Three Poems by Alvin Feinman

“Poet”

          Are you he
Who’d silence his high vanity

If to despise
The telling of his only eyes

Ere make
Mankind his proud mistake?

I am he
Whose lies
Sing the truths they disguise.

*

“Lighting another cigarette”

Lighting another cigarette,
Passing the window, I see the axe,
Blade buried in a log in the woodpile,
The handle up to lay hold—
How long
Have I been counting whispers
Of trees of grasses of the wintry sea?

*

“Again, in again most now”

Again, in again most now
And even only now
As once, as only: weather
Brooding, lifting blazier things.
Spring. Therefore in now again

Upfall of every unconcluded, open
Known: tamed cat
A-crouch now, savage. Good, good
Necessary, O you are, you gentled
Evil: evil as this

That keeps these windows to
These slept-to things
Intact, yes good
In this again need tear
Again need put sleep down
Now, yes, again love need.

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