NINE POEMS ON ARRIVAL Spiders infest the sky. They are palms, you say, hung in a web of light. Gingerly, thinking of concealed springs and traps, I step off the plane, expect take-off on landing. Garlands beheading the body and everyone dressed in white. Who are we ghosts of? You. You. You. Shaking hands. And you. Cold hands. Cold feet. I thought the sun would be lower here to wash my neck in. Contact. We talk a language of beads along well-established wires. The beads slide, they open, they devour each other. Some were important. Is that one, as deep and dead as the horizon? Upset like water I dive for my favourite tree which is no longer there though they've let its roots remain. Dry clods of earth tighten their tiny faces in an effort to cry. Back where I was born, I may yet observe my own birth. EVENING ON A MOUNTAIN The valley sunned itself all day, its span Curving up two foothills; then the shadows Crossed like wings across its back; further, Ferries embroidered a slim lake, stitching Silk into its cotton, prows snipping... How still it was then! the sky thin and hollow, Deflecting the words stoned across the valley, The ears straining at each rebound; for off, A cloud, launched from a rock, streaked North like a startled bird. Halt X I I do not know what station this is, or why We broke our journey; checked, here in Derbyshire, One senses danger, disquietude only. Pieces of smoke litter the huddled town- Card collage on felt; no pattering movement On roads of sliding newspaper, sidling dog. No alighting or descending the steps of its drizzling doors. II Rain fell like a drizzle of fine slag On an anonymous town in smudged Derbyshire. I counted sixty chimneys in a quarter The size of a burgher's courtyard, wondered at smoke Sliding edgeways through the dawn's widening slats. A flock of pigeons dissolved in the viscid air Like a piece of mud in a current; 5 o'clock. A streetlamp craned its neck for the spreading frogs. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Has someone you know been affected by illness or disease? Network for Good is THE place to support health awareness efforts! http://us.click.yahoo.com/rkgkPB/UOnJAA/Zx0JAA/yqIolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> ******************* Did you get this mail as a forward? Subscribe by sending a blank mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTPoets/join. Members are encourage to post poetry, their own and others', respond critically to the poems circulated, and participate in discussions. Post via email at [email protected] OR online at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTPoets/post. ====theZESTcommunity====== ZESTCurrent ZESTEconomics ZESTGlobal ZESTMedia ZESTPoets ZESTCaste ZESTAlternative TalkZEST Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTPoets/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
