Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A HOPKINS RUMBLE, 1999, by JOHN ARTHUR HAZARD


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A HOPKINS RUMBLE, 1999, by                    
First Line: Gerard, juke-step jerry, little wrestler, soul-mess
Subject(s): Hopkins, Gerard Manley (1844-1889)


For James Richardson

Gerard, juke-step Jerry, little wrestler, soul-mess
of sinew and mind-sight, fired spark, joyed Jesuit,
grief-clog too, but a pan-flute in every Ave, you half-nelson
the syntax dandies, ram them to canvas, sit upon and pin

the god-fops, minions of ghost tomes, trite chimes,
though you walk among them, too, jig and roar
of black-robed stroll in golden-grove and choral iambs.
You were, yes, that falcon flight, the labor, soar, and

dive, but buzzard nose for carrion, too, sniffed your own,
knew, alone, the rot, rope-knot or buckle of roots under-on
rock, your gowned back to roses, rosaries, but eyes a song gone
up, too, sickly little wings stuck in God-glue air: how long?

You sang one dialectic flight, sir-the only kind. How high
can the swallow swoop, how low the falcon grieve, relieve,
in fall till pinions hold him, there, to kill? Light-
weight, mutt, heaver of iron, scrap, feather: I believe

the hurt, believe you saw what you saw.


Copyright © 1999 by The Modern Poetry Association.
This poem appears in the June 2000 issue of Poetry Magazine.
http://www.poetrymagazine.org







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