintings that give expression to aspects of nature hidden from or invisible to the unaided eye. To learn more about Charles Seliger and view works from his current exhibition, please visit Michael Roscnfeld Gallery at www.michaelrosenfeldart.com. Since 1990, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, has been the exclusive representative of Charles Seliger. Wind phrasings Poems David Jaffin www.shearsman.com shearsman@macunlimitcd.net Distributed for Shearsman Books in the U.S.A. by Small Press Distribution, 1341 Seventh Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94710 Email: orders@spdbooks.org Website: h ttp://www.spdbooks.org ISBN 978-1-84861-031-6 (Shearsman Books, UK) ISBN 978-3-501-01619-0 (St.-Johannis-Druckerei, Germany) Copyright January 2009 The right of David Jaffin to be identified as the author of his work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988. All rights reserved. Title picture: Painting by Charles Seliger (b. 1926) “Night Blossoms”, 1964, oil on canvas, 19” x 15”, signed Credit Line: Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY Gesamtherstellung: St.-Johannis-Druckerei, Lahr/Schwarzwald Printed in Germany 37050/2008 Contents A need for more 11 Stepping out 11 Always being there 12 That blindman’s game 12 Coasting down 13 The touch of 13 Origincd 14 Before the rains 14 A backwater place 15 Become lost 15 At 5 % 16 Germany November 9 16 a) Tlw wall 16 b) Haw these 17 c) No home 18 A) German youth 18 e) II the wall 18 The spider 19 Somewhere deeper known 19 Barely sound-dense 20 Brain washing 20 Light-revealing 21 Mrs. R. 21 The rains 22 The flight 23 Soul-sensed 23 Colored through 24 Transcending 24 Early Rossini opera 25 Toeing-the-line 25 Forbidden 26 Of dual response 26 In memory Nelly Sachs 27 Telling of time 27 Grammar 28 If only words could 28 If all these dying 29 Game-planned from 29 Animal sounding 30 Placid 30 Of soundless voices 31 I’ve grown old 31 Trophy-hunting 32 The horse 32 Out-faced 33 A little too much 33 Too quick 34 Stranded 34 For Rosemarie 35 Outlasting 35 Instinct for color 36 No proof 36 Passing the border 37 Christ has risen 37 The blank sun of Christmas 38 They may have been 39 Outlived 39 3 Piano Trios 40 a) D minor trio 40 b) C major trio 41 c) Dumky trio 41 Little bird 42 The fortress at Coburg 42 Train stations 43 Eye-keyed 43 Philosopher 44 Winter sunset 44 Cows 44 These hills 45 The first snow 45 Self-withholding 46 Crucifixion 46 Pink finds 47 Continuing on 47 On-looked 48 At the age 48 Sound-escaping 49 So stone-assuring 49 Self-revealing 50 Wrinkles 50 Markus Wolf 51 Time-eluding 51 A hide and seek 52 The source 52 Out-lining 53 Moses 53 On the Communist border 54 Mutely aloned 54 Waved-through 55 Death-confining 55 Catullus 56 The Jews 56 Schubert’s 57 The blind seer’s 57 Young woman with white headdress 58 Die unglcichc Ehe 58 Dialogued 59 Night-lights 59 Outplaced 60 Wild animals 60 Climbing the cliffs 61 Darkness 61 The wind's 61 Like a guided hand 62 Questioning God 62 The pidgeons 63 Mysteriously 63 Hosea 64 All these houses 64 Skin-awakening 65 Flying foreign colors 65 Those slow passing cloud 66 Of seeing-sensed 66 Shadow-boxing 97 Train stops 67 Lights on 98 The thing itself 67 Even-levelled 98 The timelessness of time 68 Trying to 99 This room 68 Freshly known 99 Transforming 69 Cross carrying 99 Unseen forget fulness 69 What isn’t seen’s 100 Rock garden 70 Catullus’ 100 3 Uncles 70 Where “to draw 101 a) With Uncle Julius 70 Christmas cards 101 b) Uncle Phil 71 In memory Edith Stein 102 c) Uncle Irving 72 Signals 102 Unanswered 73 Da Capo arias 103 A rain-down day 74 O Magnam Mvsterium’s 103 Voiced 74 Extra Nos 104 Soft-furred 75 The Magi 104 Lithe-birch 75 1933 105 Violin Sonata 75 Twosome’s 105 “2nd guessing’s” 76 Light-open 106 A light rain 76 These December woods 106 Still life with tulips 77 Dried bark 106 His funeral 77 The slightness 107 For Rosemarie 77 After a Roman painting 107 Behind the poem 78 The “golden age of music” 108 Herford’s 78 Outspreading 108 Waiter 78 Steps in sand 109 When the masks 79 Bear poem 109 Moon-apparent 79 My father 110 Realizing 80 Holbein’s 110 Rule-book teachers 80 Fishermen 111 Alsheimer 81 Charles 111 Dulled November 81 The room 112 Out-seasoned 82 A marriage 112 Torah 82 Ghost writers 113 Altensteig 83 Madonna (the Master Magda 83 of the Holy Veronica) 113 Little persons 84 This day’s 114 Altensteig 11 85 The desert 114 Sentinel 85 Christmas poems ’06 115 Her nervous laughter 86 a) A Christinas tree 115 If the words fail 86 h) History of the birth of Christ 115 For Rosemarie 87 c) The rose 116 Your lips 87 d) The angel’s 116 Snow 87 e) Christmas ’06 117 Ash-scent 88 J) The Christmas candles 117 Romanesque 88 Women 118 Schumann: symphonies 89 The woods 118 The door 89 Schimpf s owl 119 The churches’ way 90 Words 119 Was man 90 Alena at age 5 120 That evil-eyed 91 She 120 Rilke’s “Carousel” 91 His face 121 Flat-shine 92 Skier’s poem 121 Slender woods 92 The walls 122 Shostakovich 93 Two worlds 122 Winter birds 93 Why punctuate 123 Losing 94 Moon-timed 123 Piously 94 2007 123 Shostakoviches’ 95 The eyes 124 By the eyes 95 A sacred mountain’s 125 The telling ot time 96 Plum blossoms 125 Church counsellor 96 Plum blossoms 125 Those romantic 97 She smiled 126 The pelican gliding Soft night The city Sonic wounds The birth of a penguin Parrots At the psychoanalytic conference Spirit of the dead watching Flowers on a window Death’s The snow Appearance In realizing The smallness of things Transparency of Spider’s Slow-down Slowing down Rules of the game Age of innocence a) The countess b) Archer c) Archer’s wife d) A rcher’s son c) Wharton’s Ethel Southern These January His heart Little guy Card players Love poem for Rosemarie The palm Her Retiring Floating Quick words Black boy No children Captiva Bay March of the penguin’s Bud talked h im Running Thin-timed The fish Upright Slippery railings Spawned Deepening Energy-drenched Horse shoes The fear of losing Numb-timed Signals Stefan Lochner Annunciation At opposite sides Listened for Rudiger A museum On lost time An abyss Rain birds A quiet place Tracing the curve 158 Slowed down 158 Crocodiles 159 Gull 159 Security man 160 Wrestling 160 The beach 161 Little girl 161 Corkscrew' swamp’s 162 That seldom bird 162 Shell museum 163 Of new identities 163 Floating memories 164 Beach pauses Howard’s End 164 165 a) Bast 165 b) The house symbol 165 c) Margaret's 165 d) Wi lcox 166 e) Helen 166 j) Bast’s wife's 166 2 claw-climbers 167 a) Racoon 167 b) High-rise 167 Mangrove 168 Seminole Wars 1 and II 168 Swamp lands 169 Lulled in 169 Charlie Chaplin’s 170 Childless 170 Realms of silences 171 Michael 171 Feclingness 172 The purity 172 Officiating 173 Sleeked 173 New friends 173 Nights 174 An affinity 174 Trembling Racoon’s 175 175 Apparitions 175 Boned 176 Hollywood-like 176 Snow-dark 177 Birth of a leaf 177 Hedda Gabler 177 a) Personal 177 b) Hedda 178 c) Tesman 178 d) Livbourg 179 e) Brack 179 f) Livbourg’s 179 This dawn 180 Late winter 180 A thaw 181 Ernest’s piano teacher 181 Christ 182 Images 182 Munich’s 183 Airport 183 Sad adolescent 184 The affinity 184 126 126 127 127 128 128 129 129 130 130 131 131 132 133 134 134 135 135 136 136 136 137 137 138 138 139 139 140 140 141 141 142 142 143 143 144 144 145 145 146 146 147 148 148 149 149 149 150 150 151 151 152 152 153 153 154 154 155 155 156 156 157 157 Masterpieces in Dresden 185 a) Jewish Graveyard 185 b) Woman reading letter 185 c) Tax tithe 186 d) Fall of Man 186 e) Christ on the throne 186 /) Prodigal son 187 My Max Brod 187 A minor slow mvt. 188 A diminishing world 188 Ascencion 189 Thomas’ complaint 189 The question 190 Gardener 190 Puzzled 191 “Eye for eye tooth for tooth” 191 Can I forgive 192 Thinking through glass 193 Mean’s end 193 “The rest is silence” 194 Bluebells 194 An early Haydn’s 195 God’s eyes 195 Blue and white 196 The cut-wood 196 Weird colors 197 Categories 197 Jewels 197 Illmensee 198 Time’s running out 198 Each morning 199 Philotas " 199 Prince Philotas’ 200 Shoes 200 In becoming 201 Needed love 201 Eichendorff 202 INR1 202 Cyclopian 203 Voicelessly 203 The Sermon on the Mount 204 Dated 204 A windowed view 205 Of interior finds 205 Dark rains 206 Beethoven’s 206 Haydn’s 207 Preordained 207 Rushing 208 The purity 208 These dark days 209 The bees 209 Bringing down 210 Sense and seem 210 Littly Sammy’s 211 T. S. Eliot 212 After a portrait of Leonardo 212 Desert Poems 213 a) Death-processing 213 b) The desert’s 213 c) A quiet 213 d) Our steps 214 e) Beware 214 f) Have stars 214 (!) Oasis 215 h) Moses 215 Spring’s 215 These clouds 216 These mountains 216 The birth of a leaf 217 Wild growth 217 The horses 218 Coloring’s 218 Genevra de’ Benci 218 Shame’s 219 Secret marriage’s 219 Killing 220 Rain-down 220 Betweened 221 Concrete city 221 Masterpieces in Munich 222 a) King Jesus 222 b) c) Those two Diner 222 d) Mashed ball 223 e) St. Georye’s 223 f) Bosches ’ 224 Global warming 224 Suddenly 225 Crocuses 225 Check-listing 226 Mixed breeding 226 Time-intensed 227 Synonyms 227 The deal’s 228 Sap-pulsing 228 Pink’s two-mindedness 229 A seeing- 230 Sensed-seen roses 230 Rimmed 230 An emptiness 231 Sad eyes 231 Jesus at age 12 231 a) as high priest 231 b) Thejews 232 c) Mary andJoseph 232 d) Anitnalled instincts 232 Measure for measure 233 a) Not even 233 b) If woman ’s 233 c) The duke 234 d) Higher morality 234 e) Christ 234 f) Life 235 Lady Macbeth’s 235 Again for Rosemarie 236 Grown young again 236 No way out 237 Through-timed 237 “Dark comedies” 238 Concert in Munich 238 a) Violin sonata 238 b) The opera glasses 239 c) Schumann’s A minor violin sonata 239 d) Ravel’s violin sonata 240 c) Schumann piano quintet 240 f) “Wolfsponsor" 240 4 of the great portraits 241 The earth 268 a) Rembrandt's Saskia 241 Pale-voiced 269 b) Da Vinci's Mena Lisa 242 Self-expressioned 269 c) Bellini’s Doge 242 Why then 270 d) Raphael's 242 First colors 270 These cold winds 243 2nd Allegretto 271 Bluebells 243 The first blossoms 271 The fear 243 D minor trio 271 Before he wasn’t 244 Blossomed remembrances 272 Curtains 244 The bee’s 272 Blossoms 244 Colorings 273 Worn colors 245 The desert 273 The snow 245 Flemmish 273 Sugar-surfaced 245 Faces 274 Van Dyck’s 246 That edgy feeling 274 Truth 246 His hour had come 275 Distancing 247 The day will come 275 Self-attaining 247 Vintage early 50s 276 Chopinesque 248 What he didn’t preach 277 a) Perfumed 248 Our favorite uncle 277 b) Proud 248 Coming down to 278 c) alas 249 “How are things in Glaccamorra” 278 Tchaikovsky 5th 249 Orchids 279 Mirrored 250 Imitation 279 Spacclessly 250 Time-flow 280 The blackbird 251 Seymour 280 Funeral music 251 Not knowing 281 For Rosemarie 252 The long-lived 281 Purcell’s anthems 252 “Put on your Easter bonnet” 282 Twinned 253 Cold shadows 282 Moon-sensing 253 Prayers for the dead 283 Signs 254 Prevasively blue 283 The overripe 254 Easter fires 284 That choice 255 A tension to person 284 Either way 255 Off 285 The train 256 Old men 285 For our son Raphael 256 Soundlessly voiced 286 Pidgeons 257 Cat and mouse 286 The fields 257 “I thirst” 287 Poems from Klingenthal 258 Aron 287 a) Of awakening light 258 Crystallcd-spoken 288 b) A lone bird 258 Age 288 c) Sensitised 258 Atlantis-time 289 d) Of the Germanics 259 That snooping- 289 e) Timelessly exposing 259 Resurrcction 290 j) This tired snow 260 The swan 290 g) Phis room 260 Slowing down 291 h) The moon 260 The rooster 291 i) Witnessing aloneness 261 Out-timed sermons 292 Deacon’s 261 “New born” 292 Saxony’s 262 Beethoven’s 7th 293 Their motives 262 Marked-off 293 Remotely 263 Jewish transport 294 The river 263 Mozart’s 294 That castle 264 For Rosemarie 295 For Rosemarie 264 Wurzburg: Residence 295 Pink’s love-lost voice 265 Wurzburg Residence: The park 296 Requiem 265 Annunciation 296 Vision’s 266 Tony 297 Start-day 266 Rothenburg’s 297 Nussbaum 267 Rosemarie 298 Rachel 267 Blank shadows 298 To be first 268 A courtyard 298 “The handwriting’s on the wall” Image of “The church” Riemenschneider in Wurzburg a) Candelabra angels ca. 1505 b) Mary andJohn c) Eve's 1492/95 d) St. Stephan's e) St. Sebastian ca. 1515 f) St. Barbara ca. 1510 Mary’s church Skin-shedding Track-lines Pink’s Spitzweg’s Spitzwcg II for Ernst The psychoworld Sleep St. Margareta Spitzwegean These corridors Buttered Rain coming “Caught a cold" Alice in Wonderland a) She may b) Nonsense c) We all d) Who's A lice Relentlessly holding Reading Corot’s Illuminated manuscripts Human Nathaniel Pink Landmarks The dead Lost The old windmill At sundown Byrd: Mass for 5 Voices Schumann op. 12 Wolff s spies Formed True-telling stones Utc Schiller: Joan of Arc a) Does b) Joan was c) He saved d) Joan Autistically in mourning Isaac Babel The jewelled necklace Closer Clarinet’s Nathaniel Pink’s Drying up Unframing That vacancy of wind Pity’s Chagall’s Esther Commas Heinz Samson 327 Quick-stepped 327 Evergreens 328 Lake of Garda at Campione 328 Implied 328 Twinncd-fcelings 329 For Rosemarie 330 A quiet snow 330 Cloud-invoking 331 The Bacchae 331 a) The enemie' 331 b) Pen the ns 332 c) Wine 332 d) Caravaggio’s Bacchus 332 Smoke-clouds 333 Menorah 333 A void 334 Karl Marx City 334 The Pharisee’s 335 Magritte’s 335 Otherwise 335 Glassed remembrances 336 Of its speechless thoughts 336 Little old ladies 337 Wind-phrasing 337 Amputated 338 Rembrandt in the 40s 338 Incomplete 339 Unlimited possibilities 339 June 22/08 340 Thunder 341 The blank end 341 Wind-aspiring 341 A mythical power 342 After the rains 342 Too hot 343 Books 343 Waiting 343 That Monet for Ernst 344 Wall-flowered 344 Hemingway 345 Of inner intent 346 Alone 346 Tensed 347 Insect’s 347 Mary Poppins 348 The piano man’s 348 Adrift 349 Defiantly 349 Predator 350 Janacek’s 2nd quartet 350 Quicker 351 Fathered 351 ForS. L. 352 299 299 300 300 300 300 3()! 