| InterBoard Poetry Competition | |
LETTER FOR A.R. AMMONS
Gary Kennan
(AAP Forum)
Wind thumps the windows….…this winter night
and floating candles…….flicker, white roses glow
in a glass vase on a mirror table--
the room more than inhabited
by crenellated books along the walls,
more than defined by statuettes
of female deities and the temple bell
that make the upright piano an altar
and silence the moment's hymn.
*
Of course, in the sublime world
a single body………yields a single thought,
……and that planet hovers in a yawn
from lips too…….. beautiful to speak a truth.
In this way imagination incorporates
the occasional flame of a city
or the hands as perfect as death.
*
Someday that unitary mind will become
apparent in the act of looking
at one another. Meanwhile, there are prayers
in every pause, a choir of commas
sorting the next sanctus
from the last, all this…… living…….…made plain:--
how violins creased the air
and wine chilled tongues, the languid
blessing……of time, the language
sitting through evening.
Even in such darkness, light persists.
Judge Robert Sward's comment: “Successful (and timely) tribute to A.R. Ammons. Striking detail and unusual visual and musical effects.”
About the InterBoard Poetry Competition
Archive of IBPC Winners
3rd Place Winner, March 2001
