Paul Hoover's most recent book is Totem and Shadow: New & Selected Poems (Talisman House). His new collections Rehearsal in Black (Salt Publications) and Winter Mirror (Flood Editions) will appear in fall 2001 and spring 2002, respectively.





Blanco y Negro

The dimension
of a

figure is
crafted from

within,
where the

edge begins
and the

center folds.
The worm

in the
apple mythic

and reverent.
Overturned

cabs at
the closed

airport.
The body's

drama not-
withstanding,

this is
meaning's fix.


A harp-
like cry.

To be
shunned and

feared on
a carib

isle, said
the absence

of the
man to

the presence
of text.

All of
summer to

its fog-
soaked core,

said the
father of

duration to
the mother

of the
mess. As

the moral
drapery shakes,

the same
adored face

beams at
its mirror.

Beyond that,
black. Lumber

spilling from
a truck

lands as
always on

a shed
of blooms.

The wind
bears away

the season's
grit nearer

my god
to wit

and tennis.
The outer

limits of
the shapely

mind are
often rift-

bound, but
they can

sound in
the open

throat. The
letter and

the law
in excess

of meaning
and ceremony's

plan. More
remote than

that the
soul won't

go unless
as sprawl

and then
just look,

all the
etched glass

light can't
find. In

name's avail,
find the

name weightless,
sea beside

the sea
in dimension

and candor.
The cement

won't dry
in structure's

palace. But
see how

it thickens
things as

they aren't,
Jesus music

for old
lost boys.









O, and Green

size without design
          past without a history
                    at what height
midday enters
          swinging its gate. . .


and this much later
          presented in language
not in perception


the field's
          white design
an old bone sequence


contemplation's edge
          planned as a texture
we are playing
a game of appearance


the what world leaks
on the language hand


to say another
and mean knife
          among the pub crawlers

emotional voices
hands in water:
          eyeless spies
of a discontent evening


the warm mind shrouded
          humorous and astute
rumors we carried


who cannot endure
silence or size
          infinity's brief
articulation


each curve of the water
          redesigns light
bends seeing briefly


in which pattern
deepening the background
                    the fourth eye canters


a footprint goes
          straight to these windows


sand blown sand city
                    along the coast
          restless