under glass
the way the mind
spreads out
what it has seen.

2.
So much left to say,
it needs an anthology of mornings
to get even part of the message across.

3.
Across the Great Divide
twixt thee and me.
How’s that for music
when you weren’t looking?

4.
It is a kind of rapture,
silent, that then eases
into speech. Not many
but few as they are
more than enough.

5.
When you look into a mirror
you condemn yourself to a journey.
It begins and begins
before you know it
you’re on the road,
no grammar to guide you.

6.
Certain Irish monks
were banished from empty Iceland
when the Vikings arrived.
They traveled ever further west,
came to America, said
We will leave this land in peace.

7.
That’s the nice part of the story.
After that you don’t much want
your children to hear. But they must,
they must understand
what you have done. We have done.

8.
When you have a chance
lift the glass carefully,
let the musty smell out
and maybe a bird or two,
crow if you’re lucky.
Now let the knowledge
rest a while in light and air,
you go on about your business
while it breathes.

9.
That’s how to deal with the truth,
let it say itself in all its ways.
Getting light out now,
someone taking off their shirt.

10.
We must say it
say it again
in the current state
of luggage, o language
is the final law,
it means what we say.

15 October 2021