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Penillion of James Ward’s Eye and Muzzle of a Cow (Drawing), and: Penillion of Riding Past the Radio Astronomy Observatory Amid Hedges and Fields
Penillion of James Ward’s
Cow eyes swallow The world’s hollow Places—the soul You can’t see lolls
Below surface, Inside the curves Of reflection An inflection
Of seeing you, And watching you Searching, eye-deep, Into the sleep
That will never Come through the drawer In which it rests, So dark it tests
The quiet patience Of the transfix- ed single eye. I spy and die.
But its muzzle Sets right puzzles Over tension, Disconnection, [End Page 56]
Seeming so calm, Part of the psalm Disembodied On a thousand
Hills—lack of light Keeping its tight Color, keeping Its slow breathing. [End Page 57]
Penillion of Riding Past the Radio Astronomy Observatory Amid Hedges and Fields
Rabbits bolt back Into the sack Of shade, the gray Penumbra may
Be a shelter From space litter Or some deep truth Offering proof.
The sun is low And hedge leaves blow Red on the road. Croak of a toad
Out of kilter With cold’s trigger: Hibernation? Observation
Of large and small Arrays brings all Cataclysms And charisms
Into the range Of rooks with strange Penchants for glare And curvature: [End Page 58]
The dish hearing Beyond the sing- Song of the lone Bird through the groans
Of the great flock Flooding the track Of light to dark, To silence stark
As the traffic Vanishes, marks Revolutions Of wheels and suns.
The sun is low And hedge leaves blow Red on the road. Croak of a toad. [End Page 59]
John Kinsella’s most recent volume of poetry is Jam Tree Gully. He is a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge University and a Professorial Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia.
