Sunday, February 10, 2008

Triangulation by Sue Chenette

after JKD’s "Overland," posted Feb 6, which is in turn after "drafts from Winter Constellations" by Nate Pritts.
.................
as if in the wind-tossed grasses
inheres
...............some crystalline geometry
.....................susceptible to triangulation

............
.....................the dealt world, its wick and flame

.............
beneath the sky’s cobalt clatter

..............
*

......................
But always iceblink
a shimmered horizon—
..............twined paths and yin-yang clues
..............constants refracted under lake water

............
Our deceptions opening doors into strange light

................
*

.......................
The stars spiked, windblown

patinad with myth
............
witness to our displacements

.............
..................what became of stone?

..............
Once, a woman, traveling:

...........................
*

.................................
followed a trace of glazed spice
mulling star-formations and window-glints

..........
their dislocated and sporadic clusters

...................
*

........................
early sun, moonlight burning through
a rage for some defining order

..........
.........................falling
along long distances
.......rusted reflections of bodies rolling in sleep
....................& then afterward
........................................& further
until then;

..........................
*

.............................
skeletal dance in wind-tossed grasses

............
staggered and jagged, cleft, flung

...........
how to keep
the wind-wrenched night in check

.............
....................... ..embers
rekindled to an ordering rage

............
..........................small patter of sparks
..........................against the wide sky

..........................
*

..............................
Birch trees bend to their waists
in the gusting wind

............
..............................poems like closed eyes

............
............apart from the fire’s whispers
............the rustle and fall of small deceptions

............
slips of peeling white holding moonlight

..........................

1 comment:

Unknown said...

LOVELY poem SUE!!!! I adore some of the sounds, the wind reflected by the movement of the poem both lyrically and physically! I wonder whether Nate Pritts is reading these, and hearing how far his initial poem's vocabularly has blown on the winds of its vocabulary, themes and sounds. I think it is such a compliment to echo and respond to another's poem, and certainly with a response at la hauteur of the original. Thanks Nate & Sue!!!