Saturday, March 28, 2009

Beggar's Valentine

That a man have to beg
for a job for his own
survival only a cactus
has such thoughts

Pushed from the top of itself
overflowing rows of small clasps
in the shapes of water crystals
that take hold of you perfectly

This morning he woke up hopeless
he told me he’d suck it up by ten o’clock
and be on to something else by then
he just wanted to talk but it would pass.

2 comments:

Sheila said...

Peter, Sorry to barge in on you completely unannounced. I just discovered your blog and have been enjoying it very much. Your Gusty Valentine and Amaryllis Valentine remind me very much of the themes of something I've just posted - not coincidently - and have the temerity to suggest might interest you. On an entirely other note - H.G answered a question I had about Plumbline the other day by saying he hoped it would "move toward more specifics - talking about how some of the general ideas in those early posts relate more closely to what various poets, including ourselves, are actually writing." You seem to have a large body of interesting stuff to hand. How about it? I'd love to hear your own thoughts on the Valentine sequence.

Joseph Duemer said...

Me too. I've just read the last tenm of these all together and they seem exemplary to me -- both in general terms and in terms of the Plumbline School. Are you willing to descend to non-poetical discourse about these?