away

Miranda Lake

I'm off for a few days to write, visit, walk by some water,

look at my quote un quote manuscript, clear out a bit.

Here's a poem by Rusty Morrison from her book,

The True Keeps Calm Biding Its Story, which uses

the language of the telegraph -- as in "stop" at 

the end of a line -- as a kind of structure for 

connection or maybe missed connections. 

I've just started to read it.

The effect is disarming, somewhat annoying as I imagine

is the intention. She just won an award from the academy

of american poets. The book is published by a press I

admire, Ahsahta, which makes really lovely books.

I think I'll add this to my book bag. 

(Of course blogger screws up line breaks in poems 

like this.)

please advise stop

like water-spiders on a pond the hours pass overhead stop

with each perfected dexterity I thin the surface that carries me stop

traces of an otherwise indiscernible consensus collect under my fingernails please

his face isn't lost to me but traveling now and mostly untended stop

hereafter wil I apply rules and avoid content stop

braid wildflower stems peeled of petals stop

scrub gently with a brush to relieve us of the historical present please

listen for the entire circumference of the screen door's arc but hear only it slap stop

even incoherent babbling is usually phonetically accurate please advise