Montage Triste Poem by Michael Shepherd

The hyacinths intoxicate upon the window-sill
and I think of you

Intellectual montage –
Eisenstein was the first to spell it out
and use it memorably;
a quick clip of one scene,
then another; the agile mind
in each of us, connects the two;
it’s routine now.

The candle on the bath-tub flickers
and I think of you

One close shot of fires reflected on a window;
then a long shot of the beach below, the tents, the fires;
then the sky and fatal stars; seen before Eisenstein –
read Pope’s Iliad, the night before
the fall of Troy; it reads like
a shooting-script, a hundred years before film…

The sound of church bells down the road
and I think of you

Then there’s the jump-cut; one scene, then another
but what’s the connection; only emotion
may later turn the key; this too, poetry may use.

The candles on the altar burn, burn as if for ever
and I think of you