Peace without children, yellow field
where I dissolve, finally, into a murmur of bees.
The poppies’ sea-green pods
swell like thought-balloons in the comics,
each one empty except for an asterisk.
I’m taking this opportunity to get in touch with my roots, said the wind-thrown tree.
The aging transport ship
floats motionless
as the Newtonian surface of what
they still sometimes call outer space
dissolves around it.
On the next to last boxcar, in neat black letters:
NATURE WILL WIN.
Then the flashing orange light receding around the bend.
A random selection of quotes (and one paraphrase) from the “Poems & poem-like things” archive. Sometimes when the words don’t flow and writing seems impossible, it’s useful to remind myself that I have come up with a few odd and interesting lines, lord knows how.
Out, out, brief Suck Voice. You’ve done plenty and well.
Thanks. But actually I hope never to be rid of my capacity for amazement that good things have somehow been written through me. Claiming them as my own could be fatal to the process.
I enjoyed all these quotes; thank you for sharing.
“The moan of doves in immemorial elms / And murmuring of innumerable bees” — Tennyson
Thanks for the quote! Not too many people read poor Alfred anymore.
The poppy asterisk has long been a silent archtype of something hovering in the background of my mental image library.
Well put.