Nico Bleutge Poems

grey plan a semicircle
below cupolas slanting weight
of an arch height
measuring out space for itself
...

above the line of the mole. single points, the water
glimmers up yellow when the sun whispers through the

clouds, the hand curves round to catch the light
on the iris. into the picture eyelashes hang
...

as though a layer existed between them
and the narrow strip of coastline
the clouds emerged, sharply cut
off at the lower edge, above
...

pebble dash the stretched wires
gave to the veranda precisely that dense

order which the gaze with its sharpness
seemed to undo. the severe lines
...

then the heat slowly eased itself
off the balcony and the eyes were more easily

diverted from the houses. the white
satellite dishes at the windows
...

cloudy sky. at the edge of the picture branches
lie stretched across the water, the long fingers

reaching far beyond and holding the ocean
at bay. Seen closer
...

the gaze marks out the field its roaming
takes its measure from the tongue which mono

syllabically lifts up sand and cross and tin and sign
by sign it scrapes together the names
...

the lines of telegraph wires above the skeleton's sandstone
the swelling clouds behind the hills
the pupils clicking into position. oblique exposure of the horizon
...

view frame: the dried oil
on the benches. beneath it the hard
cracked soil the ochre of the stalks the train
shunts slowly onto the rails, past houses
...

clear contours. the light
lay behind the boats, the harbour

held onto the half-light and the hills
...