John Martone: geometry (poems)

geometry



circling
this lake
to left
counter
clockwise


~


log—
hollow

long time
now

down
to this

empty
skin


~


fallen trunk
my path’s one
straight stretch


~


beaver dam—
farther on
fire circle
!


~


wood
pecker
yes

way
up
beaver-

girdled
oak


~

burrow—
room for
5 words


~

beaver
blue heron
bald eagle

& you


~

beavers too—
chisel-tooth’d
pen


~

that
beaver
dam’s

human
look—


~

cdnt do better
than this beaver dam
yrself

~


but this
beaver dam’s
conical
symmetry—

this beaver dam’s
geometry


~

beaver dam—

ought to
bathe today!

~

adding 9 words
to this beaver dam

here’s a poem


-- john martone
november, 2009


NOTE. For some years now, John Martone has been an indomitable worker in the pursuit of poetry, whose autonomous publications, many of them under the chosen logo of tel-let have come out in simple handstitched versions and since 2005 in an ongoing on-line format. In his own accounting: “ [Tel-let] began in 1987 as an extension of correspondence among poets. Over 100 numbers have appeared, originally in a simple 8.5/11 side-stapled format. During this time, the range of formats has grown, but the impulse has remained to provide a meeting place for exiles. The current print form reaches upwards of 100 correspondents in the US, UK, Canada, Germany, Japan, Korea, and Slovenia. Poets represented include Bob Arnold ° Ed Baker ° Michael Basinski ° MJ Bender ° Cid Corman ° Simon Cutts ° Larry Eigner ° Theodore Enslin ° Clive Faust ° Robert Fitterman ° Bob Grumman ° Gary Hotham ° Stefan Hyner ° Karl Kempton ° Robert Lax ° David Levi Strauss ° John Levy ° Rupert Loydell ° Giovanni Malito ° Lissa McLaughlin ° David Miller ° Peter Money ° Barbara Moraff ° Frank Samperi ° George Quasha ° Jerome Rothenberg ° John Vieira ° Phyllis Walsh ° Scott Watson.”

In the present blogger format, a few of the poems presented above have had to do without occasional indentations, but it’s my hope that the fineness of the work comes through in spite of this. He remains throughout our greatest living miniaturist -- his art a scaled-down work of nearly epic dimensions. (J.R.)