Autumn lines

Autumn lines 

In the autumn pond, plane tree leaves

form a brown, green, molding quilt.

Quick skate bugs, instrumenting off

key the mean at some distance,

Keats’s quotation marks.

On the flat varnished surface

cats paws pull up, echoed off

the coast, wailing skyward--

means bug out, sure indented

water again, reflected sky.

(First versions 2 September 2006. Revised 6 May 20014, a rainy autumnal day)

Pale shore

Pale shore

Computer burning brightly

into drafting table avalanche.

Great clutter up! Tubes of paint, erasers, staplers!

Enter pens ink-pots sketches.

Outside, the street walks by,

roughing in vague cones and spheres,

straightening the screen as you’d straighten a slide show.

In block

In block

The orange block’s between

some stacked white blocks,

under the burgundy block on

some white blocks.

The burgundy block’s on

some white blocks,

above the orange block

between some stacked white blocks.

oceanic

oceanic

on the river i felt free & easy

songbird calls             i stood listening for some time

now                            today i watch gulls circling plaça

onward summer trips to platja

she got that pineapple

streetcorner flute in shirtsleeves of ragged wrist

no no es muy cómodo para trabajar y es muy bonito

Tunnelfish turndoor

Whew lookin tunnelfish turndoor

trace myeye long snapshot

does the while angle

grow allay and

then whoa

hearin

tastes

tou

ch

white on white

white on white

mostly small divisions

tusk then snow exit to clarinet

stillness egret in shallows

sliced green onion’s lightly pungent

the moon’s lithograph

paper split-ended thread against silver

the loud noise ice rain

device hatchet cloud sun delight

hopscotch chalk furs down cod

deep white shore froth to exit

green array incised like

bright cut silver light

off white dray tun

(various drafts since 2009; here as 13-line sonnet)

eyeball spring

eyeball spring

Shakespeare’s coinage           the ball that holds

a bright moon                         I in ego quip

bright flood                            flight brood

the season’s martins               scour

the courtyard’s chilly air        sclera

cornea                                     vein