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leaves me breathless... want that final yet. peace *

Very beautiful, David, seems like a eulogy for writers. Also loks nice on the page against all that white, like in the midst of nothingness!

Thanks so much, Linda. A little catch, maybe, but 'breathless' much more than expected.

Well, you know Shelagh, when I look outside all is see is the calligraphy of branches against white everywhere. Thanks for the kind compliment--a eulogy I don't know, but there seems so much urgency afoot...

Urgency, yes. Time.

Brief, but ever so effective, this.

I very much like the way this falls, for lack of a better word. Much to contemplate. I like it.

Thanks, James. Seems a time to say more with less, if that's possible.

Kari, yes. Like Alice through the Rabbit hole, we're falling,falling. But thanks for pausing to read, comment, liking it and saying so.

You, too? That's the story of my life.

'Seems a time to say more with less, if that's possible.'

And you say it very well with this one, proving it's possible.

Maybe this was my biography after all, J. Glad I've got company. We should think of another name than minimalist, which seems so...well..diminishing. Micro-cosmist?

A small and perfect moment. Made large - the shrinking line - by what isn't said. A great piece, David.

Your note and poem made reach for Growing Darkness, Growing Light - Jean Valentine’s collection that is, among other things, a gathering of elegies, to reread her wonderful poem about Mandelstam - "Tell Me, What is the Soul".

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Thanks too paltry to respond with ,Sam. To have you call this 'great' , is well, stunning.

I must read that poem by Jean Valentine.

Yes. Great rushing movement to this poem.
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Thanks so much, Susan, for the comment and fav.

Minimalism at its maximum. Nice!

Maybe put Mandelstam's name in the title?

Ever read Robert Hass's essay on Brodsky in Twentieth Century Pleasures? Worth seeking out for a new "appreciation" of Brodsky.

re: Jean Valentine.
She was my poetry teacher at Swarthmore in 1970.

Thanks, Billfor the generous comment and suggestions.

Re the title: not sure if this is directly enough connected to put him in the title, Anyway he's everywhere and all over in "In the Jaws of Kronos" , the play published here.

Haven't read Haas's essay but will seek it out.

As above, also with Jean Valentine, who I clearly need to read.

Very nice.

The repetition leaves an ache
an ache that continues on
long after the poem ends
unending

Ah, great comment, Robert, as if the two were conversing.

I want to move into this poem!

Hey, Beate, thanks so much. Lots of free space here, make yourself at home.

Glad you like the digs.

This works for me. Visually, with the dropping/winnowing of words, sonically, with the sound and repetition of the words, and spiritually, with the wisdom and loss expressed by the words.