Poetry |

from Poems That Look Just Like Poems

The Book

 

odd the way the book itself

changes

changes direction

or its very nature

 

the boat

carries you across

& you leave

the boat behind

 

it is a costly

way

steady

in its ongoing difference

 

(5/20/14)

 

*     *    *     *     *

 

That Brought Us Here

 

we are the ones

who tell good stories

smile receive accolades

for the comforts we provide

 

compare to a tree

a stone or any other

human life

 

what was it

that brought us

here &  why do we

think

that our telling of it

should make sense

 

either you

do or do not

think the invisible

merits discussion

 

what’s the path

way to & into

this page

 

do you need

to see it

written

down

 

(5/24/14)

 

*     *     *     *     *

 

Bright Light

 

to seek that

bright light

which we think

to be

singular

bright light

of shipwreck

a light we find

composed

of many lights

a life composed

of many

lights

enigma being

the many

lights   too many

to find

a singular

light

to wander a life

time in

the many

lights

half

the time in

darkness

& in sleep

no less a place

numerous

& enigmatic

to seek that

bright light

as if it were

different

than the many

lights

we are

 

(6/24/14)

 

*     *     *     *     *

 

Moon

 

full moon

over

Santa Monica Pier

moon above

the illuminated

ferris wheel

a large scale

photo

now mounted

over his bed

in the assisted

living

facility where

he is dying

for several years

he had been

tracking

the coming &

going

of the full

moon

to take a photo

each month

one month

the moon

seen through

a Richard Serra

sculpture

the moon

became his way

of knowing

time

a cyclical

ritual

which he

performed

with great anticipation

& affection

until

he could

not

the moon

on the other

hand

continued

exactly

as it had

 

(8/18/14)

 

 *     *     *     *     *

 

Clanking

 

my vision is not

the child’s

song of innocence

nor is it the one

of wonder my vision

is the insistent

voice of hypothesis

what if     what if

& a song

given over to

what is

for which i give

gratitude

in this vision

most of the thinking

is nothing but thanking

the clanking of a

language

released from its

chains

 

(11/23/14)

 

*     *     *     *     *

The editors of On The Seawall are grateful to Presses Universitaires de Rouen et du Havre (PURH) for permission to publish these five poems from Hank Lazer’s Poems That Look Like Poems.

 

 

Contributor
Hank Lazer

Hank Lazer has published thirty-one books of poetry, including the recently released Slowly Becoming Awake (N32) (2019, Dos Madres Press), Poems That Look Just Like Poems (2019, PURH – one volume in English, one in French), Evidence of Being Here: Beginning in Havana (N27), (2018, Negative Capability Press), and Thinking in Jewish (N20) (Lavender Ink).  Previous books include Poems Hidden in Plain View (2016, in English and in French), and Brush Mind: At Hand (2016).  He has performed jazz-poetry improvisations in the US and Cuba with musicians Davey Williams, Omar Pérez, Andrew Raffo Dewar, Holland Hopson, and others. In 2015, Lazer received Alabama’s most prestigious literary prize, the Harper Lee Award, for lifetime achievement in literature.

Posted in Poetry

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.