They are circling circling wanting a way to the sea
the urge to spawn comes the urge to spawn goes
...
If I could hold a fire against
a hemisphere of shadows, hold it
close, not so that damage
...
The iceberg moves will-less
through shades of gray and gray,
a tower of clouded glass
...
A tangle of white horns
bristles above the line of water—
You swim to graze, your pasture
...
Because civilization is always
a retort to another's guts—
Remove the hive. It is in
the wrong place, nestled and humming
...
How do we know it's not matter that matters
but matter's absence, elegies of matter
like air between the columns of these trees:
not lines of wood but lines of air between
...
Lisa Williams (born 1966) is an American poet. She is from Nashville, Tennessee. She graduated from Belmont University, from the University of Virginia, with an M.F.A. and from the University of Cincinnati, with an M.A. She is an associate professor of English at Centre College. Her work has appeared in The Southwest Review, Poetry, Raritan, The Cincinnati Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, Poetry Daily, and The Hollins Critic.)
Brooding Eels
They are circling circling wanting a way to the sea
the urge to spawn comes the urge to spawn goes
there is no way to swim to the sea they are
circling growing bigger growing tremendous
they lift heads now huge out of water to smell
air whether there will be a change
so they can swim to the sea (a rock
slide blocks their way from the lake
to the sea) they are circling for decades
their skin thickens their eyes cloud they are ready
the urge to spawn comes the urge to spawn goes
they will die some day they will never
die there is no way no way
to the sea breeding is necessary brooding
is what happens will there be a chance a storm
or just this ache for distance another century?
I really loved her work!