Turn not your eyes, leaves though they be,
\nto dazzle or blaze. Live off not light but light
\ntransformed, simple, eccentric, stoic in the sun.<\/p>\n
Study the genitalia of plants. Learn the names
\nof birds by how they sing and what they eat.
\nNever forget how primates, armed with chipped<\/p>\n
flint cudgels, delight picking off tasty
\nreproductive organs from inoffensive plants.
\nThe flux of birds in flight may be the same<\/p>\n
with us or without but cruelty is ours, to wit
\nhow casually we crush out insects, even
\ninnocuous ones, then raise our eyes on high<\/p>\n
to tangled veils of evaporating
\njet contrails, photochemical as film.
\nWhere we are most exposed when naked, we<\/p>\n
sink roots, touching down like stalks in a vase.
\nWhat is the good life, if not just to have lived?
\nTrust gardeners in the sky not snip us in the bud!<\/p>\n
*** Turn not your eyes, leaves though they be, to dazzle or blaze. Live off not light but light transformed, simple, eccentric, stoic in the sun. Study the genitalia of plants. Learn the names of birds by how they sing and what they eat. Never forget how primates, armed with chipped flint cudgels, delight picking off … <\/p>\n
\nI write poetry to have poems to read which I can understand. Though very recent, the animus of this one, in the several senses of that word, dates from the period when the Vietnam War was still a fresh memory. One alternative title is “Peaceful Buddhist Village in Suburbia”.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n