301 301 302 302 303 303 303 304 3( )5 305 306 306 307 307 308 308 308 308 309 309 309 310 310 311 311 312 312 313 314 314 315 315 316 316 317 317 318 318 319 319 319 320 320 320 321 321 322 322 323 323 324 324 325 325 325 326 A need for more He awoke each day with a need for more An emptiness at heart as if his lake had been drain ed of all its watering sources and left him bare- ground-aloned to the expos ures of those nakedly inha biting wind s. Stepping out to a no man’ s world before he knew the where of his catching up to himself as if shadow s had been taught to lis ten. Always being there He knew it was coming (one sense s such thing s at each stop) as the train slow ed to an ap pcarance of it’s always being there. That blindman’sgame we played as children helpless ly numbed from that see- touching-light we wander cd through a darkened world of never find ing. Coasting down those snow- sliding hill s with the ease of not caring the why or where of that al ways reced ing from. The touch of A child fear ful of the dark-spread ing night he needed the touch of some thing soft and smooth to ease him selfback to where light could suffuse his very be ing. Origined He learn ed through touch to see why words could be the way they mean. Before the mins came we felt (somewhere in those hidden irre trievable places of self) a silence so incomplete yet needing a loud for those unheard va cancies of touch. A backwater place of dark in tendon s Water co alesces here into the deep of their under sensed mean ings And their kind of laugh ter hurts most impli citly remind ing of hidden recoiling temptation s. Become lost She had a face about her as when times become lost and there’s no history left for finding them out. At 5 % The bank ere dited him in to a lost house and home and a soul eaten out with the pains of re gret face lessly at 5 %. Germany November 9 a) The wall fell divid mg a people from itself same day the synagog ues burning through the broken glass of pain re fleeting a day of fear and blood dancing now in joyful oneness. b) Have these fallen leave s forgott cn with only the blood stains left dried and collected burned in to sheaves of fire and smoke. c) No home except in the need for one a long ing for what isn’t The Ger man-Jew once called off the map here neither really Ger man nor Jew resettling the buried hope s of what once was call ed for home. d) German youth taugh t to re member what they’d never known as if history wasn’ t more than being there now of then. e) If the wall fell did the Salomonian curse fall with it A people di vided from it self now one with their vvall-divid ing past. The spider sudden ly there Bigger than my eyes could sec him Black er than his instinct s could re veal my pain- sensed fear ed through. Somewhere deeper known Do we per son our voice Or is it somewhere deeper known the hollow echoing of a drained-down well. Barely sound-dense When they took those picture s down room ed in for co loring over a nakedness barely sound-dense. Brain washing They call ed him guilty long enough with such a persuasive guise of see ing him through until he be came innocent ly guilty of believing what he wasn’ t. Light-revealing This cool ed-down Oct oberday with the for saken trees stripped of much of their meaning and the barren stones touch ing so hard as they could light-re vealing. Mrs. R. She sat there on a semi-harden ed chair in tently list ening Eyes and dress thought-appar ent as a close and cold winter night star-studded ab stractly de fining. The mins darken mg in to a world of muted flow ers that touched a sadness through though re motely un heard. The flight The birds mountain ed through those long ing height s of fear left in shad ows behind almost weight lessly en during. Soul-sensed After sea son the swan s reclaim ing a birth ed-through whiteness of waves par ting with the winds soul- sensed. Colored through The rush of flower s color ed me through to those a fter-scent instinct s for light. Transcending At a moment not to be defined in time or the space lessly voice of the sea’ s transcend ing. Early Rossini opera with the lovers test ing their true but needless ly self-find ing inclinat ions melodio usly as uni soned as bird s already nesting in their pleasur able pursuit s. Toeing- the-line may mean o ver-stepping some of your own thought s of no way back Either side’s a dia logue in selfdisguise. Forbidden and there fore found The fruits of man’s reach ing beyond the length of his not know ing why. Of dual response Does language change what’ s seen Or do we see be cause we need those words for the meaning of a dual re spouse. In memory Nelly Sachs So small fragile and yet the wounds knott ed in tight ly there bleeding through light. Telling of time You can’ t turn time back reliv ing what’s no more your s or their s exclusive ly past. Grammar out soul cd the moon time of her light-trail ing exposure s to where ends meet punctuat ing a ritual- respons ive presence. If only words could fill his empti ness at heart as the slipp cry well Joseph confin ed to a height high beyond his lasting reach for touch. If all these dying leaves were downed to that piled forget ness of fire flaming out quick and fast light-devour ing. Game-plannedfrom those straight-line Scars dalian track s of right school marr iage profess ion that left him aloned without right or rea son derail ed. Animal sounding scream-gest ured swaying compulsive ly as a pray erless Litvak’ s “sound and fury sig nifying” all that there and then of his being. Placid His thought s so placid as the lake’ s inreveal ing clouds shifting be yond the mo ment of a doubt. Of soundless voices The rush of soundless voices shad ows of the mind’s echo ing beyond the Hades of secluded shores. I’ve grown old with these self-haunt ing images that inhabit the more of me than I can acquire or even test through their ground-thrust ing incurs ions. Trophy-hunting Head-count ing close-sha veil men Skull ed me in to a delusion of cannibal trophy-hunt mg. The horse was dead lay on the fields all he had eaten away from it Flesh and bone s accumulat ing his deaden ed resolve for life. Out-faced He sat down square ly on that problem un til its four- sidedncss out-faced which ever way he could be grasp ing there from meaning. A little too much She was a little too much of what she wasn’t As those Eng lish dessert s over-cream ed from their benevolent tasteless ness. Too quick Those too quick to blame other s at that sudden appear ance of where conscience might be re calling them back. Stranded emptied is lands desert souls The moon eclipsed from the tide less wander ings of their shadowless searching s Modern man vacantly haun ted from his ing loneli ness. For Rosemarie If there’ s no you from return Where can I outlast this aching loneliness from self. Outlasting Some town s have outlast ed their time s by building monuments to what wasn’ t anymore standing so forsaken ly there. Instinct for color Is there’s an instinct for color to(o) The way some animals in habit an a wareness of seeing-eyed darkness es. No proof in memory M. B. but he was there dream-felt pedestall ed at a height even beyond his living claims risen prayer-risen with that smi ling down so self-assur mg transeen dental face of his. Passing the border of fear death-fear that boat of no return ing silent ly awake the way you touch ed flower s once to know their scent of fold ing through so breathless ly alive. Christ has risen the choirs of heaven bright beyond all that word s have known Because He’ s no end or beginning Christ has ri sen The thorn has bled the rose through its resurr ecting light. The blank sun of Christmas eve washed down with all those unsett ling rains bared from that immens mg light that only a star could touch out of such cold and forsaken time s as these. They may have been whatever they were name less number ed or not though giftbearing I’d count myself among them though fear ed at the deathless sight of the Living Lord bending my knees I’d count myself among them. Outlived She out lived her time s The world a bout her seem ed strange ly new as if untouched from feeling she walked the streets of passed memor ies shadow ed as unanswer ing ghosts as if all was known for not being now. 3 Piano Trios a) D minor trio (Glinka 1827) wasn’t able to place where the one movement began theo ther ended in a lost unity of sensed persons trying to dress them selves in to phantom i mages of what they were n’t. b) C major trio (Haydn no. 21) He took me off as u sual from whatever seat ed pcrspect ive I could n’t hold for long into a world’s in volving re volving as a caroussel changing — lighted the always more of its beco ming through. c) Dinnky Trio (Dvorak) slowed down in to that weight ed feeling of sound-felt clarities thrown off a rush of fleet ingly danc ed. Little bird pretty color ed in assent bling-for-fea thers Why have you ask ed yourself for being there so branched still ed in a world such as this. The fortress at Coburg so time lessly resol ate-resist ing the on slaught of those increas ingly nonheroic time s. Train stations criss-cross ing the stand ing still’ s of pulsed awareness es. high beyond the assuring shape of her in swelling person. She sudden ly rose into a resonat ing voice eye-keyed Philosopher He became the answers himself as if always there cushioned upon a seat ed purpose of high-light ed over-view. Winter sunset mirror mg the cold light of re fleeted si lcnces. Cows ponder ously weight ed from their numb-telling time’s hold on grassed-down exposure s. These hills in their rhy thmic evolv ing in to a sameness of sounding through what always was in their becoming now from then. The first snow continu ing in un touched si lences falling so light-wav ed through the shadows of a dreamless sky. Self-withholding The house s shadow ing more than they could have possibly known as some persons secret ly unaware from those fath omed depths of self-withhold ing. Crucifixion (Barlnch Marburg 1914—1917) Christ not in His suffer ing not even a touch of that but far- seeing through-feeling over time and e ternity last mgly there Pink finds living with himself can be tiresome at times the same answer s keep quest toning back the other-side ness of waving that across- the-street smile unquest ionably his. Continuing on The train didn’t stop when it should continu ing on to an unseen future uneasing the where-sense of his mind’ s tracking through. On-looked He look ed me on as if I knew the why of his think ing so cen tered beyond seeing me through. At that age He was more what he wasn’t at that age of outused remembran ces A long ing for what’ s inescap ably trans cending. Sound-escaping The rail way kept running through his mind sound- escaping as if his were tire tracks that kept their purpose on the through ness of course. So stone-assuring Have all those fortress es so stone- assuring been wrought in defense of our own through-cast led killer instincts. Self-revealing Why must wc measure ourselves on others when the yard stick can’ t extend be yond in sell-revealing length. Wrinkles on his skin’ s as time-cnclosmg as the rings ot a tree’s through-tell ing phrases. AddvkuS Wolf (head of the East German spy agencies) a man without a face so im peccably attired to the insinua ting graces of love-long ing secretaries’ political depositor ies. Time-eluding It rain ed the wind s in to a darkness of washed a way moment s time-elud ing. A hide and seek Writing’ s a hide and seek of where it’s becom ing for found. The source They found the source the stream quenching through rock at thirst of its undi minishing flow. Out-lining Not a word too many As a tree stripped leaflessly out-lining. Moses couldn’t bring a word to place His tongue tied and mind quicken cd in the flight of spiritu ally abandon ing resolve. On the Communist border they took my wallet passport with Only a clos ed door uni formed stand ing behind from naked ly alone e choings. Mutely atoned These houses in los ing their face s greyed to a dulled same ness that e ven the finer touch of words left them still mute ly aloned. Waicd-through The boat slowly took to sea His eyes follow ing soundless ly out be yond where he knew wav ed through that sense of no return. Deah-confining This assent blage for bloss oming autumn colors dried out a unity so sparse ly death-con fining. Catullus loved through the hate that flowered so poison ed with his helpless denials. The Jews target ed again as if their dried-down blood and ash couldn’t be forgotten for the need of fresh leechings. Schubert’s 2nd symphony with its horse-trott ing melodies thumping’ s “a much a do about no thing’s” drama tically thoroughbred. The blind seer’s cane touch ing in the e choing of coming time s Eyed from the darkness es’ approach ing. Young woman with white headdress (Leibl) She knew more than I could tell her Eyes blunt ed with the time-knott ing of that green scarf around her nak ed-glance time consuni ing. Die ungleiche Ehe (Leibl) She young