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  • Discernment
  • Peter McNamara (bio)

a furious hunger for simplicity

–Tomas Tranströmer

The hawk-cluttered sky tangles withclouds tossed in wind’s tomfoolery;stealthy, amnesiac light loiters,poulticing blights of seasons past(though spirit stores hard-copy, gustsetch data in memory). Will chill notnumb our faults’ persistent aches?

There’s refreshment in searing wind—what it doesn’t savage it may salve:January’s regimen acts astringent to thewayward, bewildered spirit, shearinglayers of deceit from rimed thought,cleansing mind (almost) for anotherattempt at snagging the apple’s savor.

At the verge of green depths, clarity;yet veiled within (always) the tentative—deer stock-still scenting the windbirds converging on the hour of migrationleaves tuned to life-sap’s orchestrationto spew fireworks against the sky.

In clefts deep in mountains hues spillfor no eye: keener, more vivid perhaps,tonalities of birdsong, clapperless bellsquickening pulse through brilliant sky,attuned to a discerning ear that mightsate our furious hunger for simplicity. [End Page 26]

Peter McNamara

Peter McNamara’s poetry is compiled in four volumes, most recently Sojourn and a chapbook, Orbit’s Crossing, published by St. Andrews University Press. His works as a lyricist/librettist, principally with composer Dean X. Johnson, include East River Bridge, an opera for the Brooklyn Bridge Centennial, and Anthem of Love and Hope, a choral ode for victims of AIDS. He has published translations from Garcia Lorca, Neruda, and Castellon; is a founder of the Southern Vermont Poetry Co-op; and has been honored as a Ronald H. Bayes Writer-in-Residence and with the Newcomb Prize, Merilh Medal, and grants from the Florida Council on Arts and Culture.

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