sw00329s-aw9.4poems

 -

 Accompaniments: Where There Is Room
       4 poems for W. S. Merwin
       written in my copy of his 1973 book:
       Writings to an Unfinished Accompaniment




1

"Summer Tales"


A rock swallows     berries of rain
Sunlight     paints your hand
A mouse climbs     darknesses spinned

Friends / acquaintances     chip / stain
each thought we shape     stand
lengthened   shortened   fattened   thinned

Leaves buzz     like the saw's chain
Waves suck     rocks to sand
In the answering grass     the questioning wind


       (newly rewritten on page 42 under "Spring")




2

"Faith"

In the midst of Hell
the robin's egg


       (written on page 49 under "Nomad Songs")




3

"Possessed"


We wait upon the edicts
of our things
and bow to them
religiously


       (written on page 51 under "Ash")




4

"Valleys"

Sparrows grapple
with crows of wind
but crouch in their houses
when hail pelts

or the fear of hail
from enemy eyes
catches me slinking
from the air


       (written on page 65 under "Summits")





Brian A. J. Salchert                  

sw00328s-aw8.4poems

 -

 Accompaniments: Where There Is Room
       4 poems for W. S. Merwin
       written in my copy of his 1973 book:
       Writings to an Unfinished Accompaniment




1

"And tomorrow"


will you be saying
what you say now
with any less brilliance

rainbow

because someone
has seen you
entered you

and understood

and given to others
each drop of you


       (written on page 37 under "At the Same Time")




2

"Graves"


are what we are born with
what we make them
the pains in dreams


       (written on page 38 under "The Wharf")




3

"Despair"


Heaven is a
snapping turtle
with lilies
in its mouth


       (written on page 39 under "Beggars and Kings")




4

"Just enough light"


to see
to write by
here in my Nova
this ten p.m.
looking out
over Lake Winnebago
near the white lighthouse
in Lakeside Park

the floating lights
of two boats
carrying me

the land lights around
making me still

faint stars

headlights turning
behind me
to my right
my eyes recording
the play of them


       (written on page 41 under the conclusion to "The Unwritten")





Brian A. J. Salchert                  

sw00327s-aw7.4poems

 -

 Accompaniments: Where There Is Room
       4 poems for W. S. Merwin
       written in my copy of his 1973 book:
       Writings to an Unfinished Accompaniment




1

"Windows"


come & go

in your hair
in your skin

in the leaf of a oak

in the air

Open to them


       (written on page 30 under the conclusion to "A Door")




2

"A Wall"


A row of sunflowers

A voice

An odor of 
daylight
textured
like the faces
of a leaf--
a carpenter's     hand


       (written on page 32 under the conclusion to "A Door")
           [ "A Wall" was published in Wisconsin Review
                            volume 12   no. 4     1978 ]




3

"A Floor"


Ordered space
the top       of a bottom
in the soil   in the sky  in a dream
able to be       a wall or a ceiling
to slant

an inhabiter of times
of memories

the erratic edge of the universe
beneath which
nothing


       (written on page 33 under"A Door")




4

"Ceilings"


The summits of our emotions

Beings we look up to
with axes in our hearts

Desires finally ripe

The most we are willing to pay
walking on our knees
for the chance
to die

The last day of Earth
on a high place of ritual
where costumed dancers
chant their fate / on low-wall floors of stone
while the Divinity of White
rises in the north
the appearance of her feet
signalling the end

Our awakenings
our births


       (written on page 35 under the conclusion to "A Door")





Brian A. J. Salchert                  

sw00326s-aw6.5poems

 -

 Accompaniment: Where There Is Room
       5 poems for W. S. Merwin
       written in my copy of his 1973 book:
       Writings to an Unfinished Accompaniment




1

"Poetry"


is full of ashes       full of bees
is a desert
                           drowns


       (written on page 24 under "The Current")




2

"Habit"


I would have tasted her message
inhaled her love
touched her songs   in my toes


       (written on page 25 under "Something I've Not Done")




3

"Owl to       Owl"


There are enjoyments and
enjoyments

One enters
where one can

When age and wealth and preferences
bless me       with their light

I enter my   dark       eyes
I enter here


       (written on page 26 under "Tool")




4

"In a Pool Somewhere"


the wrinkling face of a lily


       (written on page 27 under "Bread")




5

"Me"

Wind
disturber of rest / of contemplation
designer of rags / composer
chameleon
wastrel / saviour
invisible


       (written on page 28 under "Habits")





Brian A. J. Salchert                  

sw00325s-aw5.4poems

-

 Accompaniments: Where There Is Room
       4 poems for W. S. Merwin
       written in my copy of his 1973 book:
       Writings to an Unfinished Accompaniment




1

"Prayer: Looking at a Mirror"


Out of Mystery
I am
and what I can do

Out of boiling space
and sea       and land

the comings together
of particular people
at particular times

Out of accidents in
the dances of dust
and wind   water   fire

         I honor them


       (written on page 20 under "On Each Journey")




2

"Lover"


whichever   one you are

leaf of light
voice of black black green
tongue of wind

your enterings of me are deep
your embracings full

mine
of you
pale


       (written on page 21 under "Beyond You")




3

"Stars"


Porcupines
Waves


       (written on page 22 under "Their Week")




4

"Death"


is a cauldron of peonies

My head and torse
blister       dissolve

Blackbirds fly through sparows
through the walls
of a dream

Insects
slither
down


       (written on page 23 under "Old Flag")





