Ancient stones of marble and granitestand half-upright in their weathered rows,raised to remember,so often left behind.Sun bleaches their faces;rain stains their names;traffic and timework together to soften the edges. Their surfaces carry the hand of years,not gentle, but patient,as if memory itselfhad worn grooves into the grain.They keep watch over what is buried below,over the … Continue reading Revisionist Poetry – “Epitaphs in Stone” – Ghostly Stones, v.2
Revisionist Poetry – “The Woods with Rust in Their Throat” – A Bit of Goldsworthy & Adams, v.4… in a Tom Waits style lament…
I went down into the little suburban woodson a day when the sun was hot as a penny on a stove,and the leaves hung up therelike a room full of old lacegone brown at the edges. I was looking for the fallen ones,the trunks with their collars split open,the branches thrown out widelike a drunk … Continue reading Revisionist Poetry – “The Woods with Rust in Their Throat” – A Bit of Goldsworthy & Adams, v.4… in a Tom Waits style lament…
Revisionist Poetry – “What the Woods Make of Loss” – A Bit of Goldsworthy & Adams, v.3
On a dry day, the woods become a galleryof broken trunks and exposed grain.I walk beneath thick leavesand find the fallen treesas if they had been arranged for study: a rib cage of branches,a canted spine of wood,a sunlit tangle of linesthat seems to belong to both accident and design. Goldsworthy would know this language:stone … Continue reading Revisionist Poetry – “What the Woods Make of Loss” – A Bit of Goldsworthy & Adams, v.3
Revisionist Poetry – “Suburban Reliquary” – A Bit of Goldsworthy & Adams, v.2
The sun presses through the leaves on this dry afternoonas I wander the small suburban woodsearching for fallen trunks,for branches bleached open by weather and time— the kind of accidental arrangementGoldsworthy might have welcomed,the kind of lightAnsel Adams would have sharpened into silence. The ground gives under my steps,a brittle crackle of leaf mold and … Continue reading Revisionist Poetry – “Suburban Reliquary” – A Bit of Goldsworthy & Adams, v.2
Revisionist Poetry – “The Thrift-Store Gargoyle” – Bargain Store Gargoyle, v.5
In the thrift store’s farthest corner,under a ceiling fan ticking its slow blade,I found the gargoylehalf-buried in dust and dead price tags. It was small enough to fit in one hand,but its face was all old menace—a snagged lip,a blind, bulging stare,teeth like pebblesforced through a grimace. Its concrete body felt dampthough the shop was … Continue reading Revisionist Poetry – “The Thrift-Store Gargoyle” – Bargain Store Gargoyle, v.5
Revisionist Poetry – “Little Guardian in the Thrift Store” – Bargain Store Gargoyle, v.4
In the back of the bargain store,where glassware clinks softlyand a cracked lamp throwsits yellow pool on the shelf,I find a gargoyleno bigger than a loaf of bread. Its concrete skin is pitted,its nose chipped,its mouth set in a permanent scowlthat somehow looks more like concern. I turn it in my hands.A little dust lifts … Continue reading Revisionist Poetry – “Little Guardian in the Thrift Store” – Bargain Store Gargoyle, v.4
Revisionist Poetry – “Bargain Store Relic” – Bargain Store Gargoyle, v.3
In the cathedral of a bargain shop,dust gathers like incensein the corners. There, small as a fist,a gargoyle crouches—not carved from the proud cliff of historybut cast in ersatz concrete,its face half-feral, half-sad. Still, it keepsthe old architecture of dread:the hooked brow,the lip curled against weather,the starethat seems to have survivedcenturies of rain. I lift … Continue reading Revisionist Poetry – “Bargain Store Relic” – Bargain Store Gargoyle, v.3
T.A.E.’s Book Review – Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends is one of those rare books that seems to belong equally to childhood and to literary criticism. On the surface, it is a mischievous, whimsical collection of poems for young readers, full of absurd inventions, talking creatures, impossible requests, and comic punishments. Yet beneath its playful exterior lies a … Continue reading T.A.E.’s Book Review – Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
Revisionist Poetry – “The Small Guardian” – Bargain Store Gargoyle, v.2
Why are we drawn to gargoyles,those stone monstersperched on cathedrals and towers,leaning over usas if listening? Their warped mouths,their fierce and weathered faces,hold our gaze.We imagine the livesthey have witnessed,the old weather they have endured,the silence they keep. Then, in a bargain store’s dusty corner,I find one reduced to hand size:an ersatz concrete gargoyle,a shabby … Continue reading Revisionist Poetry – “The Small Guardian” – Bargain Store Gargoyle, v.2
Revisionist Poetry – “The Day the Stones Learned to Balance” – Uncertain Sculptures, v.6 (A cosmic daydream conversation…)
Note: I reworked this one while reading Italo Calvino's masterpiece, "The Complete Cosmicomics". I got inspired to write an absurdist conversation between the builder/narrator and... well, everything else in the poem... At first, the river had no opinion about stones.It simply carried them, as it carried everything else,with the distant manner of a clerkwho has … Continue reading Revisionist Poetry – “The Day the Stones Learned to Balance” – Uncertain Sculptures, v.6 (A cosmic daydream conversation…)
The New Renaissance Mindset 