Robert Lietz

four poems

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Untested


.....If the earth.....we'd learned.....to understand
by practice...../ earth.....were.....our weakness

.....after all.....-- what.....was the pond you saw
the same stars walking on.....-- and

.....the Lord God.....-- come.....so far.....-- to find
the same stars glide.....in one another's faces --

.....as two.....resolve.....the shape.....two.....trace
to their transcending.....-- two so close --

.....as the sensations stir.....and.....stars pour over
night travel.....-- two who help themselves --

.....when.....the surprise.....is.....just about as much
as two can handle.....-- and

.....the summer dust stands up.....-- or.....that heron
yesterday.....-- banking...../ tucking some --

.....dropping its legs for a pond landing -- when
I had been asking.....answering --

.....expecting some wilder.....gesture from creation
/ some chiseled say.....or.....mosaic startling --

.....before which.....even.....Babylon.....would pale --
some.....sea-shirring...../ snake drama --

.....not only this pond.....-- bringing on new rounds
of summer color.....-- not.....only

.....this heron.....-- reflecting.....its own coincidence --
and the stillness then.....-- broken by starlings --

.....designing.....another.....starling.....onslaught
on the feeder.....-- but.....-- at.....this.....sharp

.....applause.....-- choosing.....to.....quit our woods
for.....further.....flourishes.....and.....plunders --

.....leaving behind.....star-blooms...../ prayer-
blooms.....-- and.....yet.....untested

.....understandings.....-- and.....these .....few
sprinkles.....say.....-- and.....-- bright

.....-- joined!.....-- vagabond
............thunders.

**

Desired


.....Say how the seasons satisfy.....-- how athlete
or.....priest...../ assailant.....or.....savior
.....must attain or disappoint.....-- how ancient stones
stand up.....-- withstand.....the humblings
.....biography.....gives rise to...../ living.....-- be sure
of it.....-- that.....something.....-- if.....only
.....the mystery.....( overcast )...../ or .....the rain let up
would.....cheer.....this sunflower.....-- triply
.....crowned.....-- among.....these red ...../ white blooms --
where.....squirrel.....or.....bluejay .....dropped
.....or.....hid.....its seed.....in the green planter. Then
into this calm.....come.....cardinals.....wrens
.....and.....finches.....to.....the feeder...../ flickers.....to
still-damp grass.....-- poking.....for
.....some pleasure.....-- ignoring.....the commotion now --
the porch-sounds.....-- the hummingbirds
.....or.....butterflies.....at the verbena.....or.....the cedum --
this burgeoning.....( she thinks ).....-- tickled
.....by.....grit.....and.....navigation.....-- as the windrows
shake.....-- and.....as.....the sea-foam
.....or.....watercress.....intentions of the wallpaper.....-- in
returning light.....-- ask us to remember .....-- to
.....imagine the sea lives...../ stone-lives.....-- the laughter
sea and stone were not prepared for.....-- in
.....an instant vanishing.....-- leaving behind themselves
in concentrations and erasures.....-- in
.....beach finds.....selves.....-- and.....this.....mindfulness --
asking.....gold.....from lead...../ from the errors
.....flesh.....must bear.....as it considers.....-- as.....ideas
resolve...../ survive.....the meaner.....suffocations --
.....and leisure.....to watch it all.....-- with.....everywhere
in evidence. By now.....the moth.....-- unhappily
.....desired.....-- a bee.....intruded on .....-- the resisting's
done.....-- among.....a morning's.....details --
.....as.....surely explored.....as.....shade.....and.....light
and as agreeing.....-- as.....the prophecies
.....( she thinks ).....-- simultaneously.....accounted --
the llamas...../ ostriches.....-- and
.....the machines sold off.....-- before.....the property --
as.....the day.....began...../ dismissal
.....involved her.....partially.....-- who.....might have
lived here fully once.....-- and watched them --
.....moved.....along.....by.....their.....new owners --
thinking.....how years.....stayed put --
.....and.....the laws.....a yard.....and.....house
were.....to.....abide by...../ the stories
.....out of doors.....a woman will retell
............as practicing.

**

Fall Routes


.....Beans.....goldenrod.....yellow-green flat sweeps
frame two lanes...../ two.....lines
of weekenders between.....-- with.....meals
to improvise.....-- and.....now
these woods and deer to keep them wary --
as autumn hues.....prime minds
/ cued by post-Katrina
flourishes.

.....Why wouldn't a man.....( so coaxed ).....piece back
and master the composites.....-- if only
for.....remembrance.....say.....or.....weathering
affection.....-- affect.....the composure
of the sous chef.....or the right-hand man --
allowing.....the mind.....some rest
his.....hands.....cannot
quite settle on?

