JORDAN STEMPLEMAN

Photo by Jeff Sirkin

ACTING ALL AROUND

The chance to come around much, to touch what’s there—

my skin, forever talking about sheer belongings, imitations

of people who leave, say and do so much, and then, go on

gathering up their unfinished edge, the leading edge

of a crawling cell, the sparest recovery of sounds

alone and far on the move

| top |

*** ** ***

MARKS

I set myself

to watch

the closest love

to read into

what a friend writes

the song

preserves

uniting holiness

and ashes

and ear

| top |

*** ** ***

MIRADOR

the past

a short narrative, the next

floor, an afternoon

in jeopardy

composition, the red gaze

untitled, a burst of leaves freed

color, nostalgia

of the infinite

a dawn walk quoting

Theodor Adorno

vignettes alteration echoes

the brown vest, Hans Hofmann

the trickster, modernism

the gold tap

instructions she honors

De Chirico

the hungry knight, Roman

stripes a different honey

supposition the smooth stair

freedom, green numbers

imagined room

| top |

*** ** ***

LOOK OVER ME

–for Merle Haggard

the internal world as those felt

and faithful places

ready for the restless form

towards grace

acceptance assumes

the cause is free

turns to closeness and is overcome

in the broad outshine

of the small town

together as it is as together

they dance and promise

as together they sing me back home

| top |

*** ** ***

HOLY HAND ME A TOWEL

The bargain secret agent swears

the more difficult the less useful; the danger, but a reminder

of Eastern European waters, black as the animals

or the words they use for lake.

It’s about moving away. It’s about faking the ingenious

likeness of what somebody hopes could be this quiet.

I really hope the happiness fits. I hope that the stomping around

makes all the difference in the world.

| top |

*** ** ***

BUCKLED

To be tired. To be reminded

to eat. To have some for later

when later comes. To save

what was wanted. To know how.

To not yet set aside there for now.

There to have. There to hear

to care for. To hear to be again.

To be the use again.

| top |

*** ** ***

CHICAGO TEENAGER IN VIDEO AGAINST GUN VIOLENCE IS SHOT AND WOUNDED: 3/28/2016

shot

said struck

said struck stray

side started

said

said standing

sidewalk

so several students

from school

side said

spoke someday

scroll statistics

sadness

shot

says statistic

start statement

school

seventh

said speak

shooting

school smile

said

shootings from same

same

said

when seen so social

said start statistic

start sadness

| top |

*** ** ***

LETTER ROCK

–for Maurice Lemaitre

You do not want lamb be firm

Say walk lamb lamb be firm

That one good gun hand’s worn

Do do be

Blessed in stone and fin

No walk and no one firm

No fish feels bod when formed

Do do be

| top |

*** ** ***

HELD ON

One outlook

warms.

What makes

water

wrestle right

is the sound.

| top |

*** ** ***

TENTS

all that contains each time

a pipe owns crud

the tread widens

and fills

there is a perfect horror

in the awe

of our accumulation

what still lives on

in the fringe

is in how

and have we meant

| top |

*** ** ***

BEFORE AND AFTER

all day long / rather to search / an immediate impact / becomes relevant, respective /

of what time allows / whatever I once thought of / seems more / as it’s taken in /

to include a crossing, talking / before moving forward, an entry, / an interstice / as

alternatives / scenery in nature’s afire / the sound on some days / remember nothing /

when shoulders of months replace / events together / what’s unbound behind us /

prying the last hour / from grape to donut as closure / to curtain, arguments,

the rested / avocado, now stone / the passage of a week, visible / as something else

always / below a sun, textured by riots / by those that move below us / to give away

the oil / to live / in the background / to lord over the momentum / where light began / cold

and elderly / in spite of the infinite / in spite of the patterns / it roams

| top |