... The burning tree quivers
surrounded now by night.
Talking to it I talk to you.
Octavio Paz
My misplaced pencil-sharpener,
How is it I’m to manage
The analogue without you!
Who beckoned you from
Your rightful place?
Was the act committed while
I was sleeping;
My head turned?
Did I simply
Neglect you
For too long?
Come back down... you don’t
Belong in the heavens.
Reshaping the stars
Is my judgement.
Forgive me. Forgive me.
TAPESTRY
Yet another one! The tongues click & off I go
demanding – this is no message – my
qualifications are shaky anyway...
The kind speckled bird has told me what depths
some will lean at. Whisperings. ‘Her trade’s
unisexual –& a would be blimp’ – & ‘don’t
you just know the poems flaunt a new left
set on self destruct?’
Well... that’s a bit much. As Dali
so pleasantly put it,
“instead of writing a history of art I am
writing the art of history.” Also, “If men go on dying,
blame Jules Verne – he was logical.” What I’m saying
is – I’ve no way of out-stating these things
& I’m not sure
if all of me wants to agree when I’m busily
being awed... YES, awed
by the sure flashes of colour – seemingly true – [dream
of a Cosmic Unity] that I’d like to surrender myself
& would be cream-bun pacifists to. In full Spirit
can I again mime [Ah! manifestation] & toss this ‘other one’
... how the Great Speckled Bird rests
in the breast of each name-creed; that if – indeed – there
must be symbols, then best adopt this near divine invention
you need care for only when Unity stands its trial & much
is made of the perishing geometry; the detention of dance,
song, & fiction’s loss... the lingering anti-matter
we inspire – a whitewashed shy-hook & the Senses – hung,
UKRAINE, HARD COPY DEPARTMENT
What must word-play
Do with
A subject
That doesn’t exist!
Revisit the flaw
Through
‘The Looking-Glass
War’
Stefanie Bennett, ex-blues singer & musician, has published
several books of poetry & a novel & works with No Nukes, Arts
Action For Peace. Of mixed ancestry [Italian/Irish/Paugussett-
Shawnee] she was born in Queensland, Australia.
