From a Catalogue for a Colorist

I take an oak leaf by the window of a dreamer

             I take disturbed cirrus

I take an empty crossroads and a false stair

I take what draws forward

I take a box lit from within

             I take a wheel out of round out of out out of round

I take what is concentric but not mendable

I take a lost ant, bearer of fictions

I take the frost because it is free

             I take the paisley verge of meadows

I take roll out and plug in

I take a crash of hexagonal magnitude

I take a clothespin on my fingertip

             I take oxhide

I take pitch

I take dried blood

I take sparrow breast

             I take a squash blossom and save it for a torch

I take a boy spinning bar stools

I take wisteria in velvet and a quiver of Chinese iris

I take an obscured coastline

             I take a coffin of ice

I take adamantine

I take one countersunk nail

I take suggestions for my place of rest

I take inside a cup

             I take afterwards

I take a glass ball swirling atmospherics

I take its frozen lapidary feathers

I take memory of thirst

             I take tongues and belief

I take a spear tip for impaling worlds

I take paper peeled from paper

I take a floating canopy

             I take what it isn’t

I take the day we had to knock down the wasps

I take it burnt to half-articulate

I take disappearing frames

             I take slants and stampings

I take an invading veil of shadow

I take what happened there next

I take the canvas above our heads

I take a stone bench where sit children inspecting a map

             I take thunder near and distant

I take a toy windup ambulance

I take the top left corner of the room and replace it with something similar

I take high tide

             I take reef knots and a random paramecium

I take the shoes of the innocent

I take the innocent

~

Let water be pour down

Let bone be whole

Let string be slipknot

Let fire be carry

Let breath be sing out

Let mist be cleft

Let seed be every

Let blood be thunder

~

With women sitting cross-legged in rowboats

             With knapweed and a grief-struck squirrel

With columns of rain to southeast

I take a clove hitch fastened to a fence rail

With late-season fireworks and my folding chair

             With a heavy downpour at first light

With wrong-sized wire nuts and a lot of ocelots

I take the mariposa lily tattooed on your wrist

I take names at the honor killing

             I take a photo of all of us there

With what could have been and might have occurred

I take that firmly in mind

With starfish from a snorkler

             I take a formula for blessedness

With white herons and a snowy egret

I take a vow of silence and break it now

I take a reflux of doublethink and leave the drumming to others

             I take compound umbels from wild carrot with permission

With nine kinds of wet grass

I take this briny ooze

With dusk on Thursday

             With a file from the drawer

With calipers from the indigent caliperless

I take crossed fishlines, and then I take the bait

With a panful of cutlets standing in marinade

             With the last slot in the parking garage

With the one who comes who is unknown

I take in stride your triple quadrupole mass spectrometer

With training in musical whistling

             I take a ticket to the May-hunt

With an auspicious December moth

I take a crescent moon caught in brambles and belabor it

With voicemail from radiolarians

             I take asparagus worldwide today

With a yogi from the empyrean

I take your bit part in the harlequinade

I take a diplodocus by alpenglow and a table of cubic measure

             I take cost-push and demand-pull to rash extremes

With a fat cat and a grass widow and an ingénue

I take a base on balls

With the law of independent assortment and the universe of discourse

             With a heterodox hatband and an x-intercept to Tasmania

With martyrologists and rally-masters

I take your meaning and wipe the phosphenes from my eyelids

With your wherewithal in addition to your whereabouts

             With the remainder as nontrivial

With earthshine and grapevines

I take maladroit from the quahog and call it okay

I take an uncool crosscut with brio

             I take a turn for the worse after the comet departs

With a quick nip, I mean nap

I take a jumping bean down my knickers

With a degree day and a thirty-second avalanche

             I take ostentation to the poop deck

With equestrians and aerialists and lacunae and schemata

I take a number and a letter to the sandlot

With contumely and pneumatics and autographs from herbalists

             I take a raincoat off a contralto with contrition

With an immersible verbal at octillion deeps

I take a lynx at his word

~

Let water

Let bone

Let string

Let fire

Be pour down

Be whole

Be slipknot

Be carry

~

I record the invention of the howitzer and the capri pant, though not in this century

