Legend

Stan Rogal
From:   Geometry of The Odd. Wolsak and Wynn, 1999

Here is the country side. Staggered
Flat or rolling. Spun with thick grasses or
    spiked with wildflowers & tall stands of timber.
Big & bold as anything you can't imagine
Those mountains. That river. The fact of
    a few fallen inches of snow covering the treetops.
What is common called a landscape.
Yet, from the awed sea arises the proposition:
       What grape, to keep its place in the
       sun, taught our ancestors to make wine?
In deed
Empty
As the pilgrims false persuasion
    about the source of oracles
        or pygmies shooting arrows at the eclipsing sun.
Adulterate nature offers such easy scape
For raptured spirits & similar low ghosts
    set to save their mortal souls
Whereas
What never took it so much to heart
Simply, to make the stone stony
Bows beneath the weight
    & is nailed at every crossing.

Poem 1 | Poem 2 | Poem 3 | Poem 4 | Poem 5 | Poem 6

Stan Rogal's works copyright © to the author.