Paul Kane
A Crossing
What is it about
form that lets the life within
find its expression
without
even uttering
a
word or marking a page?
Winter’s frozen stream
affords us a step across
to the other side,
while
in spring, a flowing stream
corrugates
in the shallows.
Questions of crossing
cross the mind like shadows or
scorings on a wall.
Every
face is emphatic
with
the form that life has led.
This is what woke me
in the pale light this morning,
a mere strand of words
chasing
after a form to
give
them life, and life a form.
Paul Kane has published five collections of poems, including Work Life (Turtle Point Press, 2007), and a poetry and music CD with sound artist Katie O’Looney, Seven Catastrophes in Four Movements (Farpoint Recordings, 2013). His awards include fellowships from the NEH, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Bogliasco Foundation. He is poetry editor of Antipodes and general editor of the Braziller Series of Australian Poets. He teaches at Vassar College.