“Method of Loci”

by Robert Farrell

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.