From a Catalogue for a Colorist
I take an oak leaf by the window of a dreamer
I take disturbed cirrus
I take an empty crossroads and a false stair
I take what draws forward
I take a box lit from within
I take a wheel out of round out of out out of round
I take what is concentric but not mendable
I take a lost ant, bearer of fictions
I take the frost because it is free
I take the paisley verge of meadows
I take roll out and plug in
I take a crash of hexagonal magnitude
I take a clothespin on my fingertip
I take oxhide
I take pitch
I take dried blood
I take sparrow breast
I take a squash blossom and save it for a torch
I take a boy spinning bar stools
I take wisteria in velvet and a quiver of Chinese iris
I take an obscured coastline
I take a coffin of ice
I take adamantine
I take one countersunk nail
I take a flock of faces downtown
I take a pine knot right out of the paneling
I take an echo of our original cavern
I take what started what
I take lunch pail and back of the book
I take snakeskin
I take car alarm
I take suggestions for my place of rest
I take inside a cup
I take afterwards
I take a glass ball swirling atmospherics
I take its frozen lapidary feathers
I take memory of thirst
I take tongues and belief
I take a spear tip for impaling worlds
I take paper peeled from paper
I take a floating canopy
I take what it isn’t
I take the day we had to knock down the wasps
I take it burnt to half-articulate
I take disappearing frames
I take slants and stampings
I take an invading veil of shadow
I take what happened there next
I take those mad propellermen beetles
I take the speckled bark of a beech tree in my friend’s backyard
I take the words “edge of blacktop” and spray paint them on the edge of the blacktop
I take a developmental reversal with stupid hope
I take egg yolk
I take berries
I take the center of the flame and its unerasable afterimage
I take the canvas above our heads
I take a stone bench where sit children inspecting a map
I take thunder near and distant
I take a toy windup ambulance
I take the top left corner of the room and replace it with something similar
I take high tide
I take reef knots and a random paramecium
I take the shoes of the innocent
I take the innocent
~
Let water be pour down
Let bone be whole
Let string be slipknot
Let fire be carry
Let breath be sing out
Let mist be cleft
Let seed be every
Let blood be thunder
~
With women sitting cross-legged in rowboats
With knapweed and a grief-struck squirrel
With columns of rain to southeast
I take a clove hitch fastened to a fence rail
With late-season fireworks and my folding chair
With a heavy downpour at first light
With wrong-sized wire nuts and a lot of ocelots
I take the mariposa lily tattooed on your wrist
I take names at the honor killing
I take a photo of all of us there
With what could have been and might have occurred
I take that firmly in mind
With a potato for safety’s sake
I take my uniform off at home
With feedback only at gunpoint
I take that lily pad you were standing on
With starfish from a snorkler
I take a formula for blessedness
With white herons and a snowy egret
I take a vow of silence and break it now
I take a reflux of doublethink and leave the drumming to others
I take compound umbels from wild carrot with permission
With nine kinds of wet grass
I take this briny ooze
With dusk on Thursday
With a file from the drawer
With calipers from the indigent caliperless
I take crossed fishlines, and then I take the bait
With a panful of cutlets standing in marinade
With the last slot in the parking garage
With the one who comes who is unknown
I take in stride your triple quadrupole mass spectrometer
With training in musical whistling
I take a ticket to the May-hunt
With an auspicious December moth
I take a crescent moon caught in brambles and belabor it
With voicemail from radiolarians
I take asparagus worldwide today
With a yogi from the empyrean
I take your bit part in the harlequinade
I take a diplodocus by alpenglow and a table of cubic measure
I take cost-push and demand-pull to rash extremes
With a fat cat and a grass widow and an ingénue
