purlieu n. A piece of land set apart from an ancient royal forest by perambulation of its boundaries; a part lying adjacent; outskirts; environs.
so
seeing
seeing
the sorrow
the torment
of thinking
of thinking
torment
or a slender
swaying
a bit of
dangling
a wisp
in the parting
*
so
to conceive
an image
the squalor
of a certain
tenderness
if only
stillness
or
an image of
in its veil
even if
unburdened
glistening
even if
another veil
*
so
staying
staying
the known
that most intimate
within
without
ambling
as other
as other
things
fragments
the heart
its splendour
forgiveness
its exhaustion
*
so
induced
by these
and other givens
unchosen
gifts of time
timely gifts
of loss
and abandon
cherished
or fields
which would fade
if only if
*
so
denied
that refusal
as if space
and its lesions
and so
refused
that denial
that world
to enfold
but rather
unfold
and lessen
enquire
of the dead
the chill waters
the leaf’s
silence
*
so
to remain
remain blind
as another
to heal
to believe
and deny
that other
sovereign tether
to assumption
that untoward
and trace
the unfolding
recover
grace
the staggered
breath
August 24, 1994—April 4, 2003