July Morning Vision
Did nobody else at the funeral see
The great whips cracking in the air
The sweat flying off in droplets
The droplets shining like dew?
My birds, I want to speak to you today
About your other lives as galley slaves.
Your singing, in case you didn’t know it,
Comes from the chants you made, working
together.
When a galley slave dies and becomes a bird,
The whips trill, the long boats roll and wallow,
We ship our oars and listen, listen, listen.
On the horizon, lightning lashes the sea.
from At The White Window (2000)
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All the previous poems of the month on one page.
Poem from June, 2008
Four About Death
Poem from May, 2008
Bonuses
Poem from April, 2008
The Self: A Sonnet Sequence
Poem from March, 2008
A Lowercase Alphabet
Poem from February, 2008
Chopping Garlic
Poem from January, 2008
A Calendar: The Beautiful Names of the Months
Poem from December, 2007:
The Poem of the Cold
Poem from November, 2007:
At the Back of the Year in a High Wind
Poem from October, 2007:
October's Stem and Head-Piece
Poem from September, 2007
Poem About Hopping
Poem from August, 2007:
Putting My Father's Ashes in the Cemetary at Springville Iowa
Poem from July, 2007:
Vermont Summer: Three Snapshots, One Letter
Poem from June, 2007:
from "Four Songs on a Bone Flute"
Poem from May, 2007:
Walking Home on an Early Spring Evening
Poem from April, 2007:
Easter Ghazal
Poem from March, 2007:
from "Water Diary" (Boxcars, 1973)
Poem from February, 2007:
Section 10 of “Dancing in the Dark,”
from “Poem in Three Parts,” Earthshine
Poem from January, 2007:
Two New Year's Poems by DU FU
Poem from December, 2006:
Christmas: Ohio and Capolongo
Poem from November, 2006:
Three Time-Trips
Poem from October, 2006:
October Couplets
Poem from September, 2006:
Mesa Verde
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