shaped through his coarse hand’s sly ly smiling with the under cover of eye s aged from self-use. Dialogued the white of seeing my self looking back from a house window cd through its timeless vacancies for place. Night-lights pulsing fear through the glassed i dentities of those con Crete voice s soundless ly awake. Outplaced The wind’ s blown my thoughts a way and left steadied shin ing stars in stead. Wild animals coming back crows crowding from the blackness of their wooded habitats Night- cities sleeping restlessly aware the glaring eyes of strange ly emerging creature Climbing the cliffs of remember ed touching for Sisyphus’ hold on a wearing down of a time less pre scnce. Darkness becomes It grows out of a sense from being all that it wasn’t slow ly prevading. The wind’s slowed to the breath of out forming sha dows increas ingly absorb ing. Like a guided hand the waves re ceding from a touched- out presence unseen contin ually through oncoming. Questioning God is like creat ing yourself a world that began before the beginning of love’s e manating needs from be ing. The pidgeons wired to a string of less entici mg thought s electrical ly refined their sitting- sensed from light. Mysteriously The doors o pened with out the touch of being seen Mysterious ly as the night growing out of its star s reaching through. Hosea whored to the cause of a faith less people and a God denying His choice by de manding its all. All these houses rowed to a sameness of lost i dentity in terchange ably non-per soned. Skin-awakening He need cd the feel of light rain cooling those skinawakening moments as buds in their color-mind edness. Flying foreign colors Ships an chored for port flying foreign color s holding tight against those so out sending runn ing tides. Those slow passing cloud s of time less presence of wordless meanings as those out-going tides in the night moon- sense appear mg. Of seeing-sensed If those wide-open eyes of child ren could poem us back to their way of sensed seeing. Train stops spaced-intervals time d sequences that moment ary being of not being for moving through. The thing itself If the word’ s the thing itself Named to a unity in being even more than phras ing so ex pressive ly self-rcsol ving. The timelessness of time Die Gnade derspaten Geburt (Helmut Kohl) Their time it was not yours But what if time had passed over as a cloud concealing why you could have done it Those firing squads blood- rehearsing. This room left behind a time that wasn’t now but theirs unknown self- revealing. Transforming The rains washed all those shadow s away and left a trans forming dark ness that held the world breathless from light. Unseen forget fulness There’ s even more to the bottom ness of the ocean’s depth than those dark memorie s of unseen forgetful ness. Rock garden as if words were sprouting from stone’ s self-reveal ing color-shines. 3 Uncles a) With Unde Julius there was something slightly faint and dis tant about him perhaps to protect a gainst his wife’ s challenging assertions (those middle age woman ly finger-find ing needs) his humour an swered subtlely but involving I never got to the bottom of his being (too young perhaps) or because he always seem cd so vaguely evasive. b) Uncle Phil a child’s fa vorite imit ating all those animal sound s as if the Bronx Zoo had moved right in to the strain s of his vo cal cords “Jewish man of the year” for those many wo men Jewish or not whom he frequented with his itin erant wares always smil ing right up to their needs for his futuring cause. c) Uncle Irving who always answered those in need let a lone this pain pered spoiled brat of an 8 year old not yet emerging poet who let his helium ball oon loose rush hour Grand Cen tral slowly drifting to the top of Irving’s surmise So good too good this favorite of all uncles ladd ercd it down with his usual considerate care died a bro ken man for all his goodness the favorite of all uncles funeralled with unbroken praise. Unanswered She couldn’ t answer to what she did n’t know Men remained most ly outside the sphere that closed her in a silence of protective longing. A rain-down day for its quiet after The space-viewed scent of listen ing where only a bird rccit ing in color ed phrasing s. Voiced Even a stone’s voiced cool ing the round ed hands of your inde ciphering s. Soft-furred The cat purred soft-furred sens cd the eye s of steal thy imagin ings. Lithe-birch dancer s so slender ly time es caping. Violin Sonata (C. Franck P'mvt.) cloudspaced at tuned a wind- voicing light ness from phrase. “2nd guessing’s” like inter changing the choice of instru ments when the compos ers felt it otherwise. A light rain so fine ly felt through the transpar encies from touched a wakening s. St ill life with tulips (Macke) The center’ s falling off Tuliped in wayward ur ging color His funeral all prearr anged the who s and what s as if death itself was his finali zed speak- through. For Rosemarie Your voice softens in my in stinct for touch. Behind the poem The man be hind the poem shadowed in self-appar encies. Herford’s first night of light-shallowing—appearan ces concrete silences. Waiter so impecc ably dress ed button ed in to such a worth while bend ing smile that he could so mis understand most every thing I order ed for such a palatial ly decorat ing plate. When the masks fall so na kedly true Imprinting the image of their imi tating self. Moon-apparent The woods listening aloud voic ed in a still ness moon-ap parent. Realizing The night realizing its own dark ness Overco ming the depth s of what it wasn’t space lessly confin mg. Rule-book teachers They’re all of a type rule-book teachers red-inked eying the out-of-bounds of their less assimilat ing student s. Alsheimer She took me for her grandmother Not that wolf-cinderell aed change ability but out-timed out-placed cushioned higher than those image less effusion s could possi bly in meet mg. Dulled November motion lessly there spaceless that al ways of now when even light seems surpris ingly uninvol ved. Out-seasoned The winter never came The bears didn’t sleep but hunger ed for rest lessly clawimprinting what could n’t hold to the mark of season’s in dclible cause. Torah A wall it was word-strong A barr ier against oneself ghett oed in the need for gett ing out It stood relent lessly selfovershadow ing. A Itensteig These Black Forest town s falling from their roofs land sliding inner perspective s and this one stream- dividing in to numerous voices running steadily through. Magda nervous like parrot s imitat ing because there’s no where else from being Caged in little town perspecti ves A flying out could only mean in fluttering room-spend in unquiet. Little persons with their self-clutch ing faith a feared of the outside that might be hid ing in some cob-webbed uncleaned corners of their shorten ed mind. Altensteig II The strength of these hill-command ing houses Columned for sun statuing a permanen cy of facedesigning ap pearances. Sentinel That lone tree stand ing out a gainst a vacantness of sky’s land scaping its inreveal ing stillness from cause. Her nervous laughter the rust ling of dried dead leave s so slight Iy tinged with their fallen-from color If the words fail a blankness of mind as a landscape mowed down to its inher ent flat-find ingness. For Rosemarie without you an empti ness as a sea without its shore-send ing self. Your lips parting the waves of my sensing through de sires. Snow in the wind s increas ing these tensions of soundless ly through-forming. Ash-scent Fires glowing the autumnal ash-scent’ s stone-dis tinct. Romanesque encase ments of clos ing sound’ s in-dwell ing shadow s of where prayer’s darken ing their self-seek ing through. Schumann: symphonies Rougb-forced rhythms Beet hovian stanc ed the in breathing softness of lingering-phrased over sights. The door stopped be ing what it was Died from tire touched return-alone liness echo ing from. The churches’ way Doing it good after what can’t be undone’s the churches’ way of semi-righteous self-apprecia tions. Was man a mistake Did God ere ate more than he should have left it for the blooming growth of flowering field’s wild scent of in stinctual animall ed blood- thirsting That evil-eyed dog barred behind the bite of his teething glare. Rilke’s “Carousel” kept turn ing me about in to the weavings of a child’ s star-mind ed goings front’s white elephant’ s after math. Flat-shine sun has bori zoned from light the cropp ed grass of even-timed deepening fore bodings. Slender woods still na kedly un touched through their traits parencies of spring- timed rever ies. Shostakovich So many of his theme’s off-set sense a bout them e lusivcly touch ing/in turn ing out the center remote ly unaware s. Winter birds ground- based their darken ed instinct s land-hold ing flight lessly in shadow ing. Losing the other side of one self s like being lost on a bridge of neither way out. Piously money-mind ed He pray ed that his will be done the way he wanted it on the dotted- line of tear-decensions. Shostakoviches’ (viola sonata) fade-out sonata pal ing for a wordless sky remote ly attuned a nothing ness however distantly from there. By the eyes She held him tight by the eyes so fine-feel ing as a dog on the leash that kept him at bay from his other wising in stincts. The telling of time It couldn’ t happen be cause it did Time’s more of us than we can tell it form s releases begins. Church counsellor His God believed in him well- meaning con scientious ly upholding the pillars of his self-supporting faith. Those romantic last move meats Too much too long as a wo man overdress ed beyond the needs of what taste could confirm her selfdefining sense. Shadow-boxing a ghost long since dead She brought him a live again to haunt her to the depth from where he had so strange ly risen. Lights on that sudden artificial glass-glowing intensity of night’ s hollow ing sound s. Even levelled Those sand- surfacing assurance s of time’s cooling down smoothed off even-levell ed. Trying to catch up Shadows seek ing for form’ s fullness the Hades of his non-relin quishing will. Freshly known Cut wood freshly known the first wants of snow and stars heaven ly releas >ng. Cross carrying Christ left his first-chosen people for more of the crosscarrying than even His name could in voke. What isn’t seen’ s the more in being As the Lord nameless ly darken ed and the need for love s far beyond all those subtlely word-finds. Catullus’ love/hate flamed so high that not even his hardened will could cool it down to a di minishing intent. Where “to draw the line” could only limit those who feared such far-reaching steps. Christmas cards without Christmas The way Christ was so ob scurely born But now by passed as roads too worn from con tinual use. In memory Edith Stein She was as much a Jew the blood of her very be ing as Christ crying out in pained re demption for His ir resolate people. in the night Blinking danger inde cipherable as a child tongue-tied stuttering inarticu late fears that couldn’t in holding back Signals remote ob scured night-timed. Da Capo arias (Bach) may have been heard other wise than the time-lengths land scaped a silently wait ing world To day we’re too closed- in Tensed for less than that mess age could hold. O Magnam Mysterium’ (Thomas Luis de Victoria) s depth of space-concentr atcd stone- soundings be yond the dark of so inward ly voiced. Extra Nos Man’s at the heart of his own problem Ca ged in better ways of gett ing out Claws at the bars of his own self-dc vouring in stincts. The Magi Why it was that reading the stars through to their final sense forbidden in God’s word was their way for knowing the why of a revolving sky met for a child in the straw-middle of such a small in-lasting light. 