{"id":3770,"date":"2013-04-09T01:52:03","date_gmt":"2013-04-09T01:52:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sporkpress.com\/?p=3770"},"modified":"2013-04-09T01:52:03","modified_gmt":"2013-04-09T01:52:03","slug":"many-poems-by-joe-hall-pt-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/2013\/04\/09\/many-poems-by-joe-hall-pt-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Many poems by Joe Hall pt. 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>POISON<\/strong><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nDipping an oar in the poison, pulling through<br \/>\nThe incandescent sheen, the swans baiting the poison<br \/>\nWith their hook-like heads, the soft, the wear<br \/>\nA richness darkens, what poison brings<br \/>\nInto itself, walking purple clots<br \/>\nSailboats driving through<br \/>\nAn ocean\u2019s blood, the rose, the double displaces<br \/>\nGentlest rasp, the callused thumb across<br \/>\nThe linen, the milk, the poison<br \/>\nWanting democracy, wanting to kill everyone in the world<br \/>\nWanting cancer dissolved from her body<br \/>\nIllogical edible flowers<br \/>\nThat you eat, in profusion<br \/>\nStem and all like sherbet veined<br \/>\nWith what lights a gem<br \/>\nThese are my white secrets, my dolphin<br \/>\nThat the body dies, the clot radiates<br \/>\nThe darkened light you fill dissolves<br \/>\nThe peace that floats like oil in the spreading<br \/>\nPoison, petalled fist, glass fist, mercy surpassing, mountaining<br \/>\nFlowering, hyacinth, pearl in the cup, the staining<br \/>\nGate that holds the poison<br \/>\nLeaves, septagonal node<br \/>\nThe poisoned gate, the whirlwind<br \/>\nOf stamen, of pollen, of bees<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n______________________<br \/>\n<strong>CONSIDER TWO FIRES<\/strong><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nOne fire moves over the tiles<br \/>\nlike a man sleepwalking, it doesn\u2019t spread, it<br \/>\nsweeps and the other fire just born<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\ngathers its little, its bird, the name<br \/>\nyou call me\u2014This is you, lay it down<br \/>\nbeside this outline bending<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\npast itself, you turn toward the flicker<br \/>\nyour hands, your collar, that reaches toward<br \/>\nshivers as the hand<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nif felt, a second shadow of a second sun<br \/>\nascends past fields, your window, to lay its finger<br \/>\non your hand and echo, the bed<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nas if under the weight of an invisible clapper<br \/>\na non that hums without a sound you<br \/>\nshake and shake and shake the sheets<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\na transparency flattening you into<br \/>\na transparency so the transparency of a man may be lain<br \/>\nabove and beside you projected by<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nlight I know, I know<br \/>\njust a fire sweeping tiles, just paused<br \/>\nin the corroded gate\u2014<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\ncan the fire say? \u2018Sacred\u2019\u2014Words bubbling<br \/>\nthis trace to joint\u2014gate<br \/>\ndisintegrating weather can\u2019t burn<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nor burns slowly there, the vapor twining<br \/>\nfuel makes the house the valley unsay<br \/>\neither us or nothing<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nthinking, guarding, falling away<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n______________________<br \/>\n<strong>Joe Hall<\/strong> was born in the woods and is devoted to Cheryl. He is the author of The Devotional Poems (Black Ocean 2013). With Chad Hardy he wrote The Container Store Vols. I &#038; II (SpringGun 2012). His poems, fiction, book reviews, and essays have appeared in Gulf Coast, Octopus, HTMLGiant, The Colorado Review, and elsewhere.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>POISON &nbsp; &nbsp; Dipping an oar in the poison, pulling through The incandescent sheen, the swans baiting the poison With their hook-like heads, the soft, the wear A richness darkens, what poison brings Into itself, walking purple clots Sailboats driving through An ocean\u2019s blood, the rose, the double displaces Gentlest rasp, the callused thumb across [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[13,14,49,85,89],"class_list":["post-3770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-things","tag-black-ocean","tag-black-ocean-press","tag-joe-hall","tag-poems","tag-poison"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3770\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}