Uccello

Originally published in 1987 in a short-lived publication called The Balcones Review, this is the opening of a longer work. Today, as I look out my window at that same tree, I hear the birds, no longer silent.

Uccello

the wind is what
the stillness
desires to say
each instant
collapsing into itself
like a bud
returning
to the seed

listen
the birds in my tree
are silent
as echoes
before their brief
lives are
silent

something thrashes
in the leaves
the feather
spiraling
slowly
is not only what
it is

as the candle
is more
than flame
or a moment

curling
to darkness

the question
is of clarity

I built a frame
but placed
nothing in it

the wind
blows through
quietly as if
between silences
there exists
only silence or

light
the familiar embrace

unfolding

17 thoughts on “Uccello”

Well written!

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robert okaji on December 18, 2017 at 8:17 am said:

Thank you.

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I love the lines about the frame. Kind of heartbreaking.

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robert okaji on December 18, 2017 at 8:18 am said:

Thanks, Leslie.

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I like this one very much, Robert. I’m curious, when you look back at older work, do you have the urge to “fix” them at all? I have what I call my eighty percent poems from years ago. Now they seem not quite right or complete. Can I bring them up to ninety or even a hundred percent? I consider working on them more or just focus on new work. Do you have eighty percent poems?

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robert okaji on December 18, 2017 at 8:19 am said:

I’ve tinkered with a few of them, but mostly I prefer to work on the newer pieces.

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- daninmaya on December 18, 2017 at 9:40 am said:
  
  Thanks for responding. I think that’s my inclination as well. Only so much time…..
  
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  - robert okaji on December 18, 2017 at 9:53 am said:
    
    That, and I find it difficult, or perhaps not worth the effort, to get my head back in that particular space. I’m different and my language, and use of it, has changed.
    
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