.....But.....generosity / demeanor.....go so far --
location and charm so far.....-- burdened
by rides and flags.....and accidents and victims --
until.....you might doubt.....what century --
distrust.....the down...../ up-loadable.....exchanges --
and.....even.....the dreams.....depending on --
terrific as all that is...../ as.....feats.....where
narrowing.....ledges.....dropped away --
bringing.....the personal.....to light.....-- source
of the gifts.....we've.....gotten better
at.....receiving.....-- having.....learned
the idiom.....-- when anything
dry or close seeks names
or.....lends itself
to
scribbles.

.....See.....how.....the drains spill.....what remains
from Ohio fields...../ shoulders rise
and.....fall away.....like gestures.....-- drivers
race the light.....toward.....play
or business recreation.....-- into.....this news
more meancing.....-- and.....-- Snakes
Alive!.....-- no joke.....-- these circus trucks
transporting.....another weekend
overland.....-- processions of highbeams now
and family spirits
/ of.....men.....in.....tough-guy masks
doing what's permitted --
pursuing the shortcuts home
/ toward.....red rooms
populated
...............by
surprises.

**

Fall Routes


.....Behind the ash limbs...../ ash leaves.....the red-eyed vireo
declares new rounds of pyrotechnics --
and these four heron now.....-- among.....the standing sticks
I took for herons.....-- at sixty blurred --
at seventy-five impossible.....-- except for this art.....( I think )
selecting anything.....-- when.....we've been.....asked
/ signed in.....-- this.....broadly.....immaculate.....full moon's
paled the goldenrod by shining.....-- and driest
September blooms.....-- together.....tonight.....with.....football
and.....Halloween.....inflatables.....-- inspire.....this.....single
occupant.....-- at sixty / seventy.....-- turning
his choices audibly.....-- mile by song .....by mile and song
almost.....the whole way.....through Ohio.

.....And this is what we know.....-- seeing him now.....-- stock
still.....-- more cottager than roughneck –-
and his sedan still young.....-- in the moonshade of the carport --
gassed as it's been.....-- to run.....from.....fortunes
the far-flung stars inscribe...../ from alpenglow...../ from curries
or foie gras.....-- from.....this.....sad shy one.....-- who
lets down sheer.....( still damp ).....and.....silks.....( still damp )
from clotheswire.....-- at sixty blurred ...../ impossible --
but holding attention yet.....-- as the moon itself --
sounding her name and more.....-- above
the bridge out to the island.

.....Consider.....that readiness to ride. Consider these Spaniels
/ Cadillacs.....-- the combustibles lives leave --
grape sweets.....her lips and tongue.....share colors with --
and the rehearsals just for this.....-- as.....the moonglow
toning.....the goldenrod.....and cat-tails.....-- sweeps.....through
the beans...../ deep blue.....-- through the deep crepe
grey.....and.....pearly tufts.....have spread across.....-- the night
like a brand-new liturgy.....-- sustaining
the parts...../ the choices two know as well as the fixed stars
and have agreed on.....-- another day begun.....-- like
the lyrics.....they swore.....would change
with the next album --

.....and still more samplings.....-- initiatives distilled by choice
the jay-chased hawk will have no part in
/ this raccoon no part.....-- about exploding here.....-- by inches
only.....spared.....the tires scolding it.....-- bringing
me home tonight.....-- and only an hour afterward.....-- away
from their comic theater and Spartan recipes.....-- easing
this four year hundred-thousand mile Buick to garage light --
believing.....she's.....tucked in now...../ secure --
if just another source of concentration...../ of imagining allowed --
broken.....by this owl-struck.....squirrel's cry
or slamming of the screen door.....-- by the dawn ahead
and autumn's confluence.....-- by work neither prices
nor the dictions of believing.....raised her once
to think she'd stand against.

**
return to sawbuck 1.1

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Robert Lietz is a professor of English and Creative Writing (fiction and poetry) at Ohio Northern University, with poems appearing in numerous journals, including Agni Review, Carolina Quarterly, Epoch, The Georgia Review, The Missouri Review, The Northern American Review, The Ontario Review, Poetry, and Shenandoah. Seven collections of his poems have been published, including Running in Place (L’Epervier Press), At Park and East Division ( L’Epervier Press), The Lindbergh Half-century (L’Epervier Press), The Inheritance (Sandhills Press), and Storm Service (Basfal Books). Basfal also published After Business in the West: New and Selected Poems. He has completed several print and hypertext (hypermedia) collections of poems for publication, including Character in the Works: Twentieth-Century Lives, West of Luna Pier, Spooking in the Ruins, Keeping Touch, and Eating Asiago & Drinking Beer. Besides the print publications poems have appeared in several webzines, including: The Salt River Review, Terrain, The Alsop Review, The Black Swan Review, & Kimera.