1933 Einstein wrote a never return ticket 1 took at the risk of history’ s never re peating what some would have taken for its final course. Twosome’s the only where of be ing at one with myself. Light-open houses revealing in awareness of secret ly withhold ing. These December woods naked from shame Bared of all intent Dried out an unspoken fin ality of voice. Dried bark the rough age of wound ed times bled through its sapped- pulse endur ings. The slightness of a win tered bird suddenly there before it wasn’t twig-defin ing in stinctual light. After a Roman painting The pastel lightness of her flo wer-gather ing steps left nre following in scent from their di minishing ly-felt re pose. The “golden age of music” (after listening to Tye) should better be called the inflow ing purity of where voice trails parently refin ing. Outspreading If snow’ s the color of sound lessly appear ing dream s through the night’s tin heard out spreading dis tances. Steps in sand not weight ed for more than a mo ment’s glance Yet marked with the cer tainty of having been told through. Bear poem (in memory Bruno) No one knows the dis tances I haven’t thought out with the wind s climbing my ears straight and the tidy waters singing me cooled in stinct my way man a feared for the cavernous winter drop- downs. My father always on the move Now wheeled a bout the flo wer show with a fa ding glance that couldn’ t hold for long color ing. Holbein’s gold weigh er as I with words touch ed through in-shine of their impli cit meaning s to tip the balance d aware ness. Fishermen calling the silent wa ters to their nets The moon afloat with fish flash ing in caught-through colors. Charles germina ting color the seedl ings incess antly call ing in grow th. The room was where she wasn’t A world left behind tin changed those outdated maps and books thoughtless front dust And 1 a stran ger for a single night of irreconcil able distan cings. A marriage of losses Both depri ved of their first-loves A unity in sadness in tcrlocking as trees sap lcssly in tent. Ghost writers vanish ing behind words that weren’t their s underwritt en from a plau sibly indis tinct signa ture. Madonna with the Master oj the Holy Veronica (Cologne) Seeing may be in believ ing But here touch define s more of where these trail spar ent eyes of hers space fully through-telling. This day’s hardly ri sen above it self So clos cd in clouds that even words sha dow in their sensed-for-meanings a ship isolat ed from the voiced wind s it’s pass ing through. The desert heated inten sides for the cold watch of night sloping sand- phrases a timeless Iv never-for being. Christmas poems ’06 a) A Christmas tree so finely dressed in the fragran cc of lit i magining s angelic calls and the pearled light from touch- receding hands. b) History of the birth of Christ (Schiitz) Not even candles can still to the in-dwell ing purity of this yearn ing through the darkness of ages. c) The rose so person ally expos ing naked from light dried at the yuletide’ s crumbling thorns. d) The angel’s song of a peace only they as hea venly messang ers could con firm The war s continued the blood of innocent child ren a heaven ly message we’re still for finding out. c) Christmas ’06 Why this sanctity of what is n’t believ ed holy day without His holied bless mgs A child in the manger of our own humanity Faith and tears so dear ly held for what isn’t His but only our feelings for. f) The Christinas candles once so in flammed with hope All burned down now to the cold-touch of wax ed-in silen ces. Women with the pains of birth-giving rhythmic ally pulsing through those draw ing in cries the help lessness of new-bearing life. The woods threaten ing prolong ing dark only deepen ing in nowhere- out from see ing through. Schimpf’s owl radiat ing nightsensing thoughts phrased through the inglow of witness ing eyes. Words are like bridges They have to cross them selves o ver until two sides in seeing from. Alena at age 5 butterfli ed herself back until flight—sitt ing became a means of coloring out to ( o). She so con fid entally self-revealing that I won dered the what and where she was hid ing herself from. His face an imagin ery screen closing in and out of the phases of their trans parently sensed-through dreams. Skier’s poem Snow- sounds the winds cur ving with light down to the deep-through hilled si lenccs. The walls only felt in shadow ing higher than he knew that advanc ing light calling him however sound lessly through. Two worlds that left him ocean less between a driftwood of sorts prob ing the shift ing current s of those restless sands and the sweeping winds that couldn't hold him long e nough for home. Why punctuate a silence which can’t be held back from its be coming irretriev ably lost. Moon-timed Night snow’s the blank window s of where darkness moon-timed. 2007 a new year as if every day wasn’t as unprepar ed for be ing ours Pink polish ed his creative ly exploring shoes to shine up this new year for the glance of his selfimproving image. The eyes of my dead father look ing past why he never saw my waiting for a same ness in view. A sacred mountain’s untouch able awareness of why it’s climbing through all our forsaken longings. Plum blossoms (follower of Wang Mian) hard-crystal rock-emerging blossom’s life-envelop ing. Plum blossoms (Wang Mian) secret ly confin ing why the winds have spoken so voiceless ly unheard. She smiled through the phone s distan ccs of his voiccd-in response. The pelican gliding through streams of airlit i magining. Soft night winds whis poring star s alight the palms brushed through in moon’s receding glow. The city snowed to a still stand of impecca ble stars and the mystical appearance of its in seen through-silenced purity. Some wounds heal Hers didn’t fester ed to the heart of where hers open-placed a thorn field wind-intens cd. The birth of a penguin breaking through the dark of those sound less cnclos tires to light life and the pursuit ot fish-finding delicacie s. Parrots can claim to be bird s She wasn’ t though fluttering about caged in imitat ing words colored al most out to the wings of it. At the psychoanalytic conference all those restless ly uneased tables out-rooted in staring their earth-wombed nakedness. Spirit of the dead watching (Gauguin ’92) because you can’t see him with out losing that life he’ s staring the open space of your in retreating eyes. Flowers on a window sill lightthinking why the opening expanse of cloud’s bud-reclaiming. Death’s a good way of be coming known again your hid den virtues flowering chastely on tomb-ston ed appreciat ions. The snow never came the woods wordless ly bared Thirsting their naked needs to be clothed in purifying silences. Appearance Pre senting one selfin clothes thoughts and looks may appear as a thought less a side in be ing dress ed over. In Realizing That not quite being sure Thinking tilings down to their first parts Touching in the mea ning of what it’s slightest felt listen ing through words to their after sounds may be then or where in Realizing. The Smallness of things it may be the small ness of things that sligh test touch in flower a word that becomes of meaning in its own sense that appre ciable look a 2nd time or more to make certain one sees what it really is in see ing the inter vals of sound looking through spa ced moments from that small ness in thing s. Transparency of the morning mist as a lake’s dis appearing sound’s trans parency. Spider’s wri ting web in that fineness designed more perfect world’s precision for death. Slow-down Floridian days that even thought dulls in to remote realms in distinct ly shadow ing. Slowing down <3 his steps weighted with more re solve His mind closer to the touch of things that held him longer as an object timeless ly unremov ed. Rules of the game he never learned list ening from a a distance to measure the depth of his own heart a spectator far remov ed as cloud s through the winds of transform ing lights. Age of innocence (Edith Wharton) a) The countess (why she married when she married whom she married) that pre-myste ry of her person Free to trap other men Free to her dire needs for protection The beauty of irre concilable desires. b) Archer took the bait as a drowning fish landed again into a relapse of prelearned val ues. c) Archer’s wife that Ibsen- type puppet who knew more than she want ed to know Reconciled to her husband’ s unwanting fidelity. d) Archer’s sen the one I always want ed to have Living leisure ly his doubleset of selfconflicting values. e) Wharton’s autobio graphical transformat ions The my stery of wo man and self The men all- too- well known. Ethel little-dog- lost patheti cally weak tongue-tied from placed sei zures that shook at the realms of her heartbreathing source. Southern spelled streets with those eased palms strolling the taste-tang of sea- salted lightwaves. These January cool days tide-flatt ened sands withdraw ing in to the echoed step s of out lasting si lences. His heart went out with the tides as the fisherman’ s nets hold ing tight the silvered gleam’s sound-search ing. Little guy with his more than down-cast ing looks us back in the eyes of our own fall en from self. Card players feeling out that tcntat ive touch of untimely re lease as if life itself (just then) would be passing it selfby. Love poem for Rosemarie His eyes rested on her knowing the flavour of his touch mg folds of desirous winds so in wardly held their closeness in meeting. The palm curving its crustbearing bark to a stunt ed height of where there’s no more a co ming from. Her mildew cd smile curtain ed the fa ding color s of where Southern- in-softness nostalgica lly reclin mg. Retiring from life to a Flor idian talk taste and card culture with that re dundant sun still over sighting some of his pre-tuned sha dowing endeav ors. Floating on the cool ing waters of that dream- through expand ing sky Bird- like she felt lengthen ing in winged self-reconcil iations. Quick words clipped phrases sharp-sensed the rough edge s of his unevened person. Black boy lost in a forest of white man’ s staring him a darken ed strange ness through. No children a womb’ s empti ness from birth a star less night voicing only cold re flection s. Captiva Bay The sky’ s escaping far beyond the wind’s calling e veil those va cant sound s of birds circling an unanswer ed depth of sea. March of the penguin’s instinct s for the hard truth of a protect ive egg warmed through the huddling breath of their chill ed answer ing life’s im perative ly remind ing needs. Bud talked him self out repeating breath u pon word the syllable s of those unrelinquish ing times that held him to his scanning view Tight with out pretense ot answer. Running she was to keep up with the breath of her step s left behind couldn’t im press their mark not e ven for a mo ment of place. Thin-timed Spots of birds thin-timed their touch of fleet ing reflect ions. The fish glanced through scales of its silver-edg cd death- watch. Upright Man’s un ique upright bearing of ten belies a downright poverty of truthful in tendons. Slippery railings When all the barriers arc down There’ s nothing left to hold on to except the slippery railings ot one’s own self-dccept ions. Spann led The sound of these wave s so elusi vely bright ened spawned with the sun’ s creating for light. Deepening When co lors deepen in to the sound-wave s or in—rc ceding thoughts. Energy-drenched You could still sec him swimming his inevitable laps hour on hour until the sky left him floating there so eased in a coffin of light energy- drenched. Horse shoes with their sturdied a nimal eyes ringed through coarse hand s the cur rents of these sand-describ ing sound s. The fear of losing whom you most need Only a blank would be left a yearning for it not being now A discoloring from selfwounds that can’t be heal ed seeping through at the depth of one’s own un known be ing. Numb-timed When it’ s hard and cold Straighttouching you through a rail ing ironed in the winter ingsun of numb-timed impressi 011s. Signals at sea the light house tower ed with un heard mess ages deciph ering in voiced-lit continuity. Stefan Lochner too pretty to be blem ished by any tiling other than such self- proclaim ing loveli ness. Annunciation (Fra Filippo Lippi) Both angel and Mary bend ing under the grace of the Father’s hea venly guid ance and that flower of pur itv center ed to the re Fined modes ty of her in receiving virginity. At opposite sides of the same person as a dance circl ing out to the changing rhythms of that not be ing found from. Listened for Rudiger He listen ed so care fully intent on each word that they be canre aloud with those feel ing-sounds of his silenc ing after thoughts. A museum of emptied shells pretty and pink so nicely lit with that in feeling of sandied re minders of what once lived so re motely en closed ior the soft and luscious taste of o pen-preying predators. On lost time Living on lost time’s like a buglar calling to battle when peace is soo thing through the intonat ions of his fingering needs. An abyss the depth of hurt she wanted to be known by not say ing lips tight eye s evasive ly consum ing. Rain birds lowering the sky’ s bending with the wind’s circ ling rhythm ic light. A quiet place just for sitting your thought s down with nothing to hear except the inward flow of these self- quieting moments. Tracing the curve of the palm s with the thought-fingers ot decipher ing in unev ened touch-life’s e volving through ness. Slowed down to the step s of hearing himself through. Crocodiles with their pre-historic armour ly ing low in subliman al contemplat ion’s soft swaying appea sing palm’s mind-drift mgs. Gull barbed with the blood-hook of its own decease Eyes redden ed for that last surge of its tight oiling wing s. Security man The young pale faced se curity man with detach able beard flowing out a confidence mostly want ing from him self Keys in hand awaken in a real need for use. Wrestling in the sand to the death of a moment Crying for light-pain through their muscled depth of fictive meaning’s in tensed. The beach at night untouch ed but solemn ly aware star-remind ing The moon cold now na kedly perform ing. Little girl poney tailed the sifting of sand’s feel ing her fing er’s flow ing through imprecise ly abandon ed. Corkscrew swamp’s a world of vanish ing fantasie s Wild birds circling their selfenclosing heights and we below in the hidden depths of sub liminal under surfacings. That seldom bird colored to its in stinct for flight Staling now as a statue in moment s ot time lessly there. Shell museum (Sanibel Island) with all those shiny coloring left over replica s of why death’s so remotely pretty. Of new identities Here’s been a growth in green those germinat ing islands from the sea rock-sound ing a stabil ity of new i dentities permanent ly proclaim mg. Floating memories envelop ing in sound s of distan cing light-appearing waves. Beach pauses Cooled down beach pauses the sand isolat ing sound less in den ial of where such steps have spent their claim ing in from thought. Howard’s End (E. M. Forster) a) Bast The books fell down on his aspirat ions for be coming higher than he could possibly at tain. b) The house symbol ofBurkean England close to the soil enriched through its time-embodying depth from mean ings. c) Margaret’s a reconcili ation of the opposites that need a center for being. d) Wilcox Even he must learn a gainst his values that life is more than money can buy. e) Helen the wild flame of ro man tic postinnocence birth of a seedless myth. f) Bast’s wife’s body could n’t hold the richness of what will flo wer from the depth of more than earthy de sires. 