[for John Coltrane]

Passage

Words

after all

are syllables just

and you put them

in their place

notes

sounds

a painter using his stroke

so the spot

where the article

an umbrella

a knife

we could find

in its most intricate

hiding

slashed as it was with color

called "being"

or even "it"

Expressions

For the moment just

when the syllables

out of their webs float

We were just

beginning to hear

like a crane hoisted into

the fine thin air

that had a little ache (or soft crackle)

golden staffed edge of

quick Mercury

the scale runner

Envoi

C'est juste

your umbrella colorings

dense as telephone

voice

humming down the line

polyphonic

Red plumaged birds

not so natural

complicated wings

French!

Sweet difficult passages

On your throats

there just there

caterpillar edging

to moth

Midnight

in the chrome attic

--Barbara Guest

from Moscow Mansions, New York: Viking Press, 1973