Jerome
Rothenberg
from A Book of
Concealments
A Deep Romantic Chasm
for Michael
McClure
A deep romantic chasm
beckons him it leaves no time
to hide from light
in spite of circumstances,
& the way the street
flows like a stream
from no source,
nowhere. This
season
with its birds
newly arrived,
the first one on a fence,
mortal as you,
a harbinger of days to
come.
Another word,
a false return,
the spoken still unspoken
carries us off.
The cavern of the universe
widens each morning.
My head
fills up with dew,
the father writes,
having no home but where
his shadow leads him.
In greasy
shirtsleeves, heavy
lids, blotched faces,
the men pursue
a trail of tears,
unbuttoned captive
to a dream,
a starless galaxy,
the deeper sky
a field of images
measureless & mindless,
absent their god.