Posted in poems on August 17, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Archaic Figuration
1.
Steal the sad
Stealing; stealing.
Undone
Telling
The tenderest truth
The sad beginning
Be beginning and gold
Be lighthanded
But telling
2.
There.
The tender.
Keep echoing this.
Keep undoing the sad and the stealing.
Keep undoing
Undone.
© Umansky 2010
Posted in poems on August 3, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Tell Me
Tell me, what it was like
to trumpet this around.
And tell me what it was like
The small
Under-current at your heels
*
The other day, I thought I heard your laugh
I sat on the couch, head rolled back
a cackle from my throat
Stared at the door like a fool, then
I knew it: I am part of the lonely.
Even my laugh is uncoupled.
These are the moments I am supposed to give to myself.
These partial portraits.
*
Tell me: is it hard to be reflexive?
It must be hard to keep going back to
you.
(c) Umansky 2010
Posted in poems on August 3, 2010| Leave a Comment »
EVERY HEART A KNOT
In every way against this
nevermind the tide
This will buoy beyond
to and fro
in every way this next
to sound this next to sound
a volley.
this will be unconscious
(and for good reason, too)
You were never beneath
this breast or that
In every way splintered or
ingrained.
In every way dead, but sparkling
In every dead-as-a-barnacle plush
In every dead as a [nevermind, the rocks and glass]
a half-crisp mollusk or
yellowed pine
Admit it: you wanted this mossy.
You wanted this thrown.
Here, take hold, Honey:
Every heart is a different knot.
© Umansky 2010
Posted in poems, tagged poem on July 26, 2010| 1 Comment »
Posted in poems on July 6, 2010| 1 Comment »
Posted in poems on June 17, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Posted in poems, tagged poem on May 4, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Self :: History
I don’t want
this third pull
Do as the duckling
Lop-tailed and clacking
Put it small
but, full.
I am sure; I am sure; Sure, I am
learning occurrences differently.
I am enlightened.
Throw a lighted-one here.
Oh, these spaces
With their certain hurts and harms.
I am done being ___________
Done being _____________
Kill the sweet.
No marveling.
Steal your life.
Require cutting.
Juxtapose: self-healing w/descent
If this were olden times;
If this were olden,
I’d still supply it all.
©Umansky 2010
Posted in poems, tagged poem on April 12, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Posted in poems on March 26, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Still life
Maybe it all is folklore
or folk – lure
a visual vocabulary;
something chambered.
tapered and funneling
authentic
Shadow me in home
I might; I ought
I fear.
It was a heavy moment
Seeing and putting: the shade drawn
Was I sardonic?
Distilled?
When I was a girl; the prayer leapt away
All of those associations: the lush
There are no ordinarys.
Spoon; crown
Tooth; sword
Don’t face away.
If I were someone else; I’d never know
this.
© Umansky 2010
Posted in poems, tagged poem on March 14, 2010| Leave a Comment »
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