THE
DIVER IN SERVICE OF SCULPTURE
as the deepest experiences
evade me
spread through and over me
like light
I absorb
she nourishes while
while offering nothing
to bring me back to reality
hips tilted forward
all I could recapture
everything remembered badly
words clumsy and inadequate at best
as I put the pen down
and arrive at a different place
by imagining
strolling at their side
beyond the power of the precise
briny shores cattle purple sky
too subtle the intimacy
to be incorporated into my language
could not recall
dimmed most oddly
entered into my essence
to cherish and to feed
laden with sensation so fine
only a repeat dose
invokes it
from sun-flayed meadows
to New York City
green-tinged lights of the campus
misplaced in those halls of ivy
hard grind of headlines,
has been here set down
so her presence brings
a different tale to me
hobble toward a taxi
pass homes with concrete driveways
come into the terminal
could be no other
could not frame into words.
but begin to understand how much nearer
inflamed
sit still
impossible to convey
can’t take the flight away
though the body absorbs earthly nourishment
leave her shaking with the tears
leave the brass-headed bed
most of what I had heard recycled
like my speedy heels
the rest the main part,
a purer form of memory
now as tanned as sand
desiring mind
slightly bowed grass
over me
physical touch is distant
portion most
remembered of the colloquy
scratched into her coffin lid
she would run as if she were
shiny
shy head tilted and wrinkled,
like sun glistening off a train track
sleep came
so she’s gone at last
as softly as would a cat
or a song from a late night movie
patter on silver heels
stolid little stone walls
sleight-of-hand
suddenly chubby
with soft lips
taking off to wander the hills
or making coffee
tear down the clouds,
tear evaporates
in a tangle of heather and sumac
as it were filtered through
the mere turning on a lamp
fire tipping luminal
sense of fierce reality
wide lawn of green monotone
wind birdsong
thecoreofthisbeing
therapy is the words
of those who’ve been
beyond state lines
to write down the dream
in transcendental order
eschew unnecessary rescue
wary of nightmares to come
John Grey