GEORGE KALAMARAS ~

The Journey Inward (Body Time No More)


From that which refuses my moth, I replace my hands.

From that which instigates the winter storms of my eyes, I open

      an ear.



On the pillow, a spot of snail blood, spittle of the vanish auk.

Where my left ear had lain in the moist warm, all noise of the world

      was muffled.



Draw a bath of lightly caressed playing cards.

Ask me for the king of clubs, the jack of night sweats.



There is a place in my heart even I have not touched with

      diamonds.

Try if you must, but know that—in extreme quiet—you too might

      get quashed.



A divide opens up along the shelf of Antarctic ice.

On one side of the deck, it is cold. On the other, cold.



I do not speak any longer in ice moths or in irreparable twos.

I will not solve the dichotomy of this winged pain, even with an

      obstinate mouth.



Nor will I salve my own blue-bolstered bruise with dream talk and

      shame.

I am not talking time any longer but a continental drift of ice

      diamonds, devoid of the clutch of a kind hand or mouth.




_________________

George Kalamaras
That Moment of Wept
SurVision Books (Ireland)
2018

ANASTASIA MOUTSATSOU ~

ALEJANDRA PIZARNIK ~

Your lover has taken you in



with my eyes which are in his eyes

and which keep watch day and night



in his eyelids I sleep until dawn



in his eyes I've come to know

a last nakedness



Don't forget your eyes

because I inhabit them




——————————



Alejandra Pizarnik
The Galloping Hour
translated by Patricio Ferrari and Forrest Gander
New Directions 2018

RAE ARMANTROUT ~

Practicing



As the sun finds you,

upstanding,



knotted

at  intervals,



gray-green





As you were, limbs

aloft and



eagerly splayed,

still practicing





the old faith

as I do —



these words,

pushed in the fore,



posing




——————————

RAE ARMANTROUT
Wobble
Wesleyan University Press
2018

HOKUSAI ~

R E A D      M E

The British Museum

Thames & Hudson

2017

GARRY WINOGRAND ~

M O R E !

University of Texas Press

2018

LUCIA BERLIN ~

R E A D       O N









All you need to know
is Lucia Berlin
date Jay Silverheels
(Tonto)
when she was 17

HEAVEN LAKE (15) ~

Make

New bowls

Make

New food

Gentleman

no one else does —

so the dog rises

as one enters

Landscape

In the right place

at the right time

with the right lighting

and in the breeze

you could fall in love

Floating World

It was a dreamy time for you and me

The weather said so

The pair of windows that opened like shutters

The easy turn of the latch

Through the opening light dazzled

Something like your hair

Many years married please know

Is many years loved

A small bird with flashing orange wings

Sang from a tree that grew to our window

In this hut we built with our own hands

Some would call it a fairytale

These days pass by as light becomes darkness

There is next to nothing to show for it

How They Met

He took what clothes he needed washing, including the ones he was wearing, and she put everything into their old washing machine and it was done. She then took the fresh wash spun dry and carried it outdoors and hung it on the clothesline for the afternoon. Then she went to town to do errands. He cut a lot of grass. When they met up again the clothes were dry. He cut up fruit for their supper and she went out and brought the clothes in sun kissed from the line. She folded everything neat as a pin and rested it on the back of the sofa near the hallway door to the upstairs. He went carefully through the clothes and decided he needed everything of his right there downstairs. He left the clothes alone. Hours later, on her way upstairs, she took all the clothes with her up the stairs. When she got upstairs something about it all told her his clothes were supposed to stay downstairs. She brought the clothes downstairs. 

He was happy to see her.

————————————————

Bob Arnold

Heaven Lake

Longhouse 2018

NATURALIA ~

J O N K

SHIRLEY COLLINS / DAVY GRAHAM ~

LAURIE DUGGAN (Martial) ~

III |  XXVI



Real estate,  

                   you own it all.

Money,

             gold plate,

                               Josiah Wedgwood,

the Australian film industry,

                                             it's yours.

Your record collection,

                                      stunning,

and your books.

                            Genius?

Unquestionably yours.

But your wife?

                        A few drinks

and she's anybody's.




———————————

Laurie Duggan
The Epigrams of Mistral
Pressed Wafer 2010

THE LIFE AND WORK OF JOHN BERGER ~

Verso

2018

NINTH STREET WOMEN ~

R E A D      M E 

Little, Brown

2018

LI SHANGYIN ~

Night Rain, Sent North



You ask when I'll be back but there is no when.

In the hills night rains are flooding autumn pools.

When will we sit and trim the wicks in the west window

and talk about the hills and night and rain?







Frost and Moon



I can hear the migrating geese. There are no cicadas here,

a hundred feet up in the tower from where the water meets the sky.

The Bluegreen Lady and the Pale Fairy don't mind the cold:

that's just the moon and frost bickering over who's prettier.








Parting Thoughts



The dance before the brook. I'm out of breath.

My heart is sore at Midnight's songs.

I've never found Canyon Cloud.

What do you want from ditchwater?

The geese have stopped delivering messages.

The bamboo grove by the Xiang is stained with tears.

I will never see the color of your face

unless I rely on these ripples.





—————————————

Li Shangyin

edited and translated by Chloe Garcia Roberts,
Lucas Klein and AC Graham

(New York Review of Books, 2018)

ALL'S WELL ~

new year, all's well

(photo ~ bob arnold)

ON THE LEVEL ~

(photo ~ bob arnold)

HAPPY NEW YEAR ! ~

New Year 2019

(photo ~ bob arnold)

EMILY IN SNOW ~

(photo ~ bob arnold)

ICE CURL ~

When ice can be loved

(photo ~ bob arnold)

ED OCHESTER ~

I've had this poem up for decades 

out in our woodshed 

because it's good to laugh

when you're working hard