2 claw-climbers a) Racoon clawclimbing its noctur nal instin ct for eyeglaring pen etration s. b) High-rise Florida panthers claw-climb ing in ra pid deploy mentadvance against landgrabbing in terloper s. Mangrove Indians hidden in the cause of their being land-locked camouflag ing uphold ing roots of their being driven out. Seminole Wars I and II If you take the breath from their be ing Enclosure s of seclud ed back wa ter’s snake- inclined reson ances rhythmic land-to-the touch cd eye-witness ing. Swamp lands drained from their murky brood ing under co vering dark nesses Alliga tors lying low in pre-histor ic subterrain ian instinct ual awareness es. Lulled in by a voice dark with whisper ing innuen does magnet ic as a snake’s frogfixing. Charlie Chaplin’s early film s left me walking in side out ice-skating the fanta sies of my youth with the thievery of pocket ing eyes pun ctuating mo ment’s quick-tcll ing hands. Childless but with a spot of a sick dog re scued from the cold al ways close to her breast childless. Realms of silences lost remem brances as waves float ing the sur faced winds of light a way. Michael wall-stoned line-backer wrestler law-enforce poemed late in life to an inner- touched his shelter ed-from soul. Feelingness There was so much of the feeling ness about her tender ly ripened soul that most of the fruits of her forgiving couldn’t tighten to their core-sense meanings. of Rennaiss ance Marian hymns as those flowing designs of Roger van der Weyden’s dress ed-carcd touch of in-reveal ing sanctity. Officiating These sand s glimmer in cool re liance for their prist ine-touched surfacing Sleeked that black cat in-to the readied shine of its claw-evinc ing densi ties. New friends not yet foot-mark ed impressed to the mind ofauthen tic time-se quences. Nights of soft Southern winds the palm-flow of gliding pelican s a stream with their leisuring sound-touch ings. An affinity between what was said and what sen sed wind-phrased land scaping the growth of where flow ers remained the after math for co lor-finds. Trembling waters breezed be yond the i mage of their self-deny mg form. Racoon’s footprint s clawed to the wood of his nightexposing eyes. Apparitions When distan ces kept in creasing his mind spell ed through sound-light’ s apparit ions. Boned The juice is out Dried to a bone less core De sert winds laying the sands low Nightmares wrapped in pillowed forms. Hollywood-like her blankfaced field s of ripen ing corn a sweetness of voiced i maginings. Snow-dark The night snow-dark trees openspaced their leafless ness of bir thed await ings. Birth of a leaf (Mordecai Ardon) That light touch-voic ed in the green fluidi ty of life’s in-forming leaf. Hedda Gabler (Ibsen) a) Personally there to be ing what they always arc Static All’s said in so bcing-Greek. b) Hcdda only power’ s play with others Not be ing where self should Dictator of a small man’s world. c) Tesman prisoner of human smallness in that “great cul tural world” of Ibsen’s implicit disdain. d) Livbourg more of what Tesman wasn’ t So Hedda’ s aim right where she needed to kill centered from self. e) Brack the cynical male match for her/his cunning need to possess at the void from his through-emp tied person. f) Livbourg’s flutter ing symbol of a society’ s unease to serve what wasn’t left from person — formless. This dawn so faint ly uneven ed Faced for being more than self could appear. Late winter there’s light in the air Space a wakening the snow melt ing touched through a time less need in creasing. A thaw because the air breath es through a warmth we hadn’t touch ed before bud-bringing lip’s co loring find s. Ernest’s piano teacher (1933) with thejew s on the o ther side after year s of friend ship not a word more than that street and its speech less parallel divide. Christ took that long way to(o) The Jew of J ews de fenseless in a desert of unending perils to de feat the in visible and still outfind ing enemy. Images shadow ing my word less wander ings as a moon cloudimmersing from. Munich’s medieval facades lifting from the weight that time’ s left them imitating that once-could-have been. Airport shining up in “marble” and glass of sound-ilium ination’ s restless ly throughvoiced. Sad adolescent sitting the far-watching of a cat’s un derlying- viewed per spective The affinity of many of these poem s with the scarce-fleet ing moments of Mendelss ohn’s fine- singing seller zi. Masterpieces in Dresden a) Jewish Graveyard (Ruisdael) brooding shadows the woods rest lcssly instin cted rush ing-silver ed water’s moon-tensed stones. b) Woman reading letter (Vermeer) That room as a world of intell ing objects the reflec ting space I maged from her glassed- through self s opened win dow so deep ly closed within. c) Tax tithe (Titian) parallel] ed eyes and hands asking out tempt ing implor ing to the touch of a single coin Caesar-fac ed “godlike”. d) Fall of Man (Cranach) Adam with his own fruit and equalled need’s desir ing Eve’s eyes the wis dom of a single bite. e) Christ on the throne (Diirer) of his self- creating word eternal light and those thoughtful wondering Jews between monkied-less ened looks and the faith fulness of a little dog s self-attend ingness. j) Prodigal son’ (Rembrandt) s self-port rait of wine woman and the sword of sclf-penetra ting light-a wareness es. My Max Brod Where’ s my Max Brod to Kafka me the pure- prin ted word of residual meanings not their loss to the flames of so se initially voic ed. A minor slow mut. (Bach violin concerto) Tug boat drugging the depth of where the wa ter’s aligh tening in sound remin iscence s. A diminishing world What I don’ t see I don’ t know an old man’ s grasping for a dimin ishing world of receding self-assuran ces. Ascension Jesus left his dis ciples where they were only the more from knowing Him alone in that out lasting cause after-tim ed. Thomas’ complaint that one can’t ex plain Bach through the printed ex pertise of his papering theology It all must be heard to be lieving. The question of evil’ s more why most of us don’t see ourselves as Rembrandt did Christ- crucify ing. Gardener Fear’s die root-bott om of the spade’s sharp-edged cutt ings to where Christ garden ed Mary’s loss with more than hopeless ness could e ver endure. Puzzled The words came quick cr than know ing their place right Poem’s a puzz le that of ten puzzle s me even more. “Eye for eye tooth for tooth ” that Christ ian way for national re demption While the for saken Jews huddling in their ghett oed corner with more than cheeks to be turned to their aggress or’s wanton needs. Can Iforgive when sin is denied even multiplied Christ forgave once and al most all but also at the cross only for those bowing and bending their deserv ed grief. Thinking through glass I can’t hear Think ing through glass winds calm ed as those deeper under sea silen ces. Mean’s end If the mean s don’t meet the end s It’s like being strang ered to where you’ve al ways been known. “The rest is silence” (Shakespeare) where words have lost their saying- it-power as a marriage deadened from strife Or his stage corpsed from through-bleed ing survivor s. Bluebells finer than their sing ings could be heard A choiring scent even darker than their sweet ness could in finding. An early Haydn’ s bare-o pcncd sound s as a wood wintered through spaced. God’s eyes This my riad of star s God’s e yes punctu ated in light distant ly clear the night through watching. Blue and white The sky’ s moving as softly as these thought s blue and white innocent ly transform ing- The cut-wood of his dried down thought s thirst ing for the sap’s relin quishing strength. Weird colors witching their way through sub terranean passages of a world’s be wildering in glow. Categories can’t marry persons to the inexpli cit causes of such unknow ing needs. Jewels cut to the sensed precision of their inter nal glow. Illmensee in the quiet surfacing glow of sha dows spread ing their fine treetouching re flection’ s sun-harvest ing. Time’s miming out as if the sea could ever hear its voice that way Shore less dried down to the depth of those motion less cycling tides. Each morning the fear at the heart of his not being more than just sitting there as old men do wordless ly exposed to the dried wood of pal ed-down con templat ions. PllilotaS (Lessing) killed the shame with those sword- blooded in stincts of his father less soul A retribut ion in kind evening the score. Prince Phi lotas’ (Lessing) lonely choice neith er of father nor son A kingdom of death’s self-surviving instinct s. Shoes remember them best All those little ones piled up as persons in to heaps of passed-tell ing impress ions. In becoming At 7 he still sylla bled words in to their wholeness for meaning’ s as the sounds of the water’s shoreless ly in becom ing. Needed love She need ed love more than she could find it kept urging her on horse and rider to that bottom less abyss. Eichendorff the poet of dark in wooded enclos tires of the mind’s feel ing-sense d moon’ s light- trails cending. INRI Who’s been cruci Tied with Christ if not the INRI of His own inner-sourced blood- revealing i dentity. Cyclopian onc-ey ed worldview Time con densed to not see ing other wise than what wasn’ t there. Voicelessly Rain was tending the air voiceless ly as a mo ther’s in stinct born before the birth of its childless needs. The Sermon on the Mount towering above all that mountain ous air low ercd me to the ground-base of my fleshfinding fault s. Dated If work s become dated It’s because they were so much the thing s of not being the more for becoming now. A windowed view of a world calling back to why he was looking out to see ing through those trans ient cloudforming mo ments. Of interior finds When the shallowed waters ston ed to the bottom of your feet-find ing thoughts and there’ s a cooled sense of in terior find s. Dark rains the bird’ s song deep ened withdrawn to the selfenclosing tonality of the wood’s mysterious ly darken ing in. Beethoven’s Great Fugue left me grie viously dis turbcd at that unleashed power so pri mitively ex posing a na kedly re sounding through. Haydn’s Op. 76,1 slow movement brought me back again to a world so finely and deeply order ed spaced through a controlled and so benefit cently exalt ing beauty. Preordained If you list en to what you’re told to listen for’ s Music pre ordained pedestall ed on a crit ic’s sounding- you-through. Rushing the stair s down as streaming banners lightcoloring their arrival s from more. The purity (countertenor singingJosquin) of that voic ed angelic blessing In tervalled be tween space and its lightsensing ac cords. These dark days so rain- held petall ed in the glimpse of spring-time flowers re hearsing for touch. The bees weren’t there No one knows why Housed in an emptiness that could n’t flower to its sens ed-from sweet ness. Bringing down Do you bring up a child or should it be brought down to the earth-need s ofnot only his. Sense and seem A poem’ s sense and seem logic ofwhy its phrasing’ s those untold routes through and beyond the mind’s need tor ask ing why. Little Sammy’s made more of himself than lie should have Flirting with two beauties from the o ther sides of his out-proport ioned figure and hair thinn ing to a middle-age re luctance letting down at such oc casions to what’s been left to the top of his own insinuat ing smiles. T. S. Eliot majored in the length of completion As if there could be a wholeness to this world even after Columbus dis covered what he hadn’t thought it was realiz ing for. After a portrait of Leonardo If she isn’ t there Why do I see her as more than she is touching voicing me a live to the presence oi death s overcom ing being. Desert Poems (8) a) Death-processing The desert’ s silently creeping on a predator instinctu ally alive for the una ware decor ative beauty of its suffo eating prey. h) The desert’ s flowing through in waves of wind-recurr ing sound s. c) A quiet here so un earthly close that I wanted to touch your breath flow ering alive. d) Our steps tenta tively un certain tracing the tar expanse of a route less cause. e) Beware of those hidden snake s buried in the conceal ing depth ot their dead ly eye-curl ing glance. J) Have stars ever reveal ed their shine so cold and cruelly light-intens g) Oasis green was never as pure as this mind-enchant ing thewa ter’s clean sing source of cool-form ing touch. Ii) Moses called here to that thorn cd bush of ever-trans piring life. ing’s so hast ily unsure in arrang ing itself until flower ing in to a conscious ness for be ing there. These clouds wandering not answer ing so inno cently protective Iy unheard the fears of what may be coming or go ing their ways from mine. These mountains so immune from the per ilous height s ol man’ s self-impos ing