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This piece is about 3 printed pages long. It is copyright © Tom Clark and Jacket magazine 2008.
The Internet address of this page is http://jacketmagazine.com/35/clark-tom-7.shtml
January
Hélas! My narcissi are stinky
after only two weeks: 2:52 a.m.
twenty one is it? degrees on the mercury ball
a serious shivering within the spiritual timbers
in the town named after the bishop
who argued away the existence of the material
why then doth it weigh so
(contra the hypostasis of the individual)
upon us all
September
Walking in the woods, I found the thread
of dread that led to the endarkened
clearing — as a flame
fibrillates in the leaves
around the edges of the trees
into which one fears to go — so courses through one
a thread
of light that flickers —
the factum
is the fatum —
9/22 AUTUMN BEGINS (7:05 P.M., EDT)
as evening falls
Intact
A cracked vase
never mended
itself
if not regret
less
regardless,
at least, at last.
Talk Gets Old
We have to do the best we can
That is our sacred human responsibility
Said Einstein to the gorilla
Who yawned and smiled patiently once again
The Shadows
There’s many a good tune played on an old fiddle
Said Samuel Butler to his shadow
The shadows of old men in entirely different centuries
Go ever with me now
After Wang Wei
Chilling down by the water
stopped to watch clouds drift
clouds drift clouds drift
bumped into mr. green
talked laughed forgot
it was time to go
Epitaph for Rent
My name was... oh, what’s the difference? I came
from... really, who cares where? Was born, raised, educated
no doubt, in some fashion... does this interest anybody?
And as to how I lived... we won’t go into that. At length,
I died. Here I lie. That’s the one relevant fact.
Tom Clark and family, Bolinas, 1971, photo by Gerard Malanga
Tom Clark’s most recent poetry books are Threnody (Effing Press, 2006), and Light and Shade: New and Selected Poems (Coffee House Press, 2006). He lives in Berkeley, California.
You can read Tom Clark’s biography, a detailed bibliography, a statement on poetics and a list of live links to all his pieces in Jacket magazine here, at Jacket’s Author Notes page.