I take a base on balls
With the law of independent assortment and the universe of discourse
With a heterodox hatband and an x-intercept to Tasmania
With martyrologists and rally-masters
I take your meaning and wipe the phosphenes from my eyelids
With your wherewithal in addition to your whereabouts
With the remainder as nontrivial
With earthshine and grapevines
I take maladroit from the quahog and call it okay
I take an uncool crosscut with brio
I take a turn for the worse after the comet departs
With a quick nip, I mean nap
I take a jumping bean down my knickers
With a degree day and a thirty-second avalanche
I take ostentation to the poop deck
With equestrians and aerialists and lacunae and schemata
I take a number and a letter to the sandlot
With contumely and pneumatics and autographs from herbalists
I take a raincoat off a contralto with contrition
With an immersible verbal at octillion deeps
I take a lynx at his word
~
Let water
Let bone
Let string
Let fire
Be pour down
Be whole
Be slipknot
Be carry
~
I record the invention of the howitzer and the capri pant, though not in this century
O I wait there for wilderness to call
I prefer what’s left once you punch cookies out
I swear to house rules
I make a play for the starry crown and a song they put it in
I discharge a thousand faxes from yesterday
I relinquish my turtle specimens at last
I calculate as equivalent to five clumps of violets
I graduate to pointing, not speaking
I set protocol for used jars
I select hypnotic immersion and give a wrench to my pillow
I think about darning bald spots in the lawn
I change hands
I save myself for biofuel
I struggle with servant mind and assertion of the nonself
I seep toward evening with an inky look
I join the great transposon mutiny
I refer a photograph of a pie to the pie itself
I pull Anthony dollars from my ears
I cause an inadvertent ruckus
I massage the magus and deliver his correlations
I multiply by a quotient of his first incisor
I cultivate pencil points
I print clearly my name on a cellophane pane of the wing of a dragonfly
I assign ten to left and ten to right
I lay my hands on you later
I circle the wrong bottle cap
I await a wilder lettuce
I jerk all four seasons, to postliterate applause
I chafe at Do Not Enter
I lose track of cecropia moths for nearly a minute
I set this map at full scale
I mean everything and understand nothing
I eat my spare silk
I testify to the revolt of my sleeves
I sprinkle extra space
I go steady with a prehistorian
I unearth a humerous bone from humus
I determine mine to be the only body in that well
I stack newspapers six ways from Sunday
I pack the undercroft and preach to the overhead
I persuade it to join my board of directors
I return from the dead, this time with a sandwich
I crack dumb jokes about dust
I bear a minnow’s standard among the colonnades
I observe ember day in my own special way
I propose duplicate bridge as a model for political economy
I surrender a moist towelette
I boil salt soup for the prophets
I medal in a dark sport
I quarterfold distance and outrun lava
I wend landward with my variocoupler
I accuse the clerk of choplogic
I sort my collection of inflorescence
I bend a shape to hold down the hillside
I count that one against you
I fiddle up the vermiform
I introduce the xenolith to the regolith
I annotate zinnia
I peddle koans to a dolmen
I bind your tongue to the last breath of a stranger
I rip out the recipe for serendipity trout
I raise discalced to a new level
I yawn in the face of a pastedown
~
Let water be thunder
Let bone be cleft
Let string be carry
Let fire be every
Let breath be slipknot
Let mist be whole
Let seed be sing out
Let blood be pour down
~
If you ever If you never If you advisedly If you humanly
If you arrestingly If you afterwards If you doubly If you not at all
If you creepily If you crawlingly If you mightily If you spitefully
If you pointedly If you winterly If you flagrantly If you underneath
If you patiently If you obliquely If you ploddingly If you plinkingly
If you beeperly If you beingly If you invectively If you actually
