Maryrose Larkin
This
New Poems From the USA

And since I have not finished this
part of my design, I shall
conclude with proposing some
queries – Isaac Newton The
Third Book of Opticks

 

I


burn this:

          “the loss and disappearing in copper the green of sublimated”
                                        burn this description of what is bent along the page


branches’ passed            iris        and flamed         to a species object

          removed from calm
                              wood carbon clock sulfur in waste and in smoke


II

these bodies acting upon light


        bent several times several          into it the whole of colors pressed

        and do brightens upon nothing between
this all fixing and radiant you

                              where          burning cannot ebb

III


here is the place where half the meaning entered:


                            exhaltation flame
motion                           excited                            into                           matter


                                                            these fringes  infecting    reason
                                     these events and this expire

IV


the discord
which rises within silence


         disorder     from    gold   to       indigo             interrupted


not species   object you    pressing       into     both  eyes yellow falling apart


                    burn and messages will visit
                    like     this     sun    falling