Jennie Neighbors
from CANTO I
BY THE VIRTUE OF STUBBORN LIFE
“How can we show, without betraying them, the simple things sketched between the
twilight and the sky? By the virtue of stubborn life, in the circle of artist time, between
death and beauty.” –René Char
Of Its Own Accord
and this
crazy azalea bursts
into flame:
how the past perishes
how the future becomes
The Problem of Freedom
present in the trees’
rings, and the leaves fall
between
the traces
sung by
Mnemosthyne, washed
by Lethe
the question
we formulate on its
behalf
the past perishes
The Problem of Freedom
present in the trees’
rings, the leaves fall
-ing, each day
(affection
answers to the question
The Problem of Freedom
leaves fall
each day
differs from itself
every moment:
(affection: polysemy
without mask, this
corresponding
Of Its Own Accord
late September and this
bursts
under the falling leaves
Song of Secret Hymns
“we follow this road because where we were became impossible”
bone, top, ball, tambourine, apples, mirror, fan and fleece, compass and square: a ligament, a
bond or tie: trenches, furrows, gaps between fences, paths into forests, crossroads, the place
between high and low tide,
“once upon a time,”
“it was and was not so…”
the eidos of
determinate space, the face
of the outside
Legba, Oedipus, werewolves, witches…
Jennie Neighbors first book, Between the Twilight and the Sky, will be published by Free Verse Editions/Parlor Press in 2008.