Thursday, March 5, 2009

READING BERRYMAN'S SONNETS BACKWARDS

Mocks, kills a vitiable gloaming, sparse
In conclusion, antipodal lovers
Breaking silences while, working, they parse
For clues, legendary or nondescript,
Regaling recall, envying others
Who rise in their slumbers, wise and wide-lipped.
Often I stop and sway at the syntax
Whose coin, lyric pleasure, blasts cold facts.

So bless us, John! as we coil your bon mots
In sedulous hiving, this reader salutes
Your word-play, brave un-grandeur, formations,
While sounds, like heliacal weathered knots,
Unravel, open in sea-swelled cahoots
With flawed gambols and imagination.

No comments: