[NOTE: Asterisks ** denote footnotes to be found at the end of the poem]
for/to Walter Christian Schell,
died October 7,2008,
...
sunset early
delights for
early night too
...
Once in a sycamore I was glad
all at the top and I sang. - John Berryman from Dream Song One
Or what man is there among you, of whom if his son
...
for Majestic, the Monday King
'Punished flesh leans into ground.' - N. Nightingale
...
'... because the soul is a stranger in this world.'
'This blue world. Unattainable - stranger than dying, by what unmerited grace were we allowed to come see it.'
...
'Poetry, alas, grows more and more distant. What commonly goes by the name of 'culture' forgets the poem [or distorts it into 'popular' dissemblances]. This is because poetry does not easily suffer the demand for clarity, the passive audience, the simple message. The poem is an intransigent exercise. It is devoid of mediation and hostile to media.' - Alain Badiou, 'Language, Thought, Poetry'
'How much longer will I be able to inhabit the divine? ' - John Ashberry
...
Beneath each eye there's some familiar look we refuse
We map our way to sleep in the palms of shy or frightened hands
- Norman Nightingale
...
Listen
The peacock's call
from the bare willow
...
[This effort is a third hatching of 2 previous efforts (one still active on this site]
NOTE: This found poem derives from a scientific article found in a journal dedicated to the study of birds, all observations of and conclusions derived so far as birds go, being continually mysterious even though the understanding of flight and song is now clear, even so there is something about birds, and swallows in particular, which evoke stunned mystery and silence until humans are moved to chirp and coo in soft wonder. Note too that thunder, similar though differently to birds, also evokes wonder and certain human sounds. A mystery indeed.
...
It has been found again!
What?
...