In the theatre’s half-dark
That interregnum between
idle chatter and the opening bars
Whatever comes as purposeful
beginning Lyric investigation
of parts traditionally difficult
to observe in plain sunlight
Before the floodlights dim
I catch your eye
Which is the moment I am returned
to myself How do we learn to possess
what flutters under the rim
of the breastbone Learn
the name of a feeling that folds
into itself on its side A lunar
wind that passes through fingers
Do you also feel a pang A gleam
A metal clapper before the actual event
It holds out a coal of kindness
that serves to formalize
mourning And sometimes I want
to lay my head on a pillow
of snow— Think of the cold
Its crystalline dendrites
little forests springing up
over the head, descending into a thin
treeline feathering each eye Everything
in ceremony is gestural— the smallest
movement from the wrist signifying either
a wave or the passage of time One day
or a decade A century What are we asked
to hold for as long as we can in one
position on a low tufted cushion Do you see
how the wound opens and opens each time
you tell me of your sadness
Which is that there are things
I will never be able to lift What hovers
like clouds over pale shoulders I want to cry
out into some wilderness just out of reach
Near enough to perceive its habit of desolation
~ after Remedios Varo, “Star Catcher”
The title immediately grabbed my attention. Phenomenology is such a powerful idea – and the idea of doing it on the spaces between seemingly more significant things is powerful too. I’ve a feeling it’s going to keep going round in my head for while, in a good way!