The Lovers’ Kiss | AJ Goldman
Method of Loci
Youth must be praised,
But so must childhood
And age. Not in words,
No matter how
Small, but in the grass above the river.
And there are deer, deer that grazed,
And the representations of deer.
And sky suddenly there
For us. A cow
In memory.
A bell.
The good.
And we, too, near.
Each achieves.
But life
Is achievement if well
Lived. What we see together, we see.
It is seen.
Lavender in circular fields,
The starfish farther west than west,
The green more green than green.
Light and that which shines in light,
Which shields.
And the seers. And strife.
Water is best,
And also leaves,
But all are gifts
And as such, each demanding,
Enjoin care,
Is grace
That makes us shepherds.
And if not, curse.
Still the poor bare
Shadow of standing
Is at times mistaken – the obverse
Of the everyday. But what we lack
We face.
Robert Farrell lives and works in the Bronx, New York. His poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in Underwater New York, Unlost, The Brooklyn Review, NOON: journal of the short poem and REAL: Regarding Arts and Letters. Originally from Houston, Texas, he’s a librarian at Lehman College, CUNY.