If you possibly If you finally If you dearly If you darkly
If you barely If you blindly If you belatedly If you beratingly
If you ribbonly If you robinly If you rashly If you radishly
If you evenly If you oceanly If you leafingly If you laughingly
If you singly If you multiply If you in situ If you wherever
If you on one hand If you on the other If you now If you later
If you soberly If you stupidly If you coldly If you very
If you bristly If you beggarly If you meadowly If you maybe
If you rhetorically If you cholerically If you vastly If you placidly
If you above If you below If you hardly If you not yet
~
Let breath
Let mist
Let seed
Let blood
Be sing out
Be cleft
Be every
Be thunder
~
Rock turns into stone, then back into rock
Man bites another man, but only on pinky
Sand develops alternatives
Thistle stands in for it
Doubt calls up a swan, then a swan boat
Certainty tolls the hour
Insomniac earwigs swarm gladiolas
Druids invade
Water oak scared of own shadow
Screech owl recites credo: halleluyah
Priestess reveals final prime number
Universe would rather not
Accident reconstructionist claims to analyze culture clash
Meadow remains unchurched
Night arrives before ferry
Neighbor gets clarinet
Girls trail swallowtails across avenue
Traffic vanishes through magic porthole
Artist likes paintings best sideways
Tunisian hall and stair disprove laws of perspective
Boy holding can punks boy holding candle
Ice water sometimes good for veins
More fits into envelope than previously thought
Blowfish wishes to be left alone
Water table voids covenant with dowser
Palmers appear in great numbers along arborway
Man kidnaps ex-girlfriend’s crocodile
Plastic container snaps shut
Grocer accepts geometry proofs in exchange
Incendiary bombs not just for weekend use
Diaphanous tires of the rigamarole
Fruit bat quits mammals
Tinfoil brain crinkles
Clerk swears eyeballs in pocket are his
Bitter stream washes gravestones of fathers
Children expected to feel excision
Majorettes referee refugees
Promise stands a lower molar’s chance
Grassblades first to notice
Cross in question is Maltese
Dry nurse dry-mops dry ice
No close relative found for butter or commonsense
Bank opens lichen repository
Jellyfish not a sign of end times
Mail carrier admits to extra trips around rotary
Basilisk tears cure that, insists homeopathist
President guarantees mattress discounts
Orb weaver named to cabinet
Actual things not the same as ideas about things
Woman signals from rear pew
Stratosphere sues ionosphere
Tide waits for once
Imaginary apples key to famine relief
Cruet found in back of cupboard
Whelk applies for witness protection
Purple rebrands as violet
Reindeer strike for more moss, fewer mosquitoes
Lack of scrap bewilders quilters in three counties
Open sentence snags on sweaters
That snapshot not the best one of you lately
Hod carrier admits to novice status
Hirelings frost icehouse for fun
Local man called
Angel pens tell-all
~
Let water be carry
Let bone be sing out
Let string be thunder
Let fire be pour down
Let breath be every
Let mist be whole
Let seed be slipknot
Let blood be cleft
~
She studies cave crickets
They say, all praise the myth of the fig marigold
She studies woodshavings
They say, compare me to a summer’s day
She studies broken lampstands and trail cairns above treeline
They say, remember fidelity
She studies paperclips
They say, I do
She studies the powers coming in and going out
They say, there’s a spider on your collar
She studies a fallen aspen and a disemboweled field mouse
They say, give a dollar to that homeless man on the median strip
She studies beatniks and gangsters
They say, drape us in moss pink
She studies instant replays
They say, the Buddha was right
She studies mute swans
They say, we would kill you if we could
She studies quetzals
They say, new motifs for motorbikes
She studies economic theory and the aquatic schooling instinct
They say, call the kingfisher down from his perch
She studies her errors
They say distinctly, quince
She studies leopards and leopard frogs
They say, not in this life
