4 Poems
by glenN robsoN

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hall of mirrors

…funneled to the present   mirror-petal lotus
reflecting inwards   fetal   innocence in no sense

opening to word refracted light
an assumed shelter shatters   peace in the pieces  

how you are a poem   consecutive horizons 
suns rising from / setting on lines  
blooming & enfolding   moon in the back of your mind

in the hall of mirrors   you’re your own vanishing point

every surface capable of reflecting  
every surface wearing its line as a mask  
every surface an omen of its own
breaking

mistaking surface for depth  
confounded by your ubiquitousness  
this labyrinth wouldn’t exist without you
its solution is simple

you are a mirrored door

think basho’s frog   diving into a wishing well
           ((((((((((   ))))))))))
your image rippled   warped  
concentric wishes colliding   borne to the margins  
what narcissus couldn’t grasp

a mirror’s surface cannot be mined
the mirror always possesses you first

moon reflected off / reflecting on pools of stillness  
gravity of the moon’s desire   the pool’s surface trembling

how children ascribe faces to inanimate surfaces  
pantheistic impulse  
sun & moon eternally battling over pan’s mask   two eyes of the same face  
perhaps pan gu   pandemonium of dancing earth & sky apart  
or pandora   prying sealed lips

horizon   not the line separating night from day
lines insist only upon themselves
you are a line

a mirror always rhymes with its viewer  
impersonates   personifies   a poem
yet its rhyme   like alice   never the same twice

koans carved in glass   or out of glass   or with  
your image riddled   made fragile

auto-biography

your name
your name in stained glass.
your name in a hall of mirrors.
your name in a particle accelerator.
your name in zero-g.
your name stalked by a ravenous pack of parentheses.
your name bisected by an ellipsis.
your name embossed, caving in.
your name as photographed from space.
your name exploding in a soldier’s fist.
your name dog-eared by a pedestrian reader.
your name imploding in a distant galaxy.
your name at 6.5% interest financing.
your name curled around a pole, pelted by an anonymous dollar.
your name with flame decals & a spoiler.
your name aerodynamically streamlined.
your name causes hapless peasants to flee in terror.
your name in the crosshairs during its inauguration.
your name in intensive care.
your name at the bottom of the bargain bin.
your name buried in the strata, excavated centuries from now.
your name as the poet’s pseudonym.
your name sold for a quarter million.
your name transposed up an octave.
your name aged to perfection.
your name would complete the set.
your name as the title of baudrillard’s unwritten masterpiece.
your name nestled in a mist-covered valley.
your name told it has one week to live.
your name smouldering among the embers.
your name instilling feelings that only art can name.
your name abhors a vacuum.

3 attempts at existence

exist:
countless exits
where the plural is
internal

existing:
the sting
of ex i’s   left living in us
re-be(e)ing
incarnations of selves
cross-pollinating
spliced with time’s
                              ticking
sticking memories
clock hands   honeyed & barbed
counting down/counting on
detaining meaning:
denotation before
detonation
the be(e)   suicide bomber
for the self’s hive

existence:
an exit of
tense & sense
atranscended c (stacked into s)
emits a soft ssssssssssssss
static    anything but
static:
i am what i will be when i was

epilogue:
exist existing existence
    the  i
tossed by the sea
(in which a rift has opened)
                 a raft
              adrift
marooned
within

momentary immortal

to decipher a marble angel. feral deferral
as if assembly line. how kaleidoscopes
perceive still-lifes: epic haiku. hyper
koan. the illuminated manuscripts of
cicadas. hydra-licked rothkos. an avant
garden cultivated to yield ikebana. a
razorblade to the aurora borealis’ throat.
pantheistic oscillation isolated in the
fossil record of a nanosecond. the meta-
(de)forestation of signifiers. obstraction
abstructed extraction. the list leaves you
listless? the. solipsism. of. each. word.
all moments eroded by breath alone.
memento mori you momentary immortal.








Sound poems & visual poems by glenN robsoN.