Brian A. J. Salchert                  

sw00324s-aw4.4poems

 -

 Accompaniments: Where There Is Room
       4 poems for W. S. Merwin
       written in my copy of his 1973 book:
       Writings to an Unfinished Accompaniment




1

"The Sands Between My Toes"


What matters is
not so much where I am
as where I am not

airs cresting 
behind my wanding fingers

bruises of flowers
beneath my soles


       (written on page 15 under "The Clear Skies")




2

"Questions"


Do you really want to bartend
Really want sex
Are the sunlights in your past
that hard to look at

And what about seclusion
in the rattling caves and pines
Could you really get   into nakedness
all day long

Are there splinters in your brain waves
Are there sparrows' nests in your ears


       (written on page 17 under the conclusion of
                       "To Be Sung While Still Looking")




3

"Against the light of a season"


there is little space to be
the suck and whine of fire


       (written on page 18 under "Under the Migrants")




4

"The Head That   Won't Stay Put"

       --from Janice
          sprouting legs and arms
          and at every crossroads
          not knowing which way to go--


the elm leaf limping through parched grass
the unicyclist astonishing   Golden Gate Park
the ripe moon on a plate of water
the earthy shirtless boys making hay

the body spurting blood
that won't stay put


       (written on page 19 under
          "On the Silent Anniversary of a Reunion")





Brian A. J. Salchert                  

sw00323s-aw3.4poems

 -

 Accompaniments: Where There Is Room
       4 poems for W. S. Merwin
       written in my copy of his 1973 book:
       Writings for an Unfinished Accompaniment




1

"In This Last Hour of Sun"


by towering grays
grayed
around gray me
and the gray rock I rest on
and the quilted brown-gray lake

white sails stroll
a bright-green fly jewels my finger
a dull rainbow of cars looks out

and later/ when the acquaintance leaves

near a soft-magenta margin of sky
where the blackish horizon ruffles

flashes
of ragged
cracks

glowing fans of electrons

periods

of water   of light


       (written on page 11 under "Letter to the Heart")




2

"Does it fit"


to talk of Eden

after the snake
has wound
back under the roots

and the Son
has somehow magicked Himself
beyond our clouds

though this is   where I am?


       (written on page 12 under "Memory of the Loss of Wings")




3

"Gide"


coming to terms--
that 1 + 1 = 2   not 3--
is hard

so one poem's sour
another sweet
another this

me in my car near the lighthouse again
boy/girl lovers on either side
my finger's shadow   darkening   where I write

and the waves snap--
a few as far as   my windows
closing in on midnight sinking away

while someone perhaps   awakened
wonders   whose I am:
his or hers


       (written on page 13 under "The Old Boast")




4

"Mt. Tamalpais"


I was not the first there
the day I went up
I was not the last

but where I walked
climbed
only I did

and how I prayed
that Sunday morning
I did alone

yet resting talking
I know others
and the birds rocks shrubs grasses trees
and the windy light that warmed me
and the amoeba fog below
moved   worshipped
more sacredly   than I


       (written on page 14 under "The Day")





Brian A. J. Salchert                  

sw00322s-aw2.4poems

 -

 Accompaniments: Where There Is Room
       4 poems for W. S. Merwin
       written in my copy of his 1973 book:
       Writings to an Unfinished Accompaniment




1

"As I Just Said"


one must

but then

there are times

oh

you know

don't you

leaf

in my hand


       (written on page 7 under "Looking Back")




2

"The Poem  (v3)"


Most of that day
he worked on it

auditioning words
selecting their places

from before the glare
till nearly midnight

wanting to stage
a perfect show

though he understood well
the wanderings of clouds

and Earth's inability 
to hold still


       (written on page 8 under "Song of a Man Chipping an Arrowhead")




3

"Chuck It"


No silence no nothing
cymbal clangs
cars trucks
skreeeee krawuge
bledding steel bleeding asphalt
stained windows   roaded

I am a harsh wind
in tan cornstalks
shivering cracking
a fist and claw
raking pummeling
I cannot stay


       (written on page 9 under "The Silence Before Harvest")




4

"Child"


Praise the leaf
as it turns

the ages
in your eyes


       (written on page 10 under "Cat Ghosts")
              [ "Child" was published in Wisconsin Review
                             volume 12   no. 4     1978 ]





Brian A. J. Salchert                  

sw00321s-aw1.4poems

 -

 Accompaniments: Where There Is Room
       4 poems for W. S. Merwin
       written in my copy of his 1973 book:
       Writings to an Unfinished Accompaniment




1

"And June, Listen,"


whenever a hidden piece of light
curses or screams
it is tortured with dirt and bits of grass

which it can only surround
but cannot pearl
or fester out

and if it continues
the entire cell it shines in
is filled

and if it continues still
it is catapulted into the sun


       (written on page 3 under "Early One Summer")




2

"Equation"


If it is in darkness
that we see

it is in silence
that we hear

in emptiness
that we feel

in fasting
that we taste

in an ocean's wave
knots from even a rock
that the fragrances of lilies
kiss us


       (written on page 4 under "Eyes of Summer")




3

"San Francisco"


Like a clean electron
sure of itself
yet jittery
I sped
to the mountainous coast
imagining
               burial
in quaking stone
or blossoming
into a star
or transformed to a bee
headed down under
or bandying
from cove to mountain to cove
or
abruptly 
burning
home


       (written on page 5 under "End of Summer")




4

"Anxiety"


One must keep it intact
pampered like a knickknack

its colors though dull
are essential

and its delicate shape

Should you sleep with your wife
or stay up to write

Without it
you can be certain


       (written on page 6 under "The Distances")





Brian A. J. Salchert