sw00250s-tq.6.poem

Sets: set 3                         


Thatah

 6

 "10-8-66: Human Condition"


Before me sits a three-inch bust:
a paperweight, or at most no more
than a bookend.  Entirely brown,
though he was white, though he was sight

long absent from this Carnivore
(sometimes America), its crown
bears/ one wide wave, whose furrows are light
with time's must: diatoms of dust.

This plaster image of renown,
of the slight smile, whose glance turns bright
in lamp glow, sun, recalls a trust
few found before, and fewer store.

A man is neither wrong nor right;
a man is mixed: bread--sponge & crust;
water; the skin, the flesh, the core/
though strangers frown; though strength goes down.



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Brian A. J. Salchert                       

set 3 contents/links
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sw00249s-tq.5.poem

Sets: set 3                         


Thatah

 5

 "10-7-66: As Opposites Live"


Praises, warnings, philosophy:
the first will make a distance less,
the second lengthen to dissuade;
the last, either--as we breathe her.

Such heat and rain in one night dress
our planet in blue-green marmalade
we're awed at how they wreathe her
into a tree, into the sea.

Such lightninged winds in one day braid,
bruising the pear while fires seethe her,
we question strength as we fight, flee,
meeting duress; meeting a guess.

The air is smog or pine; neither--
a matter of fate & choice: so we
must take it in who/ endure that stress
where life is made; where light tests shade.




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Brian A. J. Salchert                       

set 3 contents/links
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sw00248s-tq.4.poem

Sets: set 3                         


Thatah

 4

 "10-6-66: Tropic of Dionysus"


A quadrunelle at Miller's braves?
whose teepees distend with cubes of ice,
buttons for "Ike" and brandied pie,
cobs of cancers; booby dancers?

All right: they love/ a pot of spice,
some spicy pot, the sound of "I".
Would a troop/ of whitening lancers
liven the waves; liven our graves?

What mean they, sir, America's high,
the heaven of the world?  Fanciers.
Around/ imagined fires, who craves/
the jazzy slice, a crazy vice,

as they?  I've seen how the stance whirrs/
into god-light, nothing; en/slaves
the conscious body.  Loaded dice?
How will they die though?  Will they try? 




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Brian A. J. Salchert                       

set 3 contents/links
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sw00247s-tq.3.poem

Sets: set 3                         


Thatah

 3

 "10-5-66: As a Form Plays"


The problem's one of tightness here:
shoving full-blown balloons of words
into this head-built quadrunelle,
parted besides; parted like snides.

Blessed with the press of roiling birds
intent on/ escaping some cell
as zoos may set near choo-choo rides,
they twist & spear; they twist like fear.

Dante and Vergil, walking Hell,
turned from the demons' shagbark hides
with not much more of a razor leer
to wish them curds, to wish them turds.

Yet, jostling words until each line glides
(never allowed to disappear
by wings or air) to fourths, not thirds,
requires, yes, well: requires a spell.




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Brian A. J. Salchert                       

set 3 contents/links
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sw00246s-tq.2.poem

Sets: set 3                         


Thatah

 2

 "10-4-66: Harvestings"


This is a month for special  prayer--
these primal days of decadence--
when matches crackle orange to black
out from that smoke where elm twigs poke.

This is the tenth of those twelve we fence
to rule our planet's solar track
and charge some seconds to waft a joke
at the Future's lair, for future care.

Hurricanes whirl until islands crack,
shot squirrels plummet to roots of oak;
dust tails whip up a thicker air:
veined and intense; vain in expense.

Apples, Jerusalem artichoke,
acorns sprinkled through mums on a chair:
the terminal winnings of bloom-and-chance
to put in a sack, or bury back.




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Brian A. J. Salchert                        

set 3 contents/links
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sw00245sc-set3.tq.links

Sets: set 3       Thatah      (a set of 6 quadrunelles from 1966)



 Introductory Note:
 -
 Each of the 6 sections of this Thatah set is a
 quadrunelle.  A quadrunelle--which I think is
 a poetic form I invented--is a poem consisting
 of four stanzas in which each stanza has four
 lines, the final line having a word midway which
 rhymes with the word at the end of that line.
 In this poetic form as a whole, the outer rhyme
 pattern is: abcd / bcda / cdab / dabc.
 -
 Here are the titles for the quadrunelle in each
 section, the first of which is on this page:
   ~
      "10-3-66: The Dempsey Poplars"       1
      "10-4-66: Harvestings"
2
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      "10-5-66: As a Form Plays"
3
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      "10-6-66: Tropic of Dionysus"
4
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      "10-7-66: As Opposites Live"
5
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      "10-8-66: Human Condition"
6
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1

"10-3-66: The Dempsey Poplars"


Such adroitness! these spikes that leave, bear
themselves from clay, enticing each eye
to quest in their distinguished tips
where green excites; where blue delights.

Few minds could stand more sure, more high
than they, and be as graceful.  Ships?
Not quite, perhaps.  But maybe nights
would have them there; have someone care.

Still, ships or trees or spikes or whips,
black-bottomed things, they strain our sights
beyond a wish, building the air
to flavor their sigh; confuse our why.

So we, near youth more starched in rites
than four as these could ever share,
accept; and/ dreaming/ like the sky,
draw brighter hips; draw softer lips.




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[ last modified: 2008-10-16 ]              
                                          
                                       
Brian A. J. Salchert