DIVINATION OF HIDDEN THINGS [the hazel]
Hermes braids a staff of hazel wood
fire springs from a hazel branch
lichen on the hazel’s grayish-brown bark
hazel catkins in cold wind
nightjars and willow warblers alight in a coppiced hazel
I cut hazel rods for dowsing
I cut hazel rods to reveal ley lines
at the midpoint of the Otherworld, a hazel
magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, copper enrich the hazel nut
for a thatching spar, slit a hazel gad
below the hill of Tara, a hazel festooned with votive offerings
four woven hazel-wattle hurdles enclose a sacred space
hazel understory beneath birch and oak
into a holy well, a hazel drops plump late autumn fruit
while harvesting hazel wands on Sunday, I meet the Devil
fire springs from a hazel branch
lichen on the hazel’s grayish-brown bark
hazel catkins in cold wind
nightjars and willow warblers alight in a coppiced hazel
I cut hazel rods for dowsing
I cut hazel rods to reveal ley lines
at the midpoint of the Otherworld, a hazel
magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, copper enrich the hazel nut
for a thatching spar, slit a hazel gad
below the hill of Tara, a hazel festooned with votive offerings
four woven hazel-wattle hurdles enclose a sacred space
hazel understory beneath birch and oak
into a holy well, a hazel drops plump late autumn fruit
while harvesting hazel wands on Sunday, I meet the Devil
LATE QUARTETS
The canyon walls’ striations
Wrought by water, by wind,
Reveal deviations
In the parallel of lines.
: :
How to integrate the minutiae—
The febrile marks, a torn web,
A ragged rope bridge— when
Each act of ritual distances?
: :
The erstwhile-in-focus
Is now all a blear as if
A lens has been flipped
Or smudged by touch.
: :
A crow looms like the shadow
Of a submerged ship:
The surface, all a sheen,
Burnished with a potter’s stone.
: :
A pond becomes a meadow,
A meadow a pond over years.
A narrative left to conjecture,
The present is unprecedented.
: :
Doubt, mortality, desire--
You know—a comedy. Nothing
To discard from the slaughter.
Each bone fragment and scrap useful, used.
: :
The water sheds, seeks its level--
(A stone’s throw away, or some other
Measure scaled to limitation)--
Marsh edges blue with dusk-ink.
: :
How to test a text, its thread’s
Tensile strength as it snags
And then is pulled through?
A flawed stitch, then, is ripped.
Wrought by water, by wind,
Reveal deviations
In the parallel of lines.
: :
How to integrate the minutiae—
The febrile marks, a torn web,
A ragged rope bridge— when
Each act of ritual distances?
: :
The erstwhile-in-focus
Is now all a blear as if
A lens has been flipped
Or smudged by touch.
: :
A crow looms like the shadow
Of a submerged ship:
The surface, all a sheen,
Burnished with a potter’s stone.
: :
A pond becomes a meadow,
A meadow a pond over years.
A narrative left to conjecture,
The present is unprecedented.
: :
Doubt, mortality, desire--
You know—a comedy. Nothing
To discard from the slaughter.
Each bone fragment and scrap useful, used.
: :
The water sheds, seeks its level--
(A stone’s throw away, or some other
Measure scaled to limitation)--
Marsh edges blue with dusk-ink.
: :
How to test a text, its thread’s
Tensile strength as it snags
And then is pulled through?
A flawed stitch, then, is ripped.
FIELD RECORDING
A mortarless stonewall follows the hill, then tumbles.
Where a path threads deep shade, a hazel
Oversees the cold lap and gabble of a holy well;
A door, relieved of its function, serves as a table
(An arrangement, as in music;
an adaptation,
A working with, or through, what already exists.)
The semblance is fixed, yet memory weathers
In unforeseen ways: the accord, the calm
Of three notes sounded at once: water, hazel, stone.
Where a path threads deep shade, a hazel
Oversees the cold lap and gabble of a holy well;
A door, relieved of its function, serves as a table
(An arrangement, as in music;
an adaptation,
A working with, or through, what already exists.)
The semblance is fixed, yet memory weathers
In unforeseen ways: the accord, the calm
Of three notes sounded at once: water, hazel, stone.
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Eric Pankey is the author of many collections of poetry, most recently The Future Perfect: A Fugue. He is the Heritage Chair in Writing at George Mason University.
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