Scott Cairns Poems

You could almost think the word synonymous
with mind, given our so far narrow
history, and the excessive esteem
...

After Stevens
It was when he said expansively There is
no such thing as the truth that his thick thumbs
thickened and his lips, purple as grapes,
...

Agion Oros, 2006
The air is cool and is right thick with birdsong
as our bleary crew files out, of a sudden
disinterred from three sepulchral hours of prayer
...

προσέλθετε
For near is where you'll meet what you have wandered
far to find. And near is where you'll very likely see
how far the near obtains. In the dark katholikon
...

This morning the world's white face reminds us
that life intends to become serious again.
And the same loud birds that all summer long
annoyed us with their high attitudes and chatter
...

You'll need a corpse, your own or someone else's.
You'll need a certain distance; the less you care about
your corpse the better. Light should be
unforgiving, so as to lend a literal
...

—Katounakia, 2007
The cave itself is pleasantly austere,
with little clutter—nothing save
a narrow slab, a threadbare woolen wrap,
...

What I notice first within
this rough scene fixed
in memory is the rare
quality of its lightning, as if
...

Each morning we begin again. My wife
wakes me with a shove, and condescends to try
her sorry Deutsch with me; she's chewing mud.
God, she's dumb. I tell her so, but mostly
...

A psalm of Isaak, amid uncommon darkness
O Being both far distant and most near,
O Lover embracing all unlovable, O Tender
Tether binding us together, and binding, yea
...