#elegy

~ Poetictouch

So stubborn of you not to appear, be so aloof. Prince of long holidays— body a jet of blood, a ship of rage and restlessness.

anyway i've decided their ship name is andromilla (andromeda + milla) and i think that's the cutest thing ever personally

—for Alesia Tyree

Autumn’s first frost recalls the eon-ache of an endless June, the ceremony hidden in the teacup of the letter u, warming the hand that holds it, & lowercase n reminding us the ceremony ends, teacup rinsed, washed, left to dry upside down on a dishtowel, un- the quiet prefix in the air, unsettling the wary dog who cocks her ear at a footstep, unable to fall asleep beside her who sleeps in the rocking chair. Outside the first flowers that bloom had bloomed— the crocus comes to mind, but the plans are for other flowers more resplendent in the eye, a bird-of-paradise, a bird-of- paradise. . . & it’s so often the case, then as now, that a shadow darting across the sidewalk or the neighbor’s grass is what compels you to look up, an instinct not a choice, mouth agape with some word about to be said, but it stays unsaid, unsaid, as the rock doves winging circles round the bell tower fly suddenly away into other hours, hours no longer ours, & the cardinal in the crabapple sings out its bright notes, counting as a child counts her fingers, one to ten & back again, almost forever.

Michael Simms: Bob, I loved reading What’s Possible: New and Selected Poems, just released by Slant Books, a true masterwork. One among many pleasures is seeing how consistent in subject and voice the poems are even though they were written over a period of forty years. Most poets go through a long process of finding their subjects and growing into their voices; whereas you were born, you might…