1390

1389

1388

1387

1386

Daughter of a son of Ireland

If earth be sonned

As spectral as a perambulating Bloom

Though unlettered as the rain

Till parish note another sinner.

Son of a daughter of exile's house

If earth itself exile

Chaste in conflagration

Seared by years

Beyond a fable's solace.

Son of no one

Daughter of herself

Earth they have that never had them

The stones cast single shadows.

1385

1384

1383

1382

1381

1380

1379

Death has no being to she who dies,

But a mass of bronze to the breathing,

That the last exhale in a quiet room

Lies over the sunlit day

With a metal weight,

Its daily business sudden-false,

Mis-scaled to a purpose

That was small a breath before.

1378

1377

1376

1375

1374

1373

1372

In medias res is human

As time and action's

By thought and hapless volition born,

By hazard breathed.

At what point is a tale if

A leaf fall and re-direct the eye?

A cry in the street summon memory?

1371

1370

1369

There is a perfect quality in the cricket's voice

That grammars a late summer's city to country manner

With trilled points and stops,

Commas to part and render

A hubcap, arthropod, urbantree's

Thrum as a season's hour,

A paragraph of sound.

1368

1367

1366

1365

1364

1363

1363
The measure of belief's not mouthed,
But held in the hand or eye:
Warm for the grasp,
In the reflection embraced.
The mind is fed from the body's purse,
That's with its own interest compounded;
The expired breath but a vapor makes
Upon a mirror of opinion,
That repeats what is repeated.

1362

1361

1360

1359

1358

1357

1356

1355

1354

Note, Jamaica, that will bear

The encumbered ones

Unsated swollen round,

With indignant interest eyed

By geckos paused in silver maneuver,

With grave surmise

By others too on family ground,

Our innermost hidden,

And hidden plain to see.

1353

1352

1351

1340

1349

This is not desired,

The cloud heads an arrested unfurling,

Divested of the sky's estate--

Renouncing and congruent with it and too

The condensation of one eye

Before sight can see--

Desire is tomorrow.

1348

1347

1346

1345
Pale flower shed
Pale dust to talc
Fingertips--
Too slight to warrant
Recollection.
One hour fled
By chance to touch
Parted lips--
Too fraught to figure
Conciliation.

1344

1343