Thoughts of Gorky, Looking into Vermont Woods, at Tinling's, October 3, 2004
Word count: 175
Paragraphs: 8
One stands on a creaking,
with October leaves
like cobra hoods
waltzing, wattled
parasols.
My eyes focus latrines—
a putrification is under way.
Warm bath of heart re-obtained,
to inhale, to be in the columnar density of
a warming that now
takes on global contours.
Leaves as reefs
birch-white with amber pink
lime-tinted
patches,
Atlas still
the molten under-yolk,
the sphincter of mayhem
Gorky breathed in
staring at gnats adrift,
grass entanglements,
entry
an ever-exiting bruise,
burst
flagellation of a pyre
drummed on by ants
possessed in elfin serenade.
Cockscomb and marigold are
thistled in
a graphite legacy
recalling Crane at Melville’s grave.
Monody of a line
picked up at Pech Merle.
The supped russet totality
eye-needled through.
CLAYTON ESHLEMAN is the author of numerous books of poetry, including, in 2008, The Grindstone of Rapport / A Clayton Eshleman Reader, Clayton Eshleman / The Essential Poetry 1960-2015 and most recently Penetralia (all from Black Widow). Eshleman has published sixteen collections of translations, including Watchfiends & Rack Screams by Antonin Artaud (Exact Change, 1995), The Complete Poetry of César Vallejo with a Foreword by Mario Vargas Llosa (University of California Press, 2007), and Aimé Césaire: The Collected Poetry (co-translated with Annette Smith, University of California Press, 1983). Most recently, Wesleyan Press brought out a 900 page bilingual edition of The Complete Poetry of Aimé Césaire, co-translated with A. James Arnold Eshleman also founded and edited two of the most innovative poetry journals of the later part of the 20th century: Caterpillar (20 issues, 1967-1973) and Sulfur (46 issues, 1981-2000). Doubleday-Anchor published A Caterpillar Anthology in 1971 and Wesleyan in November 2015 published a 700 page Sulfur Anthology. His website is www.claytoneshleman.com