             O I wait there for wilderness to call

I prefer what’s left once you punch cookies out

I swear to house rules

I make a play for the starry crown and a song they put it in

             I discharge a thousand faxes from yesterday

I relinquish my turtle specimens at last

I calculate as equivalent to five clumps of violets

I graduate to pointing, not speaking

             I set protocol for used jars

I select hypnotic immersion and give a wrench to my pillow

I think about darning bald spots in the lawn

I change hands

             I save myself for biofuel

I struggle with servant mind and assertion of the nonself

I seep toward evening with an inky look

I join the great transposon mutiny

             I refer a photograph of a pie to the pie itself

I pull Anthony dollars from my ears

I cause an inadvertent ruckus

I massage the magus and deliver his correlations

             I multiply by a quotient of his first incisor

I cultivate pencil points

I print clearly my name on a cellophane pane of the wing of a dragonfly

I assign ten to left and ten to right

             I lay my hands on you later

I circle the wrong bottle cap

I await a wilder lettuce

I jerk all four seasons, to postliterate applause

             I chafe at Do Not Enter

I lose track of cecropia moths for nearly a minute

I set this map at full scale

I mean everything and understand nothing

             I eat my spare silk

I testify to the revolt of my sleeves

I sprinkle extra space

I go steady with a prehistorian

             I unearth a humerous bone from humus

I determine mine to be the only body in that well

I stack newspapers six ways from Sunday

I pack the undercroft and preach to the overhead

             I persuade it to join my board of directors

I return from the dead, this time with a sandwich

I crack dumb jokes about dust

I bear a minnow’s standard among the colonnades

             I observe ember day in my own special way

I propose duplicate bridge as a model for political economy

I surrender a moist towelette

I boil salt soup for the prophets

             I medal in a dark sport

I quarterfold distance and outrun lava

I wend landward with my variocoupler

I accuse the clerk of choplogic

             I sort my collection of inflorescence

I bend a shape to hold down the hillside

I count that one against you

I fiddle up the vermiform

             I introduce the xenolith to the regolith

I annotate zinnia

I peddle koans to a dolmen

I bind your tongue to the last breath of a stranger

             I rip out the recipe for serendipity trout

I raise discalced to a new level

I yawn in the face of a pastedown

~

Let water be thunder

Let bone be cleft

Let string be carry

Let fire be every

Let breath be slipknot

Let mist be whole

Let seed be sing out

Let blood be pour down

~

If you ever If you never If you advisedly If you humanly

If you arrestingly If you afterwards If you doubly If you not at all

If you creepily If you crawlingly If you mightily If you spitefully

If you pointedly If you winterly If you flagrantly If you underneath

If you patiently If you obliquely If you ploddingly If you plinkingly

If you beeperly If you beingly If you invectively If you actually

If you possibly If you finally If you dearly If you darkly

If you barely If you blindly If you belatedly If you beratingly

If you ribbonly If you robinly If you rashly If you radishly

If you evenly If you oceanly If you leafingly If you laughingly

If you singly If you multiply If you in situ If you wherever

If you on one hand If you on the other If you now If you later

If you soberly If you stupidly If you coldly If you very

If you bristly If you beggarly If you meadowly If you maybe

If you rhetorically If you cholerically If you vastly If you placidly

If you above If you below If you hardly If you not yet

~

Let breath

Let mist

Let seed

Let blood

Be sing out

Be cleft

Be every

Be thunder

~

Doubt calls up a swan, then a swan boat

Certainty tolls the hour

Insomniac earwigs swarm gladiolas

Druids invade

             Water oak scared of own shadow

Screech owl recites credo: halleluyah

Priestess reveals final prime number

Universe would rather not

Accident reconstructionist claims to analyze culture clash

Meadow remains unchurched

             Night arrives before ferry

Neighbor gets clarinet

Girls trail swallowtails across avenue

Traffic vanishes through magic porthole

Artist likes paintings best sideways

Tunisian hall and stair disprove laws of perspective

             Boy holding can punks boy holding candle

Ice water sometimes good for veins

More fits into envelope than previously thought

Blowfish wishes to be left alone

Water table voids covenant with dowser

Palmers appear in great numbers along arborway

             Man kidnaps ex-girlfriend’s crocodile

Plastic container snaps shut

Grocer accepts geometry proofs in exchange

Incendiary bombs not just for weekend use

Diaphanous tires of the rigamarole

Fruit bat quits mammals

             Tinfoil brain crinkles

Clerk swears eyeballs in pocket are his

Bitter stream washes gravestones of fathers

Children expected to feel excision

Majorettes referee refugees

Promise stands a lower molar’s chance

             Grassblades first to notice

Cross in question is Maltese

Dry nurse dry-mops dry ice

No close relative found for butter or commonsense

Bank opens lichen repository

Jellyfish not a sign of end times

             Mail carrier admits to extra trips around rotary

Basilisk tears cure that, insists homeopathist

President guarantees mattress discounts

Orb weaver named to cabinet

Actual things not the same as ideas about things

Woman signals from rear pew

             Stratosphere sues ionosphere

Tide waits for once

Whelk applies for witness protection

Purple rebrands as violet

             Reindeer strike for more moss, fewer mosquitoes

