R e u b e n G e l l e y N e w m a n —

Chaotic Circe of Our Sorrow

after Rainer Maria Rilke, trans. Stephen Mitchell

We cannot know her lapidary stead:
pig sties like livening truth. Hand stet hiss Circe
this hill unfused plinth trilled trance hum I spied;
strike a damp thin match & blaze, bow, burn, follow:

Seams of spells, these hours. Over time
the herbed compress cold rot fizzle brew O our cold
child Pan flew the acid grip of law
to grasp murk centaur queer evocation blared—

Other life this moan wild gleam untrace
scree knee theremin lucid casket often boulder
blend words hot listen, seek a wide yeast purr

Mould not, come sprawl the bored deity of self,
worst lack, all error, four hairy terrors chase
that unwrought sea-blue. You must strange your strife.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Wish

after Elizabeth Bishop

I sought an apprentice wish
and sailed whim—see! ride the throat
laugh votive lover kiss me // took
grasping adornment of his mouth.
Appended light.
Appended bright catch-all.
We sung a loving bait,
glittered and vulnerable
and only [        ]—until everything
was rainbow, say slow, say oh!
And I let the kiss snow—

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the Name Face

after C.P. Cavafy, trans. Edmund Keeley

The wetting of mouths, forays, brotherhood
connived green and talked blue, fears append:

eye dilated new while I was hapless, wilt-eye, wasp-mad,
wishful summery in sin dance, summary these fails.

Hand form me: the skull anew has been alarmed into reeling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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