She studies irregular polygons
They say, narcoleptic spectacles draped in moonlight
She studies gates and dolmens
They say, pin your geopolitics to the Mercator projection
She studies bituminous coal and diatomaceous earth
They say, tell him yourself
She studies how the dragline attaches
They say, sahib, here comes the haboob
She studies woodchucks eating windfall apples
They say, we seek not the face of God
She studies yttrium and ytterbium
They say, we can hear the dust land
She studies water striders
They say, seraphs in sequins
She studies her dew-soaked shoes
They say, rosepath at a distance
She studies the mind and the brain
They say, incinerate whatever you can
She studies the gills of a panther cap mushroom
They say, lamellae
She studies the multitudinum and the vitreous humor
They say, thank you, bivalves, for all that siphoning
She studies fifth wheels and third parties
They say, v-notch in the tail of a swallow
She studies the 39 parts of a cow
They say, frosted, fluted, dimpled, drizzled, speckled, sparkled, crumpled, crackled
She studies everyone’s intentions
They say, unyielding ache at periphery
She studies dipthongs
They say, cumulonimbus
She studies incidental tales of neverending rearending
They say, pace off your sample space
She studies incarnations
They say, just as you suspected
She studies totemic animals stamped on coins
They say, address your sombrero
She studies bats over traintracks
They say, implements left by the dead
~
Let water
Let bone
Let string
Let fire
Be thunder
Be cleft
Be carry
Be every
~
He carries bergamot in his packsaddle
He carries a book over his heart
He seeks a path through ocotillo
He knows: the field is the world
He watches matter congeal around a singularity
He watches traffic stack up in a sideview mirror
He seeks himself during intermission
He knows: alabaster for impediments
He destroys his last conversation by fire in a pine hollow
He destroys fence posts when he sleepwalks
He seeks the submerged village of his soul
He knows: it could be a jest
He invents a dormitory for his weekend thoughts
He invents an algebraist around the corner
He seeks a camshaft to soothe his tempers
He knows: a lark evermore
He carries larks in his packsaddle
He carries a camshaft in his heart
He seeks a solution for x that will stick
He knows: these lodging are temporary
He watches his soul congeal around a simplicity
He watches for dragging hooks
He seeks boundaries for infinitude
He knows: dry pine for kindling
He destroys his last intermission by fire
He destroys impediments when he sleepwalks
He seeks history mapped to a grid
He knows: messages tend to an outskirts
He invents worlds over the weekend
He invents ocotillo to feel better
He seeks words for that banging in his temple
He knows: bergamot may be among them
He carries larks and bergamot in his packsaddle
He carries a camshaft banging in his heart
He seeks ocotillo as a solution
He knows: material awaits a maker
He watches from the outskirts of simplicity
He watches history dredge the lake
He seeks a gate to walk through, as foretold
He knows: fire stops nothing
He destroys his last pine barren during intermission
He destroys fox tracks with fresh snowfall
He seeks evidence on the fishhook
He knows: his soul is on exhale
He invents a flat place and stands there
He invents numeracy while debating with sand
He seeks engagement with tidal sources
He knows: a backpack is ringing
He carries larks singing in his chest
He carries a tide turning pages
He seeks a variable for sand in the algebraist’s syntax
He knows: from there he could see the next landscape
He watches the shape his soul condenses in cold air
He watches fish rise to their mirror
He seeks fox tracks in mud at stone walls
He knows: he won’t cross over
He destroys stoplights erected on the mountain
He destroys his alabaster idols
He seeks a lake that will tell him something
He knows: to expect manifold centers
He invents the first seed, after reading the footnotes
He invents an equation for smoke
He seeks a language for circular motion
He knows: he carries bergamot in his packsaddle.
