Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, IMAGE OF A SAINT, by JANE MILLER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

IMAGE OF A SAINT, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Many favor sunflowers seeding
Last Line: You walk in sandals unimpeded
Subject(s): Language; Poetry & Poets; Saints; Words; Vocabulary


Many favor sunflowers seeding
I choose two lovers late September sharing sorbet
one can always choose to imagine
their fingers through each other's curls
without an image
of their heads bleeding & shouts all around
unnatural lighting & sour air
no small wonder there are deep voices
the wonderful red tiles of the South
an opera in the courtyard
& someone will be responsible for this
muggy lavender field
of vegetal & hay light climaxed in storm
& the stone towers too those
years vanished in an afternoon
the bronze figurines on the door to nowhere
someone remembers them
conjures rows of citizens before the campfire
pig blazing

All these days I've thought of myself
as a poet there's that halo
around intimate matters
in language where impulse rules
intuition too has a habit of romancing
before it's shaded & twilit
as the slow bellow of afternoon breathes
in the shadow of the Duomo
we drive our daydream around
switching up narrow streets
a light rain breaks in on the fortification
heat mingles with evening
the world is noble & familiar

Language is barren before it is toned
by diction & syntax diction especially
& then meaning
musings amusements & nuance
create by the momentum of play and thought
feelings & settings
I feel for you
at home or away whenever
a century or a day goes by
as a creature of love speechless
with no other place to go
at the time we admit it
we ourselves are admitted
into the soft landscape
I study every day & fall behind a cloud

The cattleguard of the invisible ranch opens
a fringe of pinon & juniper stirs along the canyon rim
alabaster cows float in tall grass
cornstalks & sunflowers look like two-pump gas stations
a torn billboard in the middle of nowhere drops from sight
you halt before vertical walls of red rock
the tops of cottonwoods trade birds

Eveywhere we've ever been
children & chickens & bells
the dew of the valley rises into stone streets
drawn uphill to the central square for the day
the squash blossoms of summer have their long nap
disrupted by a motorbike coughing & clanging
an age of brilliant spring greens burns into weeds
you walk in sandals unimpeded





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