Selections from "Symphony No. 12"
(formation of the labyrinth)
1
Again this formation
of questions
in a gray lateness
in the echoing
of days retained
sustained in the blood
and fused to a nomadic breath
…
questions of anti-matter
of hidden symmetries
of dimensional regressions
of swords into plowshares
and blood spilled in antipathy
…
questions of atoms coalescing
to form a solidity (of matter)
to form an alternate existence
(a life) patterned
by a light receding
on grass growing
through the pavement
and in the shadow
of the gull’s wing
…
“and they speak
the fragments
of a long-dead sage”
questioning
words
no longer heard
words
interring
vulnerable aspects
of a heart
distilled dissolved
and burned into ash
…
words
which form
the questions
of tides advancing
and ebbing
of swelling
vestigial organs
of constellations
waxing and waning
in the essence of ancient breath
falling from the comet’s tail
soundless migration
through a starless sky
Ric Carfagna was born and educated in Boston, Massachusetts. He is the author of numerous collections of poetry, most recently Integral Series published by Alien Buddha Press. His poetry has evolved from the early radical experiments of his first two books, Confluential Trajectories and Porchcat Nadir, to the unsettling existential mosaics of his multi-book project Notes On NonExistence. Ric lives in rural Central Massachusetts with his wife, cellist Mary Carfagna and daughters, Emilia and Aria.
