Saturday, August 27, 2011

Industry, Angles and Angels



Industrial Park, February

Who divided the day into shifts?
Monks did it, somewhere in Europe
before there was steel. Buttresses flew

the body wanted to
but the alloy of soul
is hard:

something in Aristotle told them
natural place seeks natural motion
so turbines spin

cooling the womanish
coils into planes
the angles of men

making metal and words
like american to go everywhere
the body stays

this place the heart rings
its factory bell
finding the act beautiful enough

-------------------------------------------



Angel / Angle




To the tangled planes of hereafter

constant virtue carries you,

the fixed point where angels

like angles are made


if the body is miraculous

keeping its geometry,

aching space generated by your

constant velocity


the body, as we know, is all angles:

to the body belongs

joy of measure

of which a measure of joy


perfumes the dirt with which angels

would seraphically fill

their hands if they had not lost

the elaborate world.

2 comments:

  1. Two wonderful poems Ashley. It is SpeedPoets today, so was thinking of you back at home this morning. Am so glad you have started this blog as it is lovely to be able to check in. Hope life is good, G

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  2. Thanks for the kind words, Graham. Yes, it's been a month already since my wonderful visit--isn't today's Speedpoets the Open Mic Championships? That sounds so fun.

    I too am glad to have begun this blog. It's a bit hard for me, but good for me as well.

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