Content
Not wrenched, but rendered—
extract beyond word or image:
matter melted into mind into matter melting,
tongue telling eye
seeing melt of mind beyond matter,
eye mattering as mouth does,
here much more than ear
ever than an h is,
ere eye sees y.
Why an ear sees here
more than eyes hear there
is what a paradox is.
A mouth mattering
as word or image.
An eye’s as much an ear:
look, hear beyond mutter of fact.
—Paul Dutton
__
“Content” (hear which syllable you stress) first appeared in the Milwaukee
poetry journal gam in 2004.
Why I Don't Write Love Poems
In love, too busy.
And out, too caught
by poetry's essence:
yearning.
—Paul Dutton
____
previously collected in Aurealities (Toronto: Coach House Press, 1991)
Missed Haiku
In the only room that matters
a slight sound
obscures the one thought that counts.
—Paul Dutton
____
previously collected in Aurealities (Toronto: Coach House Press, 1991)
Shakespeare’s Sonnets
shake shake shake shake shake
shake the darling buds of May
shake hands to torture me
shake against the cold
that looks on tempests and is never shaken
if you were by my unkindness shaken
shake shake shake shake shake
ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
-pear -pear -pear -pear -pear -pear -pear peer
doth homage to his new-appearing
as interest of the dead which now appear
and says in him thy fair appearance
The other as your bounty doth appear
On your broad main doth wilfully appear
I love not less, though less the show appear
Look in your glass, and there appears
No, nor neither he nor his compeers
-pear -pear -pear -pear -pear -pear -pear peer
Shakespeare Shakespeare Shakespeare Shakespeare
Shakespeare Shakespeare Shakespeare Shakespeare
ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
son son son son son son son
you know / You had a father: let your son
And when a woman woos, what woman’s son
Speak of the spring and foison
Yet then my judgement knew no reason
But thence I learn and find the lesson
true / Drugs poison
but despised straight, / Past reason
son son son son son son son
nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
net net net
Yet him for this my love no whit disdaineth
Suns of the world may stain when heaven’s sun staineth
Or captain jewels in the carcanet
net net net
ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
sonnets sonnets sonnets sonnets sonnets sonnets sonnets sonnets
—Paul Dutton
____
“Shakepeare’s Sonnets” was published in an incorrect
version that incorporated editor’s errors in a student publication,
The Mitre (Bishop’s University, 2004)