Seattle Small Books Company

On Ancient Paths

These scenes are chiseled

Along the metope,

Arranged one by one

Along the frieze,

Each one from another time,

And by time transformed

Asynchronistically.

Inside the crucibled mind

The images combine:

A sediment of sand in collage.

A slight figure moves

Through this four-pillared

Triglyphical vision,

Of a tumbling time.

He moves across the fractured

Stylobate, bringing the visitor

Back to the mythical and the real,

To the broken wall,

To the monuments of a recent past,

Back to the library.

Imagine Ulysses

At sea, swimming

Out the storm:

Leucothea, once Ino,

Now Beach, still

An earthling girl,

Friend to Shakespeare

And Whitman,

With the immortal veil:

A promise kept,

The natal gift.