Lack of scrap bewilders quilters in three counties

Open sentence snags on sweaters

That snapshot not the best one of you lately

             Hod carrier admits to novice status

Hirelings frost icehouse for fun

Local man called

Angel pens tell-all

~

Let water be carry

Let bone be sing out

Let string be thunder

Let fire be pour down

Let breath be every

Let mist be whole

Let seed be slipknot

Let blood be cleft

~

She studies cave crickets

             They say, all praise the myth of the fig marigold

She studies woodshavings

             They say, compare me to a summer’s day

She studies broken lampstands and trail cairns above treeline

             They say, remember fidelity

She studies paperclips

They say, I do

She studies the powers coming in and going out

             They say, there’s a spider on your collar

She studies a fallen aspen and a disemboweled field mouse

             They say, give a dollar to that homeless man on the median strip

She studies beatniks and gangsters

             They say, drape us in moss pink

She studies instant replays

They say, the Buddha was right

She studies mute swans

             They say, we would kill you if we could

She studies quetzals

             They say, new motifs for motorbikes

She studies economic theory and the aquatic schooling instinct

             They say, call the kingfisher down from his perch

She studies her errors

They say distinctly, quince

She studies leopards and leopard frogs

             They say, not in this life

She studies irregular polygons

             They say, narcoleptic spectacles draped in moonlight

She studies gates and dolmens

             They say, pin your geopolitics to the Mercator projection

She studies bituminous coal and diatomaceous earth

They say, tell him yourself

She studies how the dragline attaches

             They say, sahib, here comes the haboob

She studies woodchucks eating windfall apples

             They say, we seek not the face of God

She studies yttrium and ytterbium

             They say, we can hear the dust land

She studies water striders

They say, seraphs in sequins

She studies her dew-soaked shoes

             They say, rosepath at a distance

She studies the mind and the brain

             They say, incinerate whatever you can

She studies the gills of a panther cap mushroom

             They say, lamellae

She studies the multitudinum and the vitreous humor

They say, thank you, bivalves, for all that siphoning

She studies fifth wheels and third parties

             They say, v-notch in the tail of a swallow

She studies the 39 parts of a cow

             They say, frosted, fluted, dimpled, drizzled, speckled, sparkled, crumpled, crackled

She studies everyone’s intentions

             They say, unyielding ache at periphery

She studies dipthongs

They say, cumulonimbus

She studies incidental tales of neverending rearending

             They say, pace off your sample space

She studies incarnations

             They say, just as you suspected

She studies totemic animals stamped on coins

             They say, address your sombrero

She studies bats over traintracks

They say, implements left by the dead

~

Let water

Let bone

Let string

Let fire

Be thunder

Be cleft

Be carry

Be every

~

He carries bergamot in his packsaddle

             He carries a book over his heart

He seeks a path through ocotillo

He knows: the field is the world

He watches matter congeal around a singularity

             He watches traffic stack up in a sideview mirror

He seeks himself during intermission

He knows: alabaster for impediments

He destroys his last conversation by fire in a pine hollow

             He destroys fence posts when he sleepwalks

He seeks the submerged village of his soul

He knows: it could be a jest

He invents a dormitory for his weekend thoughts

             He invents an algebraist around the corner

He seeks a camshaft to soothe his tempers

He knows: a lark evermore

He carries larks in his packsaddle

             He carries a camshaft in his heart

He seeks a solution for x that will stick

He knows: these lodging are temporary

He watches his soul congeal around a simplicity

             He watches for dragging hooks

He seeks boundaries for infinitude

He knows: dry pine for kindling

He destroys his last intermission by fire

             He destroys impediments when he sleepwalks

He seeks history mapped to a grid

He knows: messages tend to an outskirts

He invents worlds over the weekend

             He invents ocotillo to feel better

He seeks words for that banging in his temple

He knows: bergamot may be among them

He carries larks and bergamot in his packsaddle

             He carries a camshaft banging in his heart

He seeks ocotillo as a solution

He knows: material awaits a maker

He watches from the outskirts of simplicity

             He watches history dredge the lake

He seeks a gate to walk through, as foretold

He knows: fire stops nothing

He destroys his last pine barren during intermission

             He destroys fox tracks with fresh snowfall

He seeks evidence on the fishhook

He knows: his soul is on exhale

He carries larks singing in his chest

             He carries a tide turning pages

He seeks a variable for sand in the algebraist’s syntax

He knows: from there he could see the next landscape

He watches the shape his soul condenses in cold air

             He watches fish rise to their mirror

He seeks fox tracks in mud at stone walls

He knows: he won’t cross over

He destroys stoplights erected on the mountain

             He destroys his alabaster idols

He seeks a lake that will tell him something

He knows: to expect manifold centers

He invents the first seed, after reading the footnotes

             He invents an equation for smoke

He seeks a language for circular motion

He knows: he carries bergamot in his packsaddle.

