David Miller


(things unhidden since the beginning)


scars
&

the perfect

the perfect

&
scars

******

the scars of martyrdom

some want to see
persecution anyway

or the scars of accident
& mental illness


****

milk curds
shared

(martyrdom)

****

ah but not
the beginning no

where is your brother?
his blood is crying out

from the ground
whose mouth

has opened wide

****

ah but to kill
oneself

or others
or to maim

oneself
or others

I can’t see
I can’t

I can’t
I can’t 

I can

****

the buildings
labyrinthine

their passages
& stories

even the steps
outside

where I lost
all I owned

****

& before
& after



(the dance)


dance even
to gospel

yes
dance

but not
to Gregorian chant

yet Christ danced
a round dance

(or so
St John)

****

a lamp am I
a mirror am I

a door am I
a way am I

I would be saved
& I would save

I would be loosed
& I would loose

I would be wounded
& I would wound

I would be washed
& I would wash

I would eat
& I would be eaten

***

(if
apocryphal

then
apocryphal)


                                                            (to the memory of Sydney Carter)

David Miller was born in Melbourne, Australia, but has lived in the UK for many years. His recent publications include Spiritual Letters (Series 1-5) (Chax Press, 2011), Reassembling Still: Collected Poems (Shearsman Books, 2014), Spiritual Letters (Contraband Books, 2017 / Spuyten Duyvil, 2022), Towards a Menagerie (Chax Press, 2019), Matrix I & II (Guillemot Press, 2020), Some Other Days and Nights (above/ground press, 2021), Afterword (Shearsman Books, 2022), circle square triangle (Spuyten Duyvil, 2022), An Envelope for Silence (above/ground press, 2022) and Some Other Shadows (Knives Forks and Spoons Press, 2022). He is also a painter and a musician.

 
 

previous page     contents     next page