THE NIGHT MIND

by John (Jack) Clarke

Seek and ye shall find The Night Mind, mine
(not Mike Flannigan’s) the one that has people
in it, as many as came over (after 1 Brumaire Napoleon)
Sandusky, Santa Monica, Gloucester, don’t know, Key Largo
but am less and less interested to pursue anything else,
Novalis’s Hymns hold no interest, nor my own prior
excursions, too aware of company not even going there,
Fred might, just because he is flexible, and doesn’t try
to do what he can’t do, namely, to be another American,
floating over the years as though we were still pioneers
just because we live west of New York City, like the Vatican
it thinks it knows what Night is, people stay up, yes,
but not enough to connect with more than the mind of Milan,
come join us, help me find the way to Night Mind

to begin again
August 30, 1986