myth, that gold thing
the stalk the leaf the branch
the freakish lambswool the sun color
the ruin the organizer of ideas
the accompanier of spice
the attribute of rule
the touch turned everything to
the spiritual outlook
the beat the airy thinness
the glitter up the foil down
the solid
the standard the hard currency
the theoretical l’argent
the retort baby
the baroque equivocator
the lamé glitter
the powder the dust
the fine flake on a rosebush
the fool’s fire the philosopher’s crush
the page-edge
the gilt manners the wretched
the thumb rubber the shiny thing
the dull clump
the good conductor
the plug on a good wire
the shaft the wheat
the cornsilk the ear
the anything cereal
the nib the tissue ivy
the clot the piss the untouched
the representative blight
the smear the ingot
the filigree and its stone mother
the brilliant impact
the ghost the crown
the thought struck into matter to hallow it
the splendor the allegiance to
the unseen significance
the plate the mind
the forgive me the wheel
the heat the lion’s jaw
the thing the mane is
the shiver the long questionable shorthand
the crowd, untruth
At the Leasing Office, Waiting to Pay My Rent
Fan-flicker over tapestried chair-back,
hand, a brow,
September the sun gone
dim behind space, clouds and pine needles—
some dead on the skylight
doing for stained glass—
that’s twilight. Morning’s
wood walls, Beams’ X, six-foot arches
squared and trimmed plain. “No personal checks,”
some fat guy’s barking orders
while I’m in this other chair
with thumb and index raised in a loop,
a quarter-sized spot at arm’s length,
marks where a heart should beat.
how that what seems monumental at a distance
flattens up close
a world is sometimes
turning a dial to watch France
Notre-Dame:
the climber, who says in his interview
he learned the trick from squirrels
not mice, as was commonly believed
that he spent years perfecting it
training his eye up railings and balustrades
across windows, statues
once, the brick over a lover’s shoulder
anything vertical
corps laid perpendicular
he goes on that they’ll edit this after the arrest
how that part where he raved about paintings he admired
the top looked odd to him like bells smothering a church
was awkward even to his ears
the room where you sit and think about it
Day’s up and on the shelf. Books too.
Now night, revision of the one-act.
One-room cabin in the woods
that so-and-so builds,
patient, over a long growing season.
You say Who are you? now with doors open,
wind rising, stalks not even waving.
Can’t recognize a face;
footsteps off the porch change, twist so
even the weeds get restless.
Now it’s not raining, because
you have to worry about that nightgown.
Swimming in the creek? as prelude to
Here, lets help with those wet things.
Come, catch death.
You clear the table so it slides easy
down-wall, under the window.
Chronology
(Vincent Van Gogh )
Still Life with Cabbage and Clogs
Still Life with Beer Mug and Fruit
Dunes
Dunes with Figures
Edge of a Wood
Girl in the Woods
Girl in White in the Woods
Man Stooping with Spade or Stick
Two Women in the Woods
Farmhouses in Loosduinen Near The Hague at Twilight
Three Figures Near a Canal
Weaver Facing Right (Half-Figure)
The Old Tower at Nuenen with a Ploughman
Weaver Facing Right
Weaver Facing Left with Spinning Wheel
Landscape with Pollard Willows
Weaver Arranging Threads
Cart with Black Ox
The Old Tower in the Fields
Avenue of Poplars at Sunset
Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church
Still Life with Clogs and Pots
Still Life with Coffee Mill, Pipe Case, and Jug
Still Life with Two Sacks and a Bottle
Still Life with Birds’ Nests
Still Life with Two Herrings, a Cloth, and a Glass
Still Life with French Novels and a Rose
Vase with Zinnias
The Banks of the Seine with Boats
Still Life with Apples, Pears, Lemons, and Grapes
Still Life with Plaster Statuette, a Rose, and Two Novels
Two Lovers (Fragment)
Grass and Butterflies
The Langlois Bridge at Arles
Path Through a Field with Willows
The Café Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, at Night
The Novel-Reader
Still Life with Oranges, Lemons, and Blue Gloves
A Corner in the Garden of St. Paul Hospital
Death’s Head Moth
Field of Spring Wheat at Sunrise
Cypresses with Two Female Figures
Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background
Starry Night
Wheat Field with Reaper and Sun
Wheat Field with Cypresses
Olive Trees
Two Poplars on a Road Through the Hills
The Stone Bench in the Garden of St. Paul Hospital
Still Life: Vase with Irises
Blossoming Chestnut Branches
Houses in Auvers
Village Street and Steps in Auvers with Figures
The White House at Night
Landscape at Auvers in the Rain
Wheat Field with Crows
originally published in canwehaveourballback, February 2003