Hawk
one hawk above
is pure peace
his table is an innocent world
with no prisoners in it
like a body by moonshine
Contemplative poems
Contemplative poems — a collection of the best works on PoemShip.
Progeny
I spent all morning preserving
a collection of cries
work and desire
greed and fear and love
to show publicly if I should die
without children
Time keeper
church can cloy
but not a clock
and so I pray
to be true now
give them some toy
but my aim is thin
Withheld
at the office so many kept
their best answer
their two parted hands
This You Must Know
The surface tension of water, & how to use it
for nearly effortless walking.
Light without heat: what every glowworm knows.
What it means to be larval,
to have complicated mouthparts
& the sprout-tips of wings.
The secrets of chitin, which imposes limits to growth
through an architect’s dream of fully inhabitable space.
Why snow fleas persist in seeking their fortunes
on the skin of such a cold, white host.
What the inchworm really measures
with its green prostrations.
What this is that we are told
the meek
shall inherit.
Fish head
in the salt of noon comes a dinner
made only of fat
the eye is a fine sight
to see at table
white and still
as an ignorant bed
Quick study
fleet as decay
the arson’s child
where I am in all
knowledge and experience
like a well
Barbershop
under the barber’s hands
I would go to confession
under those dancing combs
I set down my day
Vacancies
where to sit
in the garb and gait of travel—
sign busy till late
Abandoned pasture
a field for cranes
instead of that ugliest beast
the soldier-like herd
whose face I have
Time to retire
a sudden moth
on my hand
who works so gray
so late
Talismanic
stone and stone
sitting secret as cards
one calling me to ore
one the settled music of my life
Describe a feeling — we’ll find a poem
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