Francis Raven

Word's Dwelling Pledge

1.

We might begin with three:
one word lost
one found
one invented.

But, of course, this also implies
places where the words
might wander
past their homes.

2.

Almost nothing is completed,
Almost nothing has a voice
Except a lost one,
One that you can't find
Except when you don't want it.

I mean, the kind of voice that
sounds like an out of key piano
that your neighbor, who you think
likes pavement a little too much,
plays, not on your behalf, but
on the mood's behalf.

Whose mood is almost nothing?

3.

Over there, the index card is filled,
but not yet filed, not yet known,
not quite yet, still not yet understood,
still merely shadow and its quiet,
but unmistakable, dusk.

His voice is out of water,
on the surface of some other's personality,
although some might call him grounded.

If not with walls
then what shall
be your proposal
for definitions?

4.

Poetry is a sideline,
it is necessarily,
a hobby,
an anklet
whose black thread
wears off
but leaves a
suspicious
tan line.

5.

Our coffee spills
blank letters
on mosquitoes...
is dirty flight;
metaphoric philosophy
undone at the bottom
of the curtain.
Enter:
The family scene beckons.

6.

He sits there
dapper in office drink in cognac glass
but I can't tell what it is
his editor disapproves
of a certain word
that appears
14 times
in his latest
work
shall we say work again
or novel
but disapproves violently
says it isn't a real word
says it is not legitimate
but then
the author pulls the wool
from under our feet
and goes straight to the dictionary
rather angrily
says yes of course
it is a word it is a word
that you are telling me not to use
a perfectly sensible word
a word that should be used more regularly
for it would make us a more civil people
a more aesthetic people a people
more interested in freedom than money
but anyway okay they go to the dictionary together
after pouring another drink
the dictionary lists a full definition of the word
that the author has used so many times
that his name is listed
as the first usage of that word
in a previous work
shall we say work again.

7.

It's my artist's name
which I use when
I teach white magic
or do spiritual readings.
The other name
was my husband's name
and I've kept it for seven years,
but I think it's time to move on
to a more spiritual name.

8.

low level
                rabble

        stone tremble

                pika

                        are you my '...'?
        insert

                low level

                        insertion
        keeping inscription hidden
        under coat cloak eyelid hidden
        under private under owner under

are you '...'?
        aware of lacunae,

                that is...

                                are you before '...'?

        the ambulance whirl not whelm
        not poet's overwhelm, least not yet,
        else put it in the quotation marks,
        scare me off, scare quotes, scare me under
        hidden under coat under cloak under eyelid
        shattered like riprap stone pika placement
        I didn't put him there.

9.

mem. memorize today
what was in your book
yesterday; scans, no?
not really; but make an index,
curse again, write too much again.

10.

A man with glassy eyes
has a poem in each -
his hands firm, yet soft;
delicate...escape.
I almost let the bells ring, cracked.

11.

Definitions piled
in a stack below the sack
of dried cherries.

Stacking the differences
with the rhymes that might entail
their best judgments.

12.

I could have been talking with poets,
or perhaps could have been writing
over the texts of my favorites,
but was not, but was merely
drinking coffee, almost now
too boring for a poem,
but not as overpainted as the moon,
but again, what is gained
in the overpaint? Ambiguity hides,
but who can close its shutters
into a pinpoint of light?
No, stop trying, you are merely
too much for your own good.