~

Let water be sing out

Let bone be slipknot

Let string be every

Let fire be cleft

Let breath be thunder

Let mist be pour down

Let seed be whole

Let blood be carry

~

Is your hand on my arm just now

Is opening a soul window at the moment of death

Is older and wiser than a sand dollar

Is the chief end of love

Is what you know when you know it

Is hoping the furnace will kick in

Is wrapping a sandwich for the road

Is the canoe of fate on a postcard

Is prying boards off the barn

Is heavier than if you carried it yourself

Is not getting better anytime soon

Is merely a suggestion

Is why you remind me of porcupines

Is everything you wanted to say but was not allowed to

Is an obstacle course for the foolhardy

Is a forest of peonies

Is looking away from that wreckage

Is only found in Samoa

Is singing with children after a potluck

Is help you never dreamed you would need

Is a swingset in snow

Is gibbous if you say so

Is always in your eyes, though you deny it

Is leaning on a locked gate

Is a mildly fortuitous fender bender

Is going to find the ferryman

Is scratched on your heart as you enter this world

Is a question you could ask

Is a stripe you have painted between us

Is wavier than anyone remembers

Is unobtrusive in this photo

Is planning to rise up through the asphalt

Is dancing a fandango in a dark courtyard

Is slipping a cipher into your pocket

Is a blue heron stalking shallows

Is a message you missed with the tide

Is abiding, as ever

Is the aroma of burnt cornsilk

Is a man tapping a microphone

Is a sentinel propped on an outcropping

Is proof you said you were seeking

Is battered by sunshine before you arrive

Is somersaulting among the alfalfa

Is often served with raspberry

Is punctuated for survival

Is shackled to wonder and sentenced to wander

Is mingling expertly in the canteen

Is proposing to silence on a banished keyboard

Is raining acorns all morning

Is measuring you the old-fashioned way

Is worse than salad at midnight

Is a ring toss in the deep end

Is wood coals fizzing in a metal bucket

Is sorcery under a pen name

Is feeling a raven fly through

Is as mercy among the nannoplankton

Is disguised as a beast epic to avoid detection

Is only wax resist for beginners

Is welding while distracted

Is cotangent at present

Is setting a bed for you on the roof tonight

Is flashing your name from shipboard

Is written in squid ink

Is light leaking from somewhere

~

Let breath

Let mist

Let seed

Let blood

Be slipknot

Be whole

Be sing out

Be pour down

~

So I put down my pistol and pick up my pickaxe

             I sluice three gutters of west wind

I arabesque at laundromats

I drop a popcorn trail across your digression

I trap a paper wasp in a paper cup

             I throw a party in my carport

I pledge my innards and translate fire to the high steppes

I meet in mufti with monarchs

I astral project into schooling bluefish without an agenda

             I chop roses from concertina wire

I reach for my Allen wrench

I heft coral and grope for its knucklebone

I seduce a drawstring and wring elegies from floor mops

             I monitor hearts of palm

I sign to my oven for more sweet potatoes

I register early for a boat-shaped grave

I haunt dry corners

             I sleep under lacebark pine

I patrol rooflines for oriole assassins

I stack precambrian discs where rockhounds will find them

I defuse a steak bomb

             I take it apart and reassemble it later in an unlikely location

I switch on my mirror neurons

I rip up your payday loan on the eighth day

I unpack my avian epaulets

             I secret Clovis points into my shirt

I wise up on orthotics

I make the mahout move over

I mourn with all herbivores their lost forests

             I hold harmless only the honeybees

I apply a positive valance to a negative pole

I suffer a parallax

I inherit the Great Red Spot and copyright further reference

             I choose between boas and pythons

I salute a golden larch

I slide a tile toward you

I gaze past to the landscape beyond

             I believe I hear bluebells

I disciple a plumbline

I intend overcapacity

I tailgate fireflies

             I shout when the shouting is over

I proceed as if the unit block is indivisible

I suspect the snow monkeys of intercession

I chuckle over the intercom

             I turn to gyrfalcons for a response

I figure skate past conflagrations

I come unglued in the bath

I caucus with lentils and bow out of the foofaraw

             I privilege magenta

I umlaut sparingly

I desire to smack the deanery

I hesitate before the iron-hearted

             I converse with this regarding that

I confuse moonlight with marmalade

I thresh and grow mighty

I sew saffron robes for a sadsack sailor

             I decline the incline

I greet a polynomial with joy

I set food and drink before it

I question the authority granted to scrimshaw

             I construct a new wing when things feel crowded

I recognize these ingredients from somewhere

I cancel the damned redaction