~
Let water be sing out
Let bone be slipknot
Let string be every
Let fire be cleft
Let breath be thunder
Let mist be pour down
Let seed be whole
Let blood be carry
~
Is your hand on my arm just now
Is opening a soul window at the moment of death
Is older and wiser than a sand dollar
Is the chief end of love
Is what you know when you know it
Is hoping the furnace will kick in
Is wrapping a sandwich for the road
Is the canoe of fate on a postcard
Is prying boards off the barn
Is heavier than if you carried it yourself
Is not getting better anytime soon
Is merely a suggestion
Is why you remind me of porcupines
Is everything you wanted to say but was not allowed to
Is an obstacle course for the foolhardy
Is a forest of peonies
Is looking away from that wreckage
Is only found in Samoa
Is singing with children after a potluck
Is help you never dreamed you would need
Is a swingset in snow
Is gibbous if you say so
Is always in your eyes, though you deny it
Is leaning on a locked gate
Is a mildly fortuitous fender bender
Is going to find the ferryman
Is scratched on your heart as you enter this world
Is a question you could ask
Is a stripe you have painted between us
Is wavier than anyone remembers
Is unobtrusive in this photo
Is planning to rise up through the asphalt
Is dancing a fandango in a dark courtyard
Is slipping a cipher into your pocket
Is a blue heron stalking shallows
Is a message you missed with the tide
Is abiding, as ever
Is the aroma of burnt cornsilk
Is a man tapping a microphone
Is a sentinel propped on an outcropping
Is proof you said you were seeking
Is battered by sunshine before you arrive
Is somersaulting among the alfalfa
Is often served with raspberry
Is punctuated for survival
Is shackled to wonder and sentenced to wander
Is mingling expertly in the canteen
Is proposing to silence on a banished keyboard
Is raining acorns all morning
Is measuring you the old-fashioned way
Is worse than salad at midnight
Is a ring toss in the deep end
Is wood coals fizzing in a metal bucket
Is sorcery under a pen name
Is feeling a raven fly through
Is as mercy among the nannoplankton
Is disguised as a beast epic to avoid detection
Is only wax resist for beginners
Is welding while distracted
Is cotangent at present
Is setting a bed for you on the roof tonight
Is flashing your name from shipboard
Is written in squid ink
Is light leaking from somewhere
~
Let breath
Let mist
Let seed
Let blood
Be slipknot
Be whole
Be sing out
Be pour down
~
So I put down my pistol and pick up my pickaxe
I sluice three gutters of west wind
I arabesque at laundromats
I drop a popcorn trail across your digression
I trap a paper wasp in a paper cup
I throw a party in my carport
I pledge my innards and translate fire to the high steppes
I meet in mufti with monarchs
I astral project into schooling bluefish without an agenda
I chop roses from concertina wire
I reach for my Allen wrench
I heft coral and grope for its knucklebone
I seduce a drawstring and wring elegies from floor mops
I monitor hearts of palm
I sign to my oven for more sweet potatoes
I register early for a boat-shaped grave
I haunt dry corners
I sleep under lacebark pine
I patrol rooflines for oriole assassins
I stack precambrian discs where rockhounds will find them
I defuse a steak bomb
I take it apart and reassemble it later in an unlikely location
I switch on my mirror neurons
I rip up your payday loan on the eighth day
I unpack my avian epaulets
I secret Clovis points into my shirt
I wise up on orthotics
I make the mahout move over
I mourn with all herbivores their lost forests
I hold harmless only the honeybees
I apply a positive valance to a negative pole
I suffer a parallax
I inherit the Great Red Spot and copyright further reference
I choose between boas and pythons
I salute a golden larch
I slide a tile toward you
I gaze past to the landscape beyond
I believe I hear bluebells
I disciple a plumbline
I intend overcapacity
I tailgate fireflies
I shout when the shouting is over
I proceed as if the unit block is indivisible
I suspect the snow monkeys of intercession
I chuckle over the intercom
I turn to gyrfalcons for a response
I figure skate past conflagrations
I come unglued in the bath
I caucus with lentils and bow out of the foofaraw
I privilege magenta
I umlaut sparingly
I desire to smack the deanery
I hesitate before the iron-hearted
I converse with this regarding that
I confuse moonlight with marmalade
I thresh and grow mighty
I sew saffron robes for a sadsack sailor
I decline the incline
I greet a polynomial with joy
I set food and drink before it
I question the authority granted to scrimshaw
I construct a new wing when things feel crowded
I recognize these ingredients from somewhere
I cancel the damned redaction 