grandeur still slop ing down from their birth of the wind’s climb ing touch ed those light- enchanting stars. The birth of a leaf (Mordecai Ardon) unfold ing with the green of its breathtouching formed. Wild growth sun-down flowers co lored more in their thirsting instinct s light-in sensed. The horses mutely standing out a stillness as if in stat tied remem brance. Coloring’s the scent of a flow er’s through. flowing i mage. Qenevra de’ Bend (Leonardo) ’s tight pride of face wounding-an imalled eyes The curled de ceiving poetry of hair and dissembl ing landscape beauty — How much of her / Da Vin ci. Shame’s the dead- sense of a dog’s hover ing over its self. concealing wounds. Secret marriage’s (Cimamsa) usually the endgame For him though eloping came after the fret of all those intwin ing cat-cloth ed catch ing Haydn esque re prises. Killing that cat runn mg right into my car’ s unstopping speed’s left blood-stain s not only where the road marked it deeper down than off. Rain-down promises as if the sky’s been out starred of all its hope ful bless ings. Bet weened They cut their wind ows out of my seeing from Back- faces blank silence s between cd. Concrete city the color less shadow ing bird’s stoned-remem brances of what could have been as if in flower ing glad ness. Masterpieces in Munich a) Kingjesus (Titian) with a crown of whipping-stick “thorn s” cncircl ling the step s to a mocked throne All breed ing through a mysterious dark and those strange lights the evil means of fallen man’ s God-denying mockerie s. b) c) Those two Ditrer portraits hung to the two sides of his seeing us through an i dealized committ ment to person and place And TOO the other so directly un pretty that we knew it was really him the flesh and boned of. d) Masked ball (Guardi) with those unreal light s masking the not being seen or known outperson ed. c) St. George’s (Altdorfer) landscape with those light-shimmer ing leave s George’s metallic sword silver ed-in-shine. J) Bosclws’ Manichaen evil-eyed creation’ s bedevill ing even The Lord's bene volcnt redempt ion. Global wanning in this sub zero freeze An extra blank et elect ric heat ing us up to the dis tant cosmic glow of its in flowing warmth. Suddenly there its black sleek ly alarming glow of fea thers Facing me so direct ly to a re treat of feared fore bodings. Crocuses and all the colors surfac ing through their windreleasing gladness es. Check-listing They call ed from a cross the o cean for a 7 point creat ion’s check list of my faith As I haven’t heard since The Good Lord must have checked out on me from the sinner’ s claims for His cross-ways route to lasting salv ation. Mixed breeding Those early time Haydn symphonic’ s mixed breed ing of style s has pass ed my present back to what’ s still toning in childlike-sense through. Time-intensed This hard- pressed grass worn down from winter’s mem orie’s hold mg tight time-in tens cd. Synonyms The sleek on comings of this lithely black-streak ing squirrel’ s unravell ing such bran ched uneven nesses to a synonym for flight easy- said and gnar lied aftered thoughts. The deal’s been clos cd his suit case smil ed a handshaking nod over writt cn the tight- knit cloth ed pursuing endeavor s. Sap-pulsing These green- bared bran ches sap-pul sing stream’ s th rough - craving hard ness of rock’ s flowing in felt desirous ly beyond. Pink’s two-mindedness Follow ing him self about Nat Pink two-minded as to where he was or wasn’t Go ing with that self-pursu ing smile of his trail ing in or out of those through-haunt ing denials. A seeing- rhythm of your cobbl cd step’s mind-proceed mg. Sensed-seen roses scarce ly for touch cd sound less words can break through sensed- seen. Rimmed The filig ree white ness of those curtain s rimmed her thought s in to fine ly—felt touch eel appear an ces. An emptiness of mind like a tree leafless ly wind-expos ing. Sad eyes He drank his sad eye s in to the stream s of float ing rever ies. Jesus at age 12 (DiirerMunich) a) as high priest eternally lighting those need- taking steps for the height of His redeem ing cause. b) The Jews eyes all a wake resound ing from that scriptural depth of His that left Christ a loned from their forsak en center. c) Mary andJoseph still not finding them selves in to where their son would need more than a family’s safe-keep mg. d) Animalled instincts That little dog humbly bottom ed down sym bo] of a faithful ness that the outsideseeking mon key would es trangc itself from. Measure for measure (Shakespeare) a) Not even the blind can see themselves the way o thers do. b) If woman’s chastity can be pedest ailed even be yond the realms of person Then our times have cleansed themselves of all such purifying means. c) The duke however “learned” he remain ed true to his own to (o) lenient sense of self-app lying justice. d) Higher morality pursued by church and state must mostly lower itself to a lesser view of man’ self-reflec ting image. e) Christ may be seen behind the scenes as man’s need to be freed from himself. f) Life doesn’t end that way as man’ s his own self-deter mining trag ic source. Lady Macbeth’s milkless breasts Galled to her resolute hardened will ed with the blood of hand-dagg ered night- watching. Again for Rosemarie Sweet flow ers with their lightness of touched-color soften ing this harsh and barr en land of mine. Grown young again You’ve grown this aging self of mine young again as the seed ed fields the dark rich ness of their soil’s re newing. No way out she became there not knowing why all the e xits seal ed off a naked ness of place. Through-timed Identi cal twins i dentically clothed in the thought s of the o thcr’s love for the same lady The one died the o ther lived his brother’ s through- timed fail ing. “Dark comedies ” all the more tragic because their artificial endings can’ t surface o ver the real wounds still bleed ing below. Concert in Munich (March 16 07) a) Violin Sonata half-deaf could scarce ly hear the violin in the upper register Playing as a phantom cd being voice less ghosts of an imagin ary past. b) The opera glasses finger ing even where the most delicate of arpeggios couldn’t be seen beyond the piano’ s hidden se crets of vis ualizing sounds. c) Schumann’s A minor violin sonata stormed me passed in to a need for revela tory conternplat ion’s catching-in-breath of where the mu sic couldn’t be sounding me out for. d) Ravel’s violin sonata jazzing it up in “content porary i diom” seem ed to dull at the edges of my less than acquiescent soulcd (sold) out. e) Schumann piano quintet at the end death-march ed me in to those grave feelings that marked me off for a last ditch effort of being mov ed (away from). f) “Wolfsponsor” (Helene Griniaud) The beauti fied “wolf spoil ser” kept those at home to tame her ro mantic in stincts changed from brunnette to blond (on the cover) but that didn’t al ter my own classica lly space-in herent sen sibilit ies. 4 of the great portraits a) Rembrandt’s Saskia (Kassel) so imperson ally intensed That even the cloth’s speaking the artist’ s tight-fitting mind a loud. b) Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa more the whercd where site isn’t Mysti cally land scaped. even beyond the depth of his self-in volving person. c) Bellini’s Doge mind-abstract ed unity of person ed place. d) Raphael’s La Velata’ s eyes cloth ed in the mystery of woman’s end ced call ings. These cold winds rushing through the abandon ing color s of spring’ s reticent surface- claiming s. Bluebells lithe ly escap ing my lip’ s soundsensing. The fear of what one doesn’t know what to fear A ship unan chored drift ing through waves of not finding where. Before he wasn ’t He was there be fore he wasn’ t waking from a dream that hadn’t stopped tell mg him self out. Curtains closing in silence of being drawn down the way of stars felt through for even mg- Blossoms cluster ed from snow-petal fall. Worn colors where not even touch could re veal their full-toned bareness es. The snow so finely rhymed its instinct for sound be gan beyond my knowing where. Sugar-surfaced Those little girls so sweet ly dressed through bro cated design s of pastry sugar-surfac cd. Van Dyck’s effemina tcly elong ated my sense for the finery of aristocratic touch-through surfacing s. Truth was her transient means self- purposing whatever ends site would aspire A woman’ s enticing smile hold ittg others at the grasp of her very moment. Distancing the snow spreading out beyond the fields of his light- shifting thoughts. Self-attaining His suit ed stance-demeanor punctua ted adept ly with that buttomed smile of his so primely self-attain ing. Chopinesque a) Perfumed that faint salon scent dreamily ro mantic Most ly for women’ s vaguely (but still re wardingly) abandoning smiles. b) Proud ly self-as suming that nation al guise of uprear ing streng th Horsed in saddle the charge through those (most ly still in nocent) bat tie-keys. the whims ical beauty of those not quite touch ing moon lit moment s reminis cently fad ing from. Tchaikovsky 5th A bcauti fully tooth less woman Robed in all the colors that her barr cn nakedness could allur ingly costume. Mirrored She mirror ed another face than her own search ing back as if waves through-call ing in voice less response. Spacelessly The snow began as a touched- wind so quietly tin aware to that space less void of night. The blackbird tracing his shadow upon the dark ening snow until night left him win ged-through the loncli ness silent ly in flight. Funeral music (Purcell Queen Mary) Death chromat ically ascend ing inter vals of a lifeless there after Its final pain s of fear time-releas ing. For Rosemarie Our love thawed through its soften ing flesh melting now as snow the lonely depth of win ter’s darken ing grasp. Purcell’s anthems of such a lonely pur ity tensed the internal bleeding of darkening sorrows. Twinned Chopin French or Polish Handel German or the English of one person semi-identi cal twinned astride a shoreless reach selffinding. Moon-sensing I heard the snow falling through the awaken ing of dream’ s moon-sens ing light. Signs and symbol s those blink ing lights we steadied through vista s of impend ing aware The overripe fruit of Amos’ vision bereft of those harden ed daily sur vival-needs As a woman’ s breast so softly milked its child’ s taste runn ing over in to those stagnant streams of wellness culture. That choice There would always be that choice the original fruit still hanging for us to decide against the inner voice calling us back at hand’ s length. Either way It could go either way they said as if “it” wasn’ t us at the crossroad’ s stretch ing out in unseen length of hands rest lessly through- voicing. The train started from unseen hands switched on its timetable route same-track- continuity from not turn ing back. For our son Raphael Some thing more than blood-bind s walking a lone at night your steps e choing my dis tant thought s The clouds responding through their tonalities of cause we listen the woods awaken to our darken ing pulse Something more than that blood-binds. Pidgeons sitting out their place rowed in to a causality of chanceap pearance s. The fields of flowing clouds be yond where even horizon s of the mind’ s timeless ly incrcas mg. Poems from Klingenthal a) Of awakening light He slept the snow down through dreams of a wakening light a boat unan chored re ceding realm s from its a bandoning shores. b) A lone bird in an empt ied and dried-from season searching the sky for winged re lease. c) Sensitised These cur tains so fine ly spoken light sensiti sed from snow-clad time-descend ing hills. d) Of tlw Germanies Two nation s at the his torical edge of their de feated pride Now reconfirm ed to a ti nity of less than a strange like same ness. c) Timelessly exposing Space can’t be concealed e veil through these reach ing lull’s breathing themselve s out time lcssly ex posing. I) This tired snow still re hearsing steps melt ing away their im pression less sound s. g) This room inspoken though lies itant in a light of windless transform ings. h) The moon has created another world from here Sancti fied through its descend ing phases of snow. i) Witnessing aloneness These slen der trees rhymed to the wind-height s of witness ing alone ness. DcdCOn’s (Zwickau ca. 1500) balance between mind and hands inhold ing a higher cause face-formed re ceiving. Saxony’s factories defaced from view scarred with their running wounds blood lessly wind-apparent. Their motives We’re assum ing their mo tives as our own as if a statue could be re placed for its living i mage. Remotely imaged in that glass-moment of where time translate s its tin evened light from form. The rivet glisten ing from stone s flowing my shallow in stincts to a depth of far out sound ings. That castle run down from the use lessness of time’s pro tective shield Wind and wea ther tight ened their mark on man’ s solitary claims for a lasting re fuge. For Rosemarie The morn ing kiss sunshines your transient face in to a gladness radiant ly stilled. Pink’s love-lost voice Night only appeared as Pink on the doorsteps of his love-lost voice with primed flow ers and that artificial shine of his summaried yet courag eously self- presentat ion. Requiem (Michael Haydn 1771) Is Mozart dying here 20 years ear Her intoned in those fate ful sounds of where his grave’s been bringing him down to a pro fessional of sound-intent Casket- lending. Vision Js the sccing- grovvth 1 mage-intens ed “moving of mount ains’s” roughly impending a wareness es through. Start-day The morning s start-day still shadow mg in dream a clouding through pass ed remembr anccs. Nl issba 11 in (of Osnabruck) defiant lyjewish-starrcd Na ked to the act of fruitbearing birth-den ials. Rachel She cried when she saw little children smiling the way hers never knew in a tub ofblood- ending its lifeless soundless motherless need for love. To be first He alway s needed to be first That incipient urge for the where of where he wasn’ t Rushing time ahead of itself until at the end It finally caught him down. The earth of my dark- soil blood’ s deep-down Cooled in the night of the moon’s grasp ing hold on shadows. Pale-voiced this shall ow start of spring’s e ven remote ly shadow ing innuendo’ s touch-sens ing. Self- exp ress i oned An almost empty train soundless ly cvolv ing through these night s of self- expression ed distan ces. Why then not now Why here not there the wind’s savage-teeth ed machete bleeding the life-rings of the wood’s o pening desol ate sadness. First colors this land’ s sparse ly in need of an appear ance-growth surfacing where the wind’s claim ing-finds. 