Ruth Lepson


Four Poems



I've got a sentence

that’s black and poured out of my head

which controlled me for an hour

before I went to bed.

Today I'm looking at the sentence

from the other side of the room—

I think I'll sweep it away with a broom.


§


a low stone wall  the hawk

landing in a far tree

the small squirrel bleating at me


even though creeley's gravestone's

small compared to bowditch's across

tulip way          what matter till

monday and capitalism take over the hill


§


NECESSITY

               for B


He’s lived in 7000 hells.

The way he jokes about it is charming.
To cheer you up he reminds you
‘Everything changes.’

No doubt. In a drought, cattle grow thin,
Still, we slaughter and eat them.
How elegant the restaurant, the offal
hidden, in some corners of life.

That’s right, I’m writing this poem for you
Because your wit supersedes your pain.
Writing, you gain specific heavens you have to glimpse
To keep going, 
while lashing tigers, quarreling spiders and
Wobbly sunflowers continue their necessary work.

There is no comforting home for one who undergoes, he knows.

Cold, the sea wraps itself in its seaweed blanket
And its unseen creatures.

‘Why do I have to be your largest representative on earth,
down to the darkest blacks and the teeming world.
‘Even Kore gets half a year to roam in the sun. Well I try so hard that
Maybe I will as well before I’m done, as when as a child I did sometimes….’


§

T's time itself and wanders like a drunk.

U's outside time and only death will tell us something about it.

V's reincarnation, there are things Buddha says we must not meditate upon.

W's the wider world here where one can go but alone.

X's my copies of the universe.

Y's the voucher that allows one to give a talk.

Z and so we come to the end of the known alphabet.

Ruth Lepson has been poet-in-residence at the New England Conservatory for 25 years and has often collaborated with musicians. On the way: new and collected poems was just published by MadHat Press. MadHat has organized a zoom of 5 poets with recent books which will take place this winter. Reviews other book have just appeared in The Arts Fuse, spoKe, Boog City, and elsewhere.

 
 

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