There Be Phantasies

The hermit thrush whistles in the morning

[no harm] [no harm]

*

as there be phantasies FQ.3.28-29

in wavering wemens wit

that none can tell,

I file endurance and wing-work

under fiction

the little churchyard with its lamenting names

under hunger

*

[Thou must now know further] The Tempest

*

[?] made three seasons, summer Alkman fragment 20

and winter and autumn third Anne Carson

and fourth spring when

there is blooming but to eat enough

is not

*

[no harm] [no harm]

*

[Or we run ourselves] [aground]

*

I file chafing of wax (Oh seal upon my heart)

under inquisition, bootless

Magic garment

under provision

Comfort, under

barren ground, long heath, broom, The Tempest

furze, anything

*

[Thou must now know] [further]

*

To eat enough

is not

under hand

under water

*

Oh, the Cry

[did knock against my heart] The Tempest

[did knock against my heart]

under blooming

Note: Several lines in this poem are refracts: bent, broken, amended versions of their originals.

Published in The Massachusetts Review, Summer 2002.