2nd Allegretto (Beethoven trio op 70,2) as partner s lyrically voiced cir cling a one ness of space- toned inter vals. The first blossoms have fallen so tender ly voiced that even death couldn’t stain through their white- forsaken pur ity- D minor trio (Schumann) Schumann’ s passions rushing through all that’s left behind until slowed to an abyss of con tcmplative silences. Blossomed re mem bra nces The land strewn with white-blossom ed remembran ces of why life’s so short for its holding on to. The bee ’ s clasp ing the per fumed scent of its fligh ty desit ings. Colorings Tile bird sang because the tree was bared for its voic ed- in color ings. The desert looming with the slithering eyes of stone-awaken ing tongue d enchant ments. Flemmish 15th century masterpiece s so bright ly ornament cd a near ness to the now of rhymi cally through-transpir ings. Faces more like those decor ative Venet ian masks self-conceal ing their time-lit ex posnres. That edgy feeling that wants where it isn’ t like crumb ling space to its off-color ed tension ed intangib ly touched. His hour had come because He knew it would only then when death’s staling us right in the face of where we’ ve no one to go magneti cally call ed. The day will come when they’ 11 outlaw God" s words and ways as they did with You forsaken from the laws of Romans and Jews We’ll be left as a bandoned as your hang ing from the length ot your nailed- in Cross. Vintage early 50s These post war houses put together as a jig-saw puzzle that doesn’t fit Chimneys as over siz ed cows coloss ally protrud ing in to the thinness of air Roofs that end down the wrong way out All’s right here as nothing’s pre cisioned as before. What he didn’t preach He practi sed what he didn’t preach Where’s the worth of knowing or doing Such worlds re volving along an axis of in tangible un certaintie s. Our favorite uncle too good for being too weak too late in stand ing up to the full length of his own need for peace fill reconcili ations. Cowing down to Only if he could preach himself to where the o thers sat could he come down from that self-en closing pul pit of his. “How are things in Glaccamorra ” (in memory Uncle living) Even if he didn't believe in God He still needed a paradise of unearthly peaceful ness A land flowering in the time less repose that this side of life had n’t meted him out for. O irl i ids deeply co lored from their strange tropical or igin here a world so re niotely pre- existant. Imitation animals so inquiet ly self-i maged as if man could tame his own steadfast instincts for prey. Time-flow So near to death and yet so close ly attuned to life’s re viewing where he sat through years of con tinuous time- flow. Seymour that shaggy Bronx low-downer Ghett oed-eyed half-steady stanced his way in to a new kind of respect able mon ied look. Not knowing but sensing what one doesn’t know as the sha dows of fear wind-blown yet light-re sisting. turtle slow ing time down to an ac quired pace of dust- bear ing forti tudes. “Put on your Easter bonnet with all the ribbons on it" so joyously parading a city’s color ing bright ness oflife beyond life’ s upsound ing beat of where your bonnet’s sing ing in outlying ribbon ed phrasing s through. Cold shadows stoned mo ments un touching ex posures. Prayers for the dead They sat their time out until the dead was bur ied to the depth of their mind’ s last im pulse for light. Prevasively blue The light spring sky so prevas ively blue that touch ed your lighten ed step through the wind’ s transpar ency find s. Easter fires at the Birnau swelling light streams of fire burned through to the ash of winter’s with ering hold. A tensions to person a balance that must be held the way little girls string their puppet s to a hand- evened sense. Off You could n’t hold him back Off be fore the count down be gan running a race a gainst where he wasn’t breathless ly self-con fining. Old men entranc ed in leaf less desire s couldn’t bloom beyond the dried-in sap of win ter’s resis ting claim s. Soundlessly voiced The water s parted in phras ing beyond the wind s soundless ly voiced. Cat and mouse more like a children’ s game let loose and run catch quick hold tight till the pains arc singing through a dead-warrant ed victim of your play ful delight s. “I thirst” (Haydn 7 Last words of Christ) as Christ s life-stream s drying down the un broken bone s impass ioned for re lease. Aron at age 7 wiesel-slen dered his lithe form wherea bouts of left behind s retrac ing. Crystalled-spoken Do flower s cool their intent down to the moon-kept light of evening’ s crystall ed-spoken touch. Age only part ially in habits us We’re more like a string ed instru ment attun ed to the changea bility of what’s touch ing our throughframed ap pearance Atlantis-time dream-swell as the wa tcr’s under currents shift ing in sand to these lost pcrspect ives of a world sinking back m to the sea of its birthed creation. That snooping- around-the- corner type insinuat ing beyond his nose length Eyes full of those betraying need s for the all-clear signall ing in smil cd accommo dations. Resurrection (Rembrandt Munich 1640s) Sitting it out stone-tombed timc- rcflccting as if death hadn’t lost its hold on his waiting for the angel of light’ s time-redeem ing. The swan season ed for a whiteness of wind-flow ing grace fully through waters of un attending shores. Slowing down his thought s as clouds accumulat ing into a mass of less than moment ary growth wind-holding steps re solving through sound lessly. The rooster mostly red in its clawed-in fixture s steadily eonseienc cd Peter’s alarmed- through den ials. Out-timed sermons can take us askew off-bal anced as those worn-accent uating steps to a pulpit ofbared down scripture s. “New born ” (perhaps) but old-tim ed featured their low-lying sinner’ s breed wor thicd (only then) for re demption. Beethoven’s 7th (3rdmvt. Rattle) rhythmi cally dialog ued in to a Haydnesque response of trailing off shadow ings. Marked-off she was with a purpose ful sense in direction as colors ac centuating their depth ed-for con tours. Jewish transport children parent-alon ed in to the darkness of a not-know ing- where land closing behind as drama’s death scened no where now but beginning. Mozart’s flowing through the streams of your hand-re fining lightvoiced. For Rosemarie Your lips have open ed the birth of my be ing moon- sensed eye s dimly receding. Wii rzbu rg: Res idence In the clois tered halls of the resi dence stone-silence isolating walls protec ting a time’ s vanish ing in view. Wurzburg Residence: The park These tree s artifi dally trim med that one expected tin soldiers par ading a manne quin’s pretti ness from view. Annunciation (Herlin Rothenburg) Such an inner weav ing melodic after find s as if that angel was still in-flow ing heaven ly grace. Tony there’s lot s of you in mind of these words imitat mg what you’d be thinking of. Rothenburg’s still virgin- medieval un touched as Penelope by all those suitors who would unveil her self-re framing dignity. Rosemarie I’ll awake the youth back from you if only be cause the moon’s your trail spar cntly mine, Blank shadows their face s shallow ed to a depth of sun less smile A courtyard window ed in-to thought- response intermin ably asking. “The handwriting's on the wall” but now it’ s shimmer ing indistin ctly as these leaves reflect ing concrete silences through. Image of “The church ” when the roots have been torn from their earth-renew ing growth That tree so proudly cm bellishcd aspiring heavenly vistas sap lessly in ert. Riemensclmeider in Wurzburg (6) a) Candelabra angels ca. 1505 escort ing in the light of transcen dental vi sions. b) Mary and John (the small one ca. 1520) break able hand-touched hold of the dead Christ’ s together ness. c) Eve’s 1492/93 hair How ing down the depths of her death' s realiz ings. d) St. Stephan’s face cut- form hand-re fleeting ascension to the Christ of his long ings. e) St. Sebastian ca. 1515 That stead ied gaze be yond the inbinding pain’ s light-bleed ing. J) St. Barbara ca. 1510 her hands circling the womb from its cha liccd blood- light. Mary’s church (WurzbuyO although statucd within worth icd tradit ion lofty a hove my sitt ing down from those few pris tine yellow flowers caught me at a glance. Skin-shedding Snakes shed their skins out realising in self-re vealing a newness of what's been cast a side. Track-lines as parall died as my uneven edthought s time-in creasing, Pink’s early morn ing blossom ing checks the spring trees of his flushing through co lorings. Spitzweg’s gentle breath of humour Hanging his coloring un derwear on that watch ful length of cannon (per haps) reload ing for its drying off sponsors. Spitzweg (II) for Ernst may be hid ing behind a gentleness of touch ed appcaran ces what is n’t seen but implied as those roosted chickens and lady’s stock ings hung be hind the fire s of his in tensing glow. The psychoworld left her little time for self Sha dowed as she was in the 1 mage of what once was for being even now the more that dark un known of the somewhere else The bott omless ocean’ s sinking sounds in to lost forget fulness The death of where only life can re deem itself. so. St. Margareta (Cranach Munich 1520s) Her hair touched with the spontane ous glow of where inno cent eyes self-seek ing. Spitzwegean birds wit nessing what we wouldn' t want seen flight-messan gers voice lcssly expos mg. These corridors sound lessly lead ing either way out of his self-im prisoned direction less. Buttered She butter cd her stale-face bread to a dia logue of in tricate pleasuring s. Rain corning the cloud s dulled from usage A closeness here sens ed-waiting. “Caught a cold” as if cold s could be caught upon when you’ re caught in draft' s cold-mind edness. Alice in Wonderland (reread) a) She may have out grown her knowledge in to the smallness of a lessen ing world. b) Nonsense can make more sense in the upside-down ness of our Old Father William’s world. c) Wc all at times dialogue ourselves Even if the speaking back’s only the other side of that somewhat o ther world. d) Who's Alice who are we in the possi bility of more in those other ways of realiz ing. Relentlessly holding These austere mountain s relentless ly holding tor the still ness of time’ s sloping down phrase s. Reading through the eyes of others is why glasses need be indi vidually prescrib ed. Corot’ s the poet of si lent- voiced sensibil ities the sha dows of these lake- trails cending winds. Illuminated manuscr with their individual letters so finely addres scd as a cour tier with flourishing hat improvis ing beyond the usage of such isolating meanings. Human If the Indians weren’ t human Were those Spaniard s any more so Or does human mean a finishing meanness from design. Nathaniel Pink bought the store out of sunflower s and high standing color ing balloons Trying to cur ious the real sun out of its paled appease mcnt policies for some more of that real shine that e ven Pink couldn’t long attune with those virtu ous smiles of his. Landmarks some where set in those o pening field s with their phrasing sense for grass No word s only num bers hardly decipher able worn down from their time-touch direction less viewed. The dead know better than we so quietly entombed in such peaceful places with only the wind to hear No tensions no pains no fears And only those overspread ing trees protective ly stilled. Lost she was in a garden of over-bloom ing flowers Coloring e veil those nights through with the wind s of choired echoings. The old windmill turning slowly through sound lcssly continu ing the way s of the wa ter and the wind’s word lessly found. At sundown the boats soundless ly passing through the flow of homecoming’s a sadness of return motion lessly wave d. Byrd: Mass for 5 Voices Ifthen’ s being Cath olio’s be ing truer to Christ’s suffering The mass of upholding the signa ture of that voiced- through pur ity in faith. Schumann op. 12 That piano keyed for a larger hall And she small or than the music’s mean ing Overcoming with eye-tell ing technique much of the mood of Sell u mann’s subtle ties from sound. V\/blff> S Spies (Head oj DDR secret police) Bathseba- like