Advance of Night

by this time
he was primarily confined to bed
even a walk across the bedroom too much a strain

one evening
when the moon shone brightly
Shiki longed simply to view earth's closest neighbor
but alas - from every vantage point he tried
he could not directly see the sphere outside the lone
window

nevertheless
he recorded his impressions of the outdoor scene
all as revealed in the moon glow

· the silhouetted treetops of a distant forest

· a low bank of puffy white clouds

· a wired parrot cage etched in moonlight

· the shifting angles of shine and shadow as night
progressed

everywhere the effects of lunar light but no glimpse of
the moon itself

sometimes the writing is more potent for what is left
unsaid

Cross Pollination

1857

Ando Hiroshige put down the bamboo pen,
having finished his latest drawing,
a close-up of a plum tree with double blossoms.
It was a unique tree, some of its limbs plunging directly
into the ground,
taking root and rearing nearby into more trunks.
All the traditional Japanese elements were there:
· the flattened perspective of the composition.
· the reduction of the color palette to 4 hues.

Lately, he had been studying the paintings of the Dutch
masters.
In particular, he was interested in the realistic way
they rendered the three dimensions.

And so in this drawing,
he introduced slight modeling to the tree's trunk,
as he had introduced cast shadows in another print,
unknown till then in his own work,
as he had introduced the converging lines of depth in yet
another work.
By going backward, he was moving forward.

1887

Vincent Van Gogh lay down his bristle brush,
having finished his latest oil on canvas.
It was a close-up of a plum tree in blossom.
It was, in fact, a reproduction of Hiroshige's work,
as envisioned in a different medium.
The traditional western elements were reinterpreted:
· gone were the mathematically exact lines of perspective
. gone were the muted colors found in nature.

Lately, he had been studying the coloured woodcuts of
the Japanese masters.
In particular, he was interested in the stylized way
they rendered landscapes.

And so in this painting,
he eliminated the accepted effects of modeling.
In their place, he introduced fully saturated colors,
greens against a red sky bolstering the illusion of depth,
just as he had devised a charged palette
for his bridge/in/the/rain painting,
yet another echo from Hiroshige's work.

By going backward, he too was moving forward.

Decibel

(x5 haiku)

canyon maze
a clear echo
everywhere at once

foghorn tone
inside or outside
the beached shell?

drip in a cave
the only sound
and all the sound

wind gust
swirling and moaning
in a clapperless bell

ancient anvil
subaural vibrations
from the first blow

The End of the Road

she was laid out
in a natural wood box
a rainbow pattern worked into the grain
wearing a blue gingham dress
and below the lower lid
although you couldn't see them
she wore glittering red shoes

surrounding her were three of her closest friends

the one fabricated from sheet metal
would have removed his funnel
but it was permanently welded to his head
stray wisps from the straw one
settled around her braided hair
as he gave her one last hug
the furry one
buried his weeping eyes
in the shaggy end of his tail

they were one and all inconsolable

Flicker

An old woman
Out for a summer night's walk
Passes under a street lamp when
shadows of tree limbs
and power lines
and leaves
Flash across her rounded back
While her one foot is implanted
In the cone of light
And the other is already buried
In the surrounding darkness

Steznycja

In the comfort of my home,
I put down the book that engrossed me,
relaxing my eyes a moment,
when I spied the snowglobe on a nearby shelf.

It was something I had acquired,
a gift received a long time ago,
in front of my eyes all those years,
lost among the accumulated knickknacks,
and it was just like seeing it for the first time.

Naturally I couldn't resist - I shook it,
setting in motion an artificial squall,
imitation bits of snow obscuring the contents of the glass
sphere.

Instead of slowing down, the snow became faster and
more furious.

I was looking down on a remote pasture,
somewhere in a valley of the Carpathian Mountains,
at first little to be seen in the slanting snowfall,
and then gradually the brown and white spotting of a
Guernsey cow,
the black and white of a Holstein
and others …

Bundled in outer garments but still shivering,
a lone farmhand stood sentinel over the drove,
a young teen desperately trying to retain his body heat,
hugging himself into the smallest possible shape,
watching the cattle for any activity.

And then one cow arose from its recumbent position,
scissoring its front legs stiffly open,
breaking off body contact from the corralled heat,
arching its back - crooking out its tail - its sphincter
muscle irising out,
relieving itself - discharging a great pile of hot and
steaming turds.

Immediately the boy reacted,
taking advantage and stepping into the stinking mess,
feeling the immediate relief,
feeling the warmth spread slowly through his worn
footwear …

I don't think I'll truly ever understand just how difficult it
was for my father growing up.

^

Biography

Native of South Troy, New York. Civil engineer by day with an interest in the mechanics of poetry.