1.

In a “half-faced camp” a shed with three sides

They lived not much better than bears in a

Cave because that’s the best Thomas could do

Hewing a shelter from the woods with an

Ax and saw — they arrived after fourteen

Days in an oxen caravan to a

Fork on the Sangamon River to a

Place without obligations and to a

Site where Nancy his mother would die of

Milk sickness where Abraham learned to do

 Sums of arithmetic by writing on

A wooden shovel and shaving it off —

He had a year’s schooling but he absorbed

The Bible and Robinson Crusoe.

Weighing his words and

speaking dispassionately

Abraham Lincoln

would present his arguments

sincerely and precisely.

2.

Is there a triter subject than a rose?
They are mostly just stems and little leaves —
Yes their velvet petals are enchanting
But the contrast with their thorns? Overdone —

As common as the sun or moon in verse
Who hasn’t read poetry belabored
With roses? I’d rather see some other
Flower — peony or chrysanthemum —

Yet I adore the resonance of “rose”
And the certainty that every human
Has beheld the sun and moon and roses
So to become one with humanity —

What everyone has beheld I behold
Too what everyone has loved I love too.

Yellow rose petal
evanesces —
thorn

3.

There are raindrops in this piece of paper

And the clouds from which the rain came reside

Now within this white form that was once a

Tree that has become a poem because

Without the drops to nurture the tree the

Expression of the tree the paper and

Poem could not be and the minerals

In the soil also live in the paper

Because without minerals soil has no

Potency and the magic of the sun

Rises off the paper to warm your face

As I communicate to you with words —

The logger the road maker and the mill

Worker have all labored for this poem.

Metamorphosis

is a fact and the magic

is a mystery

and the mystery is deep

though it happens every day.

4.

Such things too
the smudges
and slabs
take part in
the bloom —
row apartments
and vine roses.