Number 14



New Year's Eve—2019


there aren't any
New Year's bells now
but I remember
chimes at midnight
heard over the popping
of champagne corks
accidental kisses
beyond an auld lang syne
falling across the garden

the church down the street
took away its bell
and replaced it with a cassette tape
and a loudspeaker
that never worked

New Year's is like a cloud
that goes by
nobody looks up
there's just passing

but something is pulling at me
from the stars

Number 13



CHRISTMAS POEM

Christmas is approaching fast
a couple of days now
I saw a man put a slab of honeycomb
on his head like a hat
the honey dripped down
like a choir’s song
over his shoulders
his tears fell like wax

Christmas is burdening the winter
a week or two
of logs in a fireplace
public joy goes into the air like sparks
the people weep fir trees
howl ribbons of tape
how the crunch
of their Christmas boots
strains the hard chest of earth

Christmas sits in the corner of the room
with fruit pies and magpies
and mad black crows of glass and wine
peace be ours
cry the loudspeakers
parking for your car
in the depth of your dreams
crumbs for the birds at your fingertips

A Criminal on the Street



A Criminal on the Street

you run
into a criminal
on the street

he's counting
the days
on his gloved fingers

you ask him
for some outlaw
cool

he smiles
like a wax pig
trips on the curb

you help him up
he is soft like
a breast of chicken
his grey hair
dead grass

a cat walks by
in its taffeta freedom

shoots him
through the heart
with a whisker

#11, News from the space station


Toy

Galileo's toy
with its spectacular rings

amuses space
like a nightlight
in darkness

expect to hear
mariner music
through two hundred inches
of telescope 

number 10: Flowers from the vase number 2



Lily

she stands in the hall
her fist held up for a candle

she says not to worry
time passes she says
no cause for alarm
she says unless it stops

this is dreaming us both
she turns her lapel over
there's a dead lily
pinned there

#9: Cat Story




Cafe Afternoon

a cat's paw
scratches rivers
in a linen tablecloth
where two diners
now swim
pale as yogurt 

No. 8: Story and the large tree



Electric Tree

touch this cracking tree
and die
become an outlet
in the sky

circuit branches
sear the air
they haveth cinders
everywhere


Note:  The phrase "haveth cinders everywhere" in the last line of my poem is my corruption of a famous line in James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake *(1939) which alludes to the fact that Joyce's protagonist/world-dreamer, H.C Earwicker (whose dream Finnegan's Wake actually is) is also known as "Here Comes Everybody."   It is also said of him that he "haveth childers (i.e. children) everywhere."   Earwicker's "childers" became my "cinders." 

no.7: Blue Voyage



Schooner

built well
to be

a reciprocity
of slats and boards

set measureless
abreast

to
dip in the sea

to
drift

towards its own gaze 

Number 6: We Cannot See



Sleepless

an electricity
nipping my ankles
keeping me awake

my wrists
are pinched
like links of chain

my ears whistle
loud as hydro lines
in drizzle

it's only 3:30
but I can't pull
the blanket darkness
up over me

everyone around
sleeps like the ocean

I am driftwood
unsupported by cradling
waves 

Number 5: Piles of Pins



Piles of Pins

Mount Fuji
ice cream

an airliner
hovers above it
a hanging refrigerator

this is Japan in the cold
its chrysanthemums snapped
into piles of pins

Number 4: Eternal Return

Photograph by Lee Ka-sing - Big moon and a large star


Eternal Return

The spacecraft lands
soft as down in a pillow

the insect astronauts
are debriefed
at the corner
under a streetlamp

the questions begin:
is the earth still a clod
is the moon still cheese
is space black velvet
with cubic zirconia stars? 

Number 3: Reds

Photograph by Lee Ka-sing - A matter of red


Exquisite small reds

                                   arrowhead reds

            amphetamine reds
                                       platelet reds
cochineal

jelly beans

                          fingernails
                                            cinnamon hearts
lovely red stuff

Number 2: Dog Barking at the Moon

Photograph by Lee Ka-sing - Dragon in the city


I felt an unruly dog was dragon enough and wrote this poem, after a painting by Joan Miro from 1926 called "Dog Barking at the Moon."


This ham-faced
dog of mine
legs like pencils
stands barking
at the lantern moon
hanging low
over the lawn
like a pinata

I'm sitting
on the veranda
sipping my black tea
thinking about
curtailing the dog
or breaking off a branch
to whack the moon with

anything for some quiet
this used to be
a silent street
until it got a moon
of its own
and I took on
this frantic, upturned dog

Number 1. Like a Lawnmower

Photograph by Lee Ka-sing - Self portrait about fighting with a red rubber cone


Like a Lawnmower

for the big problems

I have a machine
like a lawnmower

it works best
during afternoons
in June
with buttery sunlight

you push it around
and it coughs up
answers
View more photographs from Lee Ka-sing's LIGHT READING series -
http://www.lightreadings.com