Wednesday, April 2, 2008



















Excerpt from Susan Tichy's latestBone Pagoda, 
a beautiful, harsh book from Ahsahta Press. 


Corridor

What O'Keefe said in paint is that light lays hands on us

Not that color is event, but the weight of pure sensation
So rubble, when you touch it, could be absolute blue

Otherwise the word remains transparent

As when critics said the poet
Must be equal to what she has seen

An umbrella closes suddenly in the middle of the block
And a forest is not tableau it is a forest

When the hospital corridors ran with blood
They  said think of another image, that one's old

***************


Here's what O'Keefe said about bones--

I was most interested in the holes in the bones--
what I saw through them--
particularly the blue
from holding them up in the sun 
against the sky.



3 comments:

Christine said...

"As when critics said the poet / Must be equal to what she has seen" [!]Love those powerful lines. And the O'Keefe comment on the holes in bones -- perfect companion quote.

Pam said...

holes in the bones -- that's what I'm interested in!

Christine said...

The holes and spaces and silences in poetry: the places to look through, the portals to enter...deeper and higher.