John Hartley Williams
Verde
The birds are an avantgarde symphony.
Green is a tale of ending
becalmed in a windless trough
where evening murmurs
and leans toward tomorrow.
The long drift of insects
sings the air to a soundless moment.
Here is a man of brooding occasions,
met before in a valley of mirrors,
walking idly with shoulders hunched,
reflective in the grumbling satin
of his thoughts.
What do you have to say, my friend?
Nothing.
Where are you headed?
Out to the wordless canyon,
to the sound of water in the hanging gardens
where fish craze the deep of pools,
out through bird-sonatas
to the greenness, where it flows.
And he stands there
a human interruption of the silence.
I examine the bauble of his brain.
I turn it in my hand, hard fragile silver.
Its interior is definitely green.
From the meditative whistling therein
I conclude: obviously a bird-study.
There is also a murmuring. A gentle
meditative murmuring.
The evening rewards
its beholder.
Green is a tale of ending
becalmed in a windless trough
where evening murmurs
and leans toward tomorrow.
The long drift of insects
sings the air to a soundless moment.
Here is a man of brooding occasions,
met before in a valley of mirrors,
walking idly with shoulders hunched,
reflective in the grumbling satin
of his thoughts.
What do you have to say, my friend?
Nothing.
Where are you headed?
Out to the wordless canyon,
to the sound of water in the hanging gardens
where fish craze the deep of pools,
out through bird-sonatas
to the greenness, where it flows.
And he stands there
a human interruption of the silence.
I examine the bauble of his brain.
I turn it in my hand, hard fragile silver.
Its interior is definitely green.
From the meditative whistling therein
I conclude: obviously a bird-study.
There is also a murmuring. A gentle
meditative murmuring.
The evening rewards
its beholder.
poetrymagazines' note: John Hartley Williams' most recent collection is The Ship (Salt 2007). His website can be found at www.johnhartleywilliams.de
Page(s) 28
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