Joseph Cooper

from Zen Skins

~1~
                There is silence here,
without surrendering to it
                walking the woods tonight 
                                legs strong as mountain weeds.

~2~
                                Something feels,
or something makes us feel
                the nailed and hammered wood
                                whining on its posts
chewed & tattered
                                with deliberate precision.

~3~
They seem closer than anything else,
answers to questions it would do me no good to ask
                                                the eastern sky
                                torn by wars of perpetual change
                                                                as all things are.

~4~
Some say we ought to show life
                                              how we lived it
                but then I might never have climbed
                                                             Kilimanjaro 
                fending off its thin ascendant air 
                               with metallurgic grip. 

Joseph Cooper is the author of several books of poetry, most recently, Porlock (Spuyten Duyvil 2015).
 
 
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