Mid-Winter

You may confidently
regale me with snow:
as often as I strode through summer
shoulder to shoulder with the nuilberrv tree
its youngest leaf shrieked.
              --Paul Celan, Atemwende

                                                                                inward press of space

world's foreshortened: slow drift

of snow flake like chalk dust gathering

to whiteness


                                              white daisies wild

in a field of white

                                                               each

its own immensity

                                                                                                of sky bloated
                                                                                                bulging like a tent

                                                                *

dust gathers in the wake of

passing cars

                                                 next the anemone

                                                 vein blue and varicose 


we grow

vast incrementally

in inclement

weather


                                                                *


mid-winter's dream of summer


                                              dream not unlike the

                                              end of Fellini's

                                             Amacord


old ghost in a mattress rolled                                                    io ricordo

up in                                                                               matrimonio di

the cellar house guests you                                                       io ricordo

me light that is                                                                campo ventoso

heat's haze unassumng steady still                                             io ricordo

                              
                                           
                                             season's dance and the dance

                                            of the years

                                            crocuses once more

                                            once more

tree's latticed shade

over cars spit-smoldering

in parking lots


                                                                *


time through the tree reveries

rivers                                                                              rivers are

and the signs it weaves                                                   reveries

leave-off appear

and disappear

                                                   and floe


                                                                  *


through the open window

surge of traffic over the broad

highway unseen

surfs and

surfaces in the ear

                                                 we hear

                                                                                           (for the wave is not a-part

                                                                                            but of the very

                                                                                            underbelly of the sea)

snow

crunching underfoot

like small stones


                                                              *


Sea circle

                                                                                            (The sea is circled

Circle Small

Circle

                                                                                            and sways

                                                   River run

                                                   ragged in the valley

                                                                                            peaceably

Hole hollow

Socket

White bone                                                                         upon its plant-like stem)

                                                 Islands and islands
   
                                                 of small white stones


                                                                  *


trees: their woodedness:


unleaved

the branches quiver

(faintly they quiver)

                                                  infinitely

patient infinitely

other