Wintereve 38.5

Yesterday, I stopped by the University of Arizona's Poetry Center, one of my fave places on earth. There's a great installation on display which was supposed to have been dismantled in September, but the PC staff as well as the artist decided to keep it up indefinitely. It consists of a few kites with paper-chain "tails" that wind up puddling underneath. The artist has asked for community participation by either writing messages of peace on rings that are already there or by adding new ones. I did some of each, and then spent some time sitting there, reading from Brian Turner's newer book Phantom Noise, and staring out the 40-foot windows into a palewintermorning sun. Here is some of what I did there:




The red strip read thusly:

you
*
child at elbow
*
nose pressed to glass
*
fingers swim up
stream through
blond tunnel
of hair
*
cookie batter licked
off beaters
*
pine tree needles
poky
*
slow smile
*
the parted spine of
your favorite book
*
me