Mephisto 10
by Michael McClure
MOUNTAINS OF MATTER
MADE OF STARS,
and
scent of crushed
GERANIUM LEAVES,
in “the everlasting universe of things”
roll through Shelley’s mind
and drop countless kalpas
to the snow leopard fur
behind
THE BABY’S EYES.
A hiss of anger turns to a growl
and a kiss,
like the seasons
and red – purple petals
banked against curbs.
Gold – tipped cigarettes,
veiling dark lashes, hard winter pears —
these have never been
MORE CLEAR.
Psyche, nous, pneumas, whatever,
has not only come together
extending realms
and removing the old bounds
they
also unfold
outwards.
Jefferson Navicky
work has recently appeared in Horse Less Review, The New Guard, and Livestock. He teaches English at Southern Maine Community College, and lives in Portland with his girlfriend, Sarah, and his bicycles.
Michael Macklin
is a carpenter and poet living and working in Portland, Maine. He owns a Stihl chainsaw and is owned by a yellow dog named Murphy.
Nathaniel Tarn
was born in 1928 in Paris and educated in France, Belgium, and England, obtaining degrees from Cambridge, the Sorbonne, and Chicago. He emigrated to the United States in 1970, where he taught at American universities until his retirement. He is a poet, translator (Neruda, Segalen, etc.), critic, editor, and anthropologist (Highland Maya, S.E. Asia, China, Himalayas, Borneo, etc.) with some 35 publications in the various disciplines. His latest books are Ins and Outs of the Forest Rivers (New Directions); Avia (Shearsman Press); Selected Poems 1950 – 2000 (Wesleyan) and Scandals in the House of Birds: Shamans & Priests on Lake Atitlan (Marsilio). He runs a dimunitive garden project thirty minutes northwest of Santa Fe in Nuevo Mexico.