Poem
Peter Minter
Monocausotaxophilia
Monocausotaxophilia
Monocausotaxophilia
Foam DaysWaves topple
and roll over, spray may
affect visibility
gale force nine
whipped by Treachery
as dogs holler
and birds bunker down
for foam days
leave no apprentices
no difference
anywhere the shoreline, what of it
barrels over
feeds sand up
aerated salt and lissom weed
strands fly into sockets
of fish heads
and fox skulls top dressing
speech or other limbed
white on the cross
of some kind wave
snapped off.
Lizard Arabesque
At the end of
the yearning stone,
enflamed
by the prodigy of hell,
your skin is
another day of words
warming, clear
and deep as you wake me.
Look, you will say
at this stone!
Presence renews itself!
turns out
the limit of air
in the body,
paraphrased by shadow.
I repeat everything,
over the fence, over the river,
the tail lost is a sign of beauty.
Waiting, the lizard
is still, a small pulse
in the neck
audible here
expands and contracts
to surrender myself again to the earth.
Moth Star
Like a star with a hand
behind it, the lost
body we share
on the other edge, light
dust and the sheen of camouflage.
I lie again
on wet grass, where
dogs read the earth’s hollow
noise each day
and magpies
couple & one child
sustained by mobility
hook me to the ground,
space expanding below, the motionless
planet
bright threshold
where wings where the dogs
chase living long
since the birds fly up,
the signs murmur
deep unevenness.
And from the hemisphere
of doubt, some
bright spark
inconsolable
attractiveness, the thief
unable to imagine
a soft underbelly
shielding
the limits of increase.
That Sweet Chelys Sound
Those broad
browed cattle
moan sweetly
when they’re dead
leaning against trees
below the window.
Scarcely
knowing sweat
a fitting rhythm
bred to the day’s back,
motion on
the blind rock
we sing a long
time but never here again,
shoulders stronger
than naming,
dark sounds
married to stillness.
Take the clavicle
you tell me, wrap it
in the arms
I give you for reaching
one song
promised by the window
bomboras erupting
time and time again.
Wish Bone Discontinuity
That viscous integer
out of sequence here,
another long breach
we parallel in quarantine,
leave our footprints in the sand
hard as fireworks
temporality construed as
ephemeral vision
and each step as lust is.
An impression in our eyes
distributes the flying,
an ospraye hover
through afternoon salt,
last light
cool as a rock cod.
Off the bone,
dunes on the midden
slip into
spinifex corridors,
your old heel
a difficult measure for landing
breath bleached
over one spark
from which we will deliver the world.
© 1999, Peter Minter
From: Empty Texas
Publisher: Paper Bark Press, Brooklyn, NSW
From: Empty Texas
Publisher: Paper Bark Press, Brooklyn, NSW
Poems
Poems of Peter Minter
Close
Monocausotaxophilia
Foam DaysWaves topple
and roll over, spray may
affect visibility
gale force nine
whipped by Treachery
as dogs holler
and birds bunker down
for foam days
leave no apprentices
no difference
anywhere the shoreline, what of it
barrels over
feeds sand up
aerated salt and lissom weed
strands fly into sockets
of fish heads
and fox skulls top dressing
speech or other limbed
white on the cross
of some kind wave
snapped off.
Lizard Arabesque
At the end of
the yearning stone,
enflamed
by the prodigy of hell,
your skin is
another day of words
warming, clear
and deep as you wake me.
Look, you will say
at this stone!
Presence renews itself!
turns out
the limit of air
in the body,
paraphrased by shadow.
I repeat everything,
over the fence, over the river,
the tail lost is a sign of beauty.
Waiting, the lizard
is still, a small pulse
in the neck
audible here
expands and contracts
to surrender myself again to the earth.
Moth Star
Like a star with a hand
behind it, the lost
body we share
on the other edge, light
dust and the sheen of camouflage.
I lie again
on wet grass, where
dogs read the earth’s hollow
noise each day
and magpies
couple & one child
sustained by mobility
hook me to the ground,
space expanding below, the motionless
planet
bright threshold
where wings where the dogs
chase living long
since the birds fly up,
the signs murmur
deep unevenness.
And from the hemisphere
of doubt, some
bright spark
inconsolable
attractiveness, the thief
unable to imagine
a soft underbelly
shielding
the limits of increase.
That Sweet Chelys Sound
Those broad
browed cattle
moan sweetly
when they’re dead
leaning against trees
below the window.
Scarcely
knowing sweat
a fitting rhythm
bred to the day’s back,
motion on
the blind rock
we sing a long
time but never here again,
shoulders stronger
than naming,
dark sounds
married to stillness.
Take the clavicle
you tell me, wrap it
in the arms
I give you for reaching
one song
promised by the window
bomboras erupting
time and time again.
Wish Bone Discontinuity
That viscous integer
out of sequence here,
another long breach
we parallel in quarantine,
leave our footprints in the sand
hard as fireworks
temporality construed as
ephemeral vision
and each step as lust is.
An impression in our eyes
distributes the flying,
an ospraye hover
through afternoon salt,
last light
cool as a rock cod.
Off the bone,
dunes on the midden
slip into
spinifex corridors,
your old heel
a difficult measure for landing
breath bleached
over one spark
from which we will deliver the world.
From: Empty Texas
Monocausotaxophilia
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