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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Keith Waldrop
Keith Waldrop
A co-founder of the Burning Deck Press, Keith Waldrop is a poet and translator. His most recent collection is The Real Subject: Queries and Conjectures of Jacob Delafon: With Sample Poems...
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FURTHER READING
Related Prose
"All My Poems Are Love Poems": When Two Poets Fall In Love
by Craig Morgan Teicher
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Light Travels  
by Keith Waldrop and Rosmarie Waldrop

        1


        common time I follow you un-          
        kept secret on 
        a basic undersound
 






        2


        common time I follow you un-
        kept secret on 
        a basic undersound


        this is the first part of the rhyme
        allow for sequences of overheard
 






        3


        this is the first part of the rhyme
        allow for sequences of overheard


        close the curtains but
        playful elaborations of other-
        wise arrogant variations keeping
        the window open
 






        4


        close the curtains but
        playful elaborations of otherwise
        arrogant variation keeping
        the window open


        as it's wrong to shut
        one's eyes to dream
        it's raining while it is in fact raining
 






        5


        as it's wrong to shut
        one's eyes to dream it's 
        raining while it is in fact raining


        ears busied with hearing more than
        one voice the stream our tears unmirror
 






        6


        ears busied with hearing more than
        one voice the stream our tears unmirror


        or mere error as if
        naturally hard of
        divided
        noise rings in our fears
 






        7


        or mere error as if
        naturally hard of
        divided
        noise rings in our fears


        expands danger within our
        long thin hands contract 
        across quiet gravel
 






        8


        expands danger within our
        long thin hands contract 
        across quiet gravel


        narrow fruit tin cans
        loss of the white of other eyes
 






        9


        narrow fruit tin cans
        loss of the white of other eyes


        song out of mind
 






        10


        song out of mind


        or am I
        tethered
        so blind a coloring of thought
 






        11


        or am I
        tethered so
        blind a coloring of thought


        intrinsically fuzzy the sound as
        pavement
 






        12


        intrinsically fuzzy the sound as
        pavement


        whereas tenses
        are
        a later
        development
 






        13


        whereas tenses
        are
        a later
        development


        limits of a body open 
        sea the great sea 
        journey
 






        14


        limits of a body open 
        sea the great sea 
        journey


        how different the grammars of
        to think or swim







        15


        how different the grammars of
        to think or swim


        reminiscence and extinction



Copyright © 1998 Rosmarie & Keith Waldrop. From Well Well Reality. Reprinted with permission of The Post-Apollo Press.
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