these city lights*
As mystery but is our afterlife
Guaranteed in this riverbed of memory?
In this shallow grave out with the stars?
The heart’s desire married to a stranger?
This passionate journey’s points of departure
Are the candles of your eye
But are these pictures of the gone world
--the shadow and its shadow—past
Urban bliss falling without falling?
Out of the labyrinth whose song,
Now, concerning the angels?
This impossible story of the eye in
A secret language is the oblivion seekers’ mind
Breaths, pieces of song below the line, entering fire,
kicking!!
For we are resisting the virtual life,
You and I, by the light from a nearby
Window. And these memories of our
Future are keys to the garden,
Whose green garments the living wear.
(*lines from or inspired by titles of poetry collections published by City Lights Books: Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Publisher)
Ekleksographia #1
January 1, 2009
Poems
Alan Botsford
Co-editor of POETRY KANTO, author of two poetry collections mamaist: learning a new language (Minato No Hito, 2002) and, with William I. Elliott, A Book of Shadows (Katydid Press, 2003) with his poems appearing recently in the anthologies Cadence of Hooves in the U.S. and Jungle Crows in Japan, Alan is currently associate professor of American Literature at Kanto Gakuin University. A book of his essays, Walt Whitman of Cosmic Folklore, is due out in 2009.