Hiram Larew

BIOGRAPHY: ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Called "quirky, engaging [and] sneakily profound," Larew's work won Baltimore's 1999 ARTSCAPE Poetry Prize and the 1999 washington review Poetry Prize. He can be reached at hlarew@juno.com

POURING

I know that
Wintery mountains are more important by far
Than this
They're meant to be
Our best brothers
But your eyes
For as far as land goes
Were more surprising by far
Like trees on pillows

I believe that anything is possible
And that excitement will always be followed
By calm
So really if nothing else gets settled
There's this at least -
I've been you forever

When birds land on edges they scatter some snow
My hand made the same kind of mistake
It didn't know
That the best part is pouring

Others may disagree
But just once
Is the only because
I'll ever need
It's over all
The if and wonder
Where does it go as it goes ahead
Why does it always glisten.

********
IF HE NEVER HEARS THIS

There's no pattern to what disappears
Nothing to make sure that our ideas are everlasting
Or repeated
The puny overlap between us all
Is such that
We can't predict what stays or lingers
Or leaves
It may be that wishing wells
Especially their walls
Know the secret of this yearning to endure
Somehow fireworks do too coming down
But mostly we know that everyone we know
Is just water
And all we are are snaps

Never ask anyone anything directly
Be a swan's neck
So that you find out everything by guessing
And for balance
Imagine loving so much that it feels like
You are unscrewing the lid of a jar
Before going

The boring point is this
The best friend to make is chance -
Do whatever it takes
To wake up tangled in the arms of maybe
Start to trust what you've done
For as long as a blink
Mostly think like a windy corner.

-- This poem was first published in the washington review.

Copyright © 2001. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Duplication of this poetry and/or art without permission of the author/artist is forbidden under copyright law. Please ask permission if you wish to use for non-commercial purposes.