Hariot’s Round
I know, to entice, to convince, I must sing
Your ear inside stone, must sing
Gold bitten and true, the corn kernel, one seed,
I must plant one gold seed in your mouth with my lips.
Raleigh says: the Queen knows my name. The Crown
Of a woodpecker is ruby, but shy.
Inhabitants adorn themselves with feathers, and feathers
Bright on arrow ends. Bow-before a Queen. Bend closed my book.
The page is deaf that turns back to look at what it found.
North/South Composition
When the falcon rose the falcon
Rose to focus
The whole field into a single blade
Of grass the mole did not know not
To move
I would my song worse if truer
If truer my song falconed
My eye wide in falcon’s eye
If the field narrowed as the angle grew
If the field narrowed as the tapered wing rose
I would if truer make my song
The cord the falcon rose upon
The mole’s a student of dirt and dark
I would my song worse if truer
Sing in two my tongue to snap the cord
Tethering its talon to my tooth
And let the falcon free of chord and cord
Though falcon were more me than me
Was my song a feathered thing?—
How sing the sharp wing unbroken
When my mouth is broken wing?—
How be bird but sing the bird
Truer than I sing me
Unless, unless
From talon to tooth the taut cord could bear a
Hand not known to pluck
The taut cord could bear a hand unbidden
To pluck from song
One note which sings us both
No grace on tongue when grace is ease
I know, I’ve begged my tongue
To ease inside the egret’s neck
To ease my tongue into the egret’s neck
Is to speak at least the letter s
Without regret, without regret
On tongue no grace is ease when grace
Is breath held on the edge of a pond
I am not breathless above sheen
Am not still above the dark
Water is not wood
My desk where I am and write is wood
Where I lisp each night the egret’s neck
Where I curse the lamp for sake of light
But do not dim the lamp
No grace on tongue when grace
Is the larch pine blind in the window
Behind my face
No grace when grace
Eases my tongue in the egret’s throat
To say no grace no grace
When I curse the lamp for sake of light
And do not dim
The blind larch tree is blind outside
In my window I look me in my eye
The eye open in mouth can’t see
Though blind my tongue sings vision
Though the green field sings yellow and sere
Though the mole sings falcon
Though the egret’s throat uncoils into chalk
I sing myself into the egret’s throat
The open mouth can’t see can’t see
The green syllable drop from the green
March through Mississippi
The earth unturned is first the earth that springs
A green leaf for a green wound sings
A green leaf sings the falcon green
Sings hunger just, sings hunger wise
Not worse not truer
Distance is the song at hand
I sing not past my door
My desk is north at which I write
My desk is frozen water
Is breath held at the edge of a pond
In Mississippi where I did not stop
The eye open in the mouth can’t see
The egret hunting on yellow legs looks up
When our car passed
My mouth sang out the corner of my eye
The field on the tongue when I speak the field
I would sing worse if truer
The field I sing sang me
Home tonight from teaching March
Rain around each branch tonight
The winter sun is red on wire frozen
When the open eye in closed mouth sings
No grace is grace when tongue is ease
I keep my eye open in mouth to see
The falcon leap from field with egret’s neck
The egret’s neck snakes when clenched
And curls into the letter s
Into distance slighting
sighing
see
silence ease ess
shh
“S” says the snake that never was
Don’t sing, don’t sing
The egret’s neck uncurls into my tongue
Students, do you see?—
I drove south in March
This is the chalk line on the green board I wrote
Point A is tooth and point B is talon
Listen, let’s pretend to pluck the string
Pluck the string
The eye open in the mouth won’t sing
How the song divides the falcon from the falcon’s wing
As a single mote of dust expands into storm
When dusk is the wing I think I hear
The egret’s cry at talon it divides
Grace is how I cannot see
