Jeff Harrison:  Seven poems
In Rosebuds Are My Letters Dressed 

Herr Bibliothekarius, I,
delicately finally identity,
set out for home
 

suspect,
weeping, &
disappeared irregular w/out drives
 

further naked,
  pleased, & shipped
    to the FINAL LIBRARY
 

but,
of all two
hundred
& thirty one
literary giants
 

none,
Herr
Biblio-
thekarius,
constructs
Wormswork,
not
so much
a name as
a word
that turns
humble
when re-
cognized
 

so, may all their laboriously-
penned verse tragedies,
 

aëry titan-constructed yet
daydreaming hard science,
 

ever fall, Herr Bibliothekarius,
upon your literary zeal
 
 
 

How The Empyrean Brutely Computes

clover
bullet,
 

clay
bullet,
 

what
best
spins
 

your
silver
fuss,
 

moon-
light's
thick
purr?
 
 
 

Weak As Roses: Wherein The Most Transparent Deception Is Yet A Cipher Undaunted 

harmonious unforgivingness!
thousands had done worse to
all that slender name, Virginia,
may they go in flutters, furious,
furious they as my whipped crave
and, clanking, clanking, themselves die, w/
"farewell, descended thee!, farewell, we
cherished the clay, smiled at the marble"
 

their clamorously strewn hour has, since,
empurpled the path - "O din fade, fade!"
above the name is this scene? this scene
of harmonious unforgivingness? my heart an owl?
enough!, the littlest mouth's moss relents, and
unanxious silver falls in drifty spheres - "obey, books,
Blue and the Patient, leave off twitching Virginia's
pale understandments, until, thirdly and finally, moss
cinches all our lips and o'erbalances that slender name..."
 
 

Rome, Yes, But Spare Ms. Virginia's Face The Roses 

plenty Virginia, yet Rome
is still grey of brothers, so,
lulled Virginia, numberless certainty
serpent-knotted, swiftly thousand
by thousand by thousand is Virginia,
is adder-tongue, rose, the mirror
& go adrift, lips, have your long answer
without pacing pieces shrill beyond gentle,
have your thousands you'd reign by bronze,
elaborate smites, & so drip, then, rose, drip down
 
 

The Word Ancient Was Just A Long Impatience 

nine million Sphinx were contained
in fifteen long rows of Sphinx
 

upon which Sphinx should Virginia,
the sepulchress, hang her name
 

Virginia's name never occurred
in all the words princes place
though powerful her patience
 

in all her words, princes place their
foot yet east, fair verse, to night
 

her murmuring green worth
is rich also with pearls, dainty as
a nightingale in fair glass
 

so droop, voices, and your mouths
move a blue rasp of silken blood,
mouths move in the every shape
of what's hidden beneath sands,
lowest like the sphinx hung with
V's name, crying meteor, meteor
 
 

The Slightest Ripple Shall Sink Sure As Lycidas 

foxes standing in sun chips, their certain little leaps cannot be grave
across AND underfoot: see, there, Virginia, THERE, there's the genial rot

to the scentless dead a meadow reprieve, it seems, was afoot
 
 

Cupboard Feudal Song, With Several Of True Letters Mixed In 

what you carry in your clothes
is not gold, driver, it's bones
 

in my ledgers the State
is so hot for, officer,
each blunder is made by
only five bales of bread
 

bread blunders of orange ouch,
vast, vast is the relenting dent...
of that dent: I'm in this, & in brass
& waltz-like of malignity, tho I
called for something light, driver,
you'll leaf razzle, rust and pocket
 

this grows, out, map, out & into files...
driver, whose visible groves were these?
the missing accident daughter? well, then,
her leaps MUST have been impenetrable...
 

there was more than one? surely
a couple of them at least will
top this writing with wish words
who half in kicks grow skill - hist!,
someone rouses my syllables:
 

wind my names up, you
seaward grudge, you
kissing-foot thing,
 

move along now,
missing accident daughters,
your speech is live, mine
is reluctant willows, Herr
B's is flowers in hand...
 

flowers & hand: they,
the flowers, love hand?
 

missing accident
daughters, here
your pieces roam to
ghost that low form
of Herr Bibliothekarius,
so this poem's sudden guest
can dream his eye chirps Logic's sun
instead of Curiosity's eyes... oh, &
here you'll think understanding away, Sirens
 
 

Jeff Harrison

>>>Peter Minter: Poem

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