wormed their way in to the flesh ed desire s of their wanting Vic tints for a cold truth papered o ver but se cretly inholding. Formed That round ball coloring her eyes through for its touching sense from form. True-telling stones It's just the right word strung to their co loring find s A necklace of true-telling stones. Ute She was too strong to let other s decide An over bearing tree shadowing most deeply the depth of her own self-persuasion s. Schiller: Joan of Arc a) Docs man still need God to free him self from be ing bound and tied to his own in terests. b) Joan was the witch for England and the Holy Saviour for France Does God take sides in our own national interests. c) He saved her from the pyre The real flame s were God’ s burning de sire through her for France’ s freedom. d) Joan sainted only 1920 in those times of hope less despair Has she risen again above the meaning for her sin gular message. Autistically in mourning She didn’ t know what death meant for a mother she rarely saw More in a sadness for her own unspeak able self. Isaac Babel that Jew ish Cossack horse-fear ing his own trampling down instincts. The jewelled necklace that she touched through her finger ing needs Articulate with the shine of a smiled a wareness. Closer Rain sadness and quiet spoken thoughts an intimacy of nearing you closer. Clarinet’ s slow streams deep water s winding through the flow from self-express ing sound s. Nathaniel Pink’ s lost his athletic looks Shoul tiers droop ing as a watch less dog’s so eared out-peer ing Glasses worn through their respec tability sake. Drying up This earth’s dry ing up cracking down to the pores of where breath ing’s no way of seeing it through. Unframing There’ s still too much kept sc cret here Old-timed family picture s revealing that he wasn’ t what he was told to be AJew-kill er unframing the antece dents of his war- timed heroic posing. That vacancy of wind His empti ness of mind’s like that vacancy of wind blown field s with out a resonance for voice. s where Pity’ one’s own nakedness so readily on display. Chagall’s Esther so close ly clothed in that in stinct for un revealing beauties just as she was symbol of Israel’ s untouch able calling. Commas Small dip ping birds skirting die water’ s edge with the commas between the wind’s line s ont breathing. Heinz had that staid look of his butt ed-out cigar swollen stance and the pride of smokcd-occas ioning relax ations. Samson was smitten with a blindness of seeing too much Told as he was in-to the secret confines of a voice less dark. Those quick- stepped birds imprinting the less of a mo ment’s sound. Evergreens formed with the self-delu sions of al ways being there after. Lake of Garda at Campione Water falls of fall ing stone Abstract vistas reshaping the mind’s con fluence of rock- down surfa cings. Implied What she said im plied for o ther mean ings As if words were less than that chance movement of her eye s or hand s brushing down for touch. Twinned-feelings Women may dress to their in tended sense for self as if cloth cd to in ternal wants for such twinn cd-in feeling s. For Rosemarie Mild winds that’s your thawing this wintered heart of mine to the sweetflowing of its time-re hearsing streams. A quiet snow like clos ing the cur tain’s ask ing for a voiced inti macy of no where but there. Cloud-invoking You voic cd yourself softer cloud-invo king wind s from the mildness of a south ern clime. The Bacchae (Eurpides 4) a) The enemie’ so far off beyond the seas from the north or east in the pasto ral flow of mountain’ s so deeply designed to that mirror ed image from self. b) Pentheus with the curiosity of Eve voiced through the serpent’s so cosmic cunning. c) Wine that delight s the human heartless ness overflowing in an imalled sane tities. d) Caravaggio’s Bacchus feasting on the in ner needs from his own impassion ed self-dest ruction. Smoke-clouds abandon ing those lost thought s of celes tial imitat ions. Menorah with its uplifting hand’s light- embracing the wax- blood’s see ping through. A void at the cen ter Fear as if white wasn’t a lapse from being found. Karl Marx City (Chemnitz) with a huge bust of his plasti cally in the fullness of prophetic claims still staring down Timeless ly what should have been but wasn’ t. The Pharisee ’ s urging Jesus’ answer ing eye’ s coin- invoking the Emperor’ s god-struck image. Magritte’s head on balanc ing hat’ s unease s my squareframed sit ting in from place. Otherwise I could have been the other wise from being now These time s the tide s of moon-sweeping stir facings me away from. Glassed remembrances Strange eyes watch ing him through glassed re membrance s. Of its speechless thoughts This trees’s sha ding itself inwardly en closing the shadows of its speech less thought Little old ladies with their little old worries of more-than- finding word s as birds scatter mg for their incessant ly feed. Wind-phrasing The sur face of this smooth ed out sea So breathless ly stilled only in the soften ing touch of word’s windphrasing. Amputated They cut the limbs of tit is tree to its sha dowed rest away Out-armed sway ing dull-pulsed rem nants. Rembrandt in the 40s still form- controlled precision ed metallic gleam the cloth of touched beyond ness for soulfinding Godsensing. Incomplete Man’s incom plete created with a need for more that emptiness at the centre of self-ribbed to the right woman to make him whole but still incom pletc against the claims that death has sought so constantly securing. Uni in i i ted possibil i ties Abandon ed houses flood-ridden plains middle class down- clutched to the bitter root s ot their ere dit clauses Only the dust bowl’s failing us now in this land of unlimi ted possibili ties. June 22/08 This summer day’s as end less as I can imagine clouds un spoken where the wind’ s timing for light and all those unseen birds master ing the voice s of their through-shadow ing silen ces. Thunder flashed through his mind an appear ance of naked ly reveal mg- The blank end of what he didn’t want to say as a sea wind lessly a drift. Wind-aspiring At the bott om when there were no relic s of the past to be earth ed out A si lence came o ver all that had been said as clouds windaspiring. A mythical power Trees inhabit a mythical power of their own encompass ing ages of transcend ing shadow s. After the rains It cooled after the rains that e veil my voice became aware of its shad owing phrase s. Too hot to think a loud even the shadow s absorb ing in heat I’m where I’m not untelling. Books have black and whiten cd me in to their en visioned sense for touch. Waiting for what wouldn’t happen these time-toll ing fears as if person ed irresolu tely there. That Monet for Ernst it must be a late one Not so formed-flo wered feeling’ s out going scent But ab stracting in light and shade’s con tinuity of that path’ s overhang ing Voiced. Wall-flowered and what of those not-so- pretty women Wall-flowered a loned for the touch of va cant stones that won’t be answer ing back. Hemingway as Cezanne masculin cd his wo men As if the softness of flesh could n’t be but moulded into their exter ior sense d form ed. Of inner intent Language was learned before it became mean mg But with out those words of in ner intent How much ex pression less void. Alone She sat alone in a room of shadows Only the trees knew why and the glass of inflecting silence that told more of her than she could re veal to her self. Tensed Words even the unspoken ones tens cd at the finger’s edge. Insect’ s needled sting through the skin’ s ripe ness for blood- taste. Mary Poppins umbrell aed that flying wish for dream’ s over wa kings. The piano man’s a fake Mute to the needs of o thers Strip ped of his untold i dentity Fingers can’t tell beyond the imita tion of where they’ ve stopped for self- performing. Adrift These times a drift as so many today cut loose from their anchoring cause far out upon a sea of endless ly wind-shif ting course. Defiantly Her defiant nature reminded me of those cold stone s you could n’t touch deeply e nough echo ing for re lease. Predator That snake slow ly unwind ing its bo died length Tongued loud in veil omous glare. Janacek’s 2nd quartet as a man standing on both side s of where he’s not go ing from A unity inti mately enchan ting in the aged ness of post-war traumas. Quicker It came quicker than it was over. Fathered He fathered with that quiet conten ance of his self-contain ing words That I felt as if har boured from my own ri sing in stinctual tides. ForS.L. Red rose s A portrait of his dead wife on the piano of his most inti mate thought s fingering through for lost re membrance s. Poetry books by DavidJaffin 1. Conformed to Stone, Abelard-Schuman, New York 1968, London 1970. 2. Emptied Spaces, with an illustration by Jacques Lipschitz, Abelard-Schuman, London 1972. 3. In the Glass ofWinter, Abelard-Schuman, London 1975, with an illustration by Mordechai Ardon. 4. As One, The Elizabeth Press, New Rochelle, N. Y. 1975. 5. The Halfofa Circle, The Elizabeth Press, New Rochelle, N. Y. 1977. 6. Space of, The Elizabeth Press, New Rochelle, N. Y. 1978. 7. Preceptions, The Elizabeth Press, New Rochelle, N. Y. 1979. 8. For the Finger’s Want of Sound, Shearsman Plymouth, England 1982. 9. The Density for Color, Shearsman Plymouth, England 1982. 10. Selected Poems, English/Hebrew, Massada Publishers, Givatyim, Israel 1982. 11. The Telling of Time, Shearsman, Kentisbeare, England 2000 and Johannis, Lahr, Germany. 12. That Sense for Meaning, Shearsman, Kentisbeare, England 2001 and Johannis, Lahr, Germany. 13. Into the timeless Deep, Shearsman, Kentisbeare, England, 2002 and Johannis, Lahr, Germany. 14. A Birth in Seeing, Shearsman, Exeter, England 2003 and Johannis, Lahr, Germany. 15. Through Lost Silences, Shearsman, Exeter, England 2003 andjo-hannis, Lahr, Germany. 16. A voiced Awakening, Shearsman, Exeter, England 2004 and Johannis, Lahr, Germany. 17. These Time-Shifting Thoughts, Shearman, Exeter, England 2005 and Johannis, Lahr, Germany. 18. Intimacies of Sound, Shearsman, Exeter, England, 2005 andjohannis, Lahr, Germany. 19. Dream Flow with an illustration by Charles Seliger, Shearsman, Exeter, England 2006 andjohannis, Lahr, Germany. 20. Sunstreams with an illustration by Charles Seliger, Shearsman, Exeter, England 2007 andjohannis, Lahr, Germany. 21. Thought Colors with an illustration by Charles Seliger, Shearsman, Exeter, England 2008 andjohannis, Lahr, Germany 22. Eye-Sensing, ahadada, Tokyo, Japan and Toronto, Canada 2008. “David Jaffin is a scrupulous weigher and weighter of words - by which I mean that a poem is, for him, always a matter of collaboration with the true spirit of the language. Every word is given its value, neither more nor less.” Edward Lucie-Smith “David Jaffm’s Preceptions is a fine book. Jaffin’s poems, slight on the page, entice, engage, amuse. Yet their brief touchings often reach wholeness, and they are poems of philosophical consequence out of keeping with much of modern poetics. The poems catch perceptions in the act of happening, to be, the short-line verse appropriate to what becomes.” Paul Ramsey, The Sewanee Review “Jaffin’s poetry is as “modernist” as abstract painting while still poetry in the traditional sense, whose purpose is the verbalization of basic human experience and whose form derives from a serious exploration of language ... it is remarkable what depth of experience Jaffin manages to relate through his severely limited vocabulary and imagery.” Victor Terras (Brown University) “Mr. Jaffin uses words with a real fineness of diction which emphasizes a characteristic understatement of emotion. One recognizes a cultivated sensibility. He adopts a theme and mode which one cannot help but admire. He writes very well indeed.” the late Norman Holmes Pearson (Yale University) “Jaffin’s Through Lost Silences offers a rare display of manifold poetic variety. Succinct and challenging enforcers of new insights and deeper understanding, his poems soar in far higher realms than those of prosaic description and rational analysis ... There is sincerity and conviction in Jaffm’s crisp, multi-sensory poeticisation of ideas. Existential and philosophical shapings of language, simple and complex at the same time, draw out the true nature of his chosen subjects in an original way overwhelming the faint echoes of older poetic traditions and leaving behind a profound aftertaste of experiences lived through for the first time.” Edward Batley (University of London) “David Jaffin is a master of the restrained but purposeful statement. If his poems do not have quite the briefness of the haiku, they have a good deal of its light-dark inflection and rounded perfection of form ... Jaffin’s poems almost always give an impression of “light reflecting light”. The fact is, that if one wants restraint and elegance, he will find it in abundance here. Jaffin’s subtleties are, in short, dazzling.” The Library Journal on Conformed to Stone www.bogpriser.dk/Denmark Denmark: Om Dream Flow “David Jaffin is a prolific American poet whose work uses the minimum possible means of expression in order to reach for the essentials in his subject matter ... The limpid texture of his work resists quotation or excerption; his deceptively simple surfaces use the tensions inherent in the vocabulary to open up new horizons. Delicate creations, his poems tend to be wonderfully light lyrics.”