Passage
for John Coltrane
Words
after all
are syllables just
and you put them
in their place
notes
sounds
a painter using his stroke
so the spot
where the article
an umbrella
a knife
we could find
in its most intricate
hiding
slashed as it was with color
called “being”
or even “it”
Expressions
For the moment just
when the syllables
out of their webs float
We were just
beginning to hear
like a crane hoisted into
the fine thin air
that had a little ache (or soft crackle)
golden staffed edge of
quick Mercury
the scale runner
Envoi
C’est juste
your umbrella colorings
dense as telephone
voice
humming down the line
polyphonic
Red plumaged birds
not so natural
complicated wings
French!
Sweet difficult passages
on your throats
there just there
caterpillar edging
to moth
Midnight
in the chrome attic
Barbara Guest, “Passage” from The Collected Poems of Barbara Guest. Copyright © 2008 by Barbara Guest and reprinted by permission of Wesleyan University Press.
Source:
The Collected Poems of Barbara Guest
(Wesleyan University Press, 2008)
