Joshua Kryah - GLEAN

Joshua Kryah - Glean

I got Glean at the same time as Matthew Cooperman's DaZE, and perhaps for that reason, I have them linked in my mind. But it seems to me they bring the same sort of unwavering attention to their subjects, the same seriousness of purpose, through near opposite answers to the question of how a line can sound.

Glean is just out, winner of the 2005 NIGHTBOAT POETRY PRIZE, chosen by Donald Revell.



PERFORATE


Swallows fly through a fresco.

What hems in around them is the air.

And the days seem happier
because they pass, pieced together
to resemble a habitable pattern.

Part real, part conjecture, we are about to become this
ability to touch.

There is no other resolve but to fill in.

Down from the sky / Came Eros taking off his clothes / His shirt
of Phoenician red

The closest possible rendering.

To have drawn such luck from the beggar’s bowl.