Ric Carfagna



from Symphony No. 10

LXXII



Merely a word

to decipher

the eye

which sees

a (self) portrait

hanging on a corridor wall



which sees

Bosch’s serpentine

tunnel of light

which sees

the black sparrow

sitting atop

the cathedral’s spire

and which sees

a rarefied angelic countenance

retracted through ethereal flames

…

and the night

aglow with gas lit lamps

and the pavement is cold

is hard to the touch

and the air is still and sooty

a distilled mass

entering into lungs

into blood

and into veins

…

and it is here

a word is heard

a word to conjure

the spectral phantoms

from nullities of sleep

a word to utter

the indecipherable rune

which speaks

of the autumn leaf’s decay

and its passage into death

a word which speaks

of this bloodless sentience

infusing mortar and stone

and Blake’s grain of sand

holding more than the universe

can contain

and a word which speaks

of this arcane essence

present in each expended breath

and of a wind

unseen at daybreak

echoing down corridors and halls

and entering into

the heart’s cavernous void

Ric Carfagna was born and educated in Boston Massachusetts.
He is the author of numerous collections of poetry, most recently:
Symphonies Nos. 5,& 9 published by White Sky Books-

https://archive.org/details/SymphonyNo.5_175
http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/ric-carfagna/symphony-no-9/paperback/product-21128532.html

His poetry has evolved from the early radical experiments of his first two books, Confluential Trajectories and Porchcat Nadir, to the unsettling existential mosaics of his multi-book project, Notes On NonExistence.
Ric lives in rural central Massachusetts with his wife, cellist Mary Carfagna and daughters, Emilia and Aria.
 
 
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