Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Assemblages


A few years ago I spent a feverish few days in the public library and at a couple different used book stores, pulling books from the shelves, opening to random pages, letting lines call out to me, and creating what I called "Assemblages" — joining the words of one author with another. Now I can't remember if I ever shared these ... and I want to .... so here they are.


this night
silent as a stone
untranslated
   suddenly — a little rain —
   what now?

Robert Hass, Praise
Leah Goldberg, Selected Poems




under the big sky
stars, like astral flowers
rise out of time
one more, one more, one more, much more
how patient they are

Robert Hass, Praise
Leah Goldberg, Selected Poems
W. S. Merwin, Finding the Islands




the ancientness of forever—
only the echo remains
and the mirror, frozen in a dream
there is something
to be said for silence

Robert Hass, Praise
Leah Goldberg, Selected Poems
Nikki Giovanni, The Women and the Men




daybreak — so loud
calls at the window —
I know it’s you
you were always 
so shy

moon shadow
at an open window
just before you leave
sometimes I remember you
sometimes I can’t remember


W. S. Merwin, Finding the Islands
Edna St. Vincent Millay, Selected Sonnets
Grace Paley, Fidelity



open your hand —
what do you see?
an ocean thirsty for pearls
write your secret name on the rain
do it now

Audre Lorde, Undersong
Rumi, The Essential Rumi



between morning and night
never enough 
years together
darkness covers everything —
in the end, I want nothing

Audre Lorde, Undersong
Rumi, The Essential Rumi
W. S. Merwin, Finding the Islands



fireflies
alone in the shadows
float orange, yellow, gold
this endless night
calls me out: lonely

Audre Lorde, Undersong
Rumi, The Essential Rumi
W. S. Merwin, Finding the Islands
Sylvia Plath, “The Disquieting Muses”



February morning —
an hour in warm rain —
find nothing, imagine nothing, fear nothing
a mountain —
ancient as time

Jane Austen, Persuasion
M. C. Richards, Centering
W. S. Merwin, Finding the Islands



listen —
this moment
turning to snow
who can remember yesterday?

Jane Austen, Persuasion
M. C. Richards, Centering
W. S. Merwin, Finding the Islands




remember one day —
the sun’s birth
the language of dance

name everything —
stars, plants, trees

forget everything —
all sound

stop going around and around

W. S. Merwin, “The Unwritten”
Joy Harjo, “Remember”
Gertrude Stein, “The teachers taught her that the world was round”





nothing is unlikely 
your perfect mouth folding down 
the crescent moon

everything 
turns out to be story 
one tear, alone, in this box

open the night window 
spill your secrets 
visit the snow one last time

Tom Wayman, Carol Ann Duffy, Shara McCallum, Christina Pugh, Charles Simic, Wesley McNair, Lisel Mueller, Kati Kapovich