from Second Sequence
3.
Morning
noticed me
almost brisk
between the marigold
and the buttercup
Delight
before the world
and fear
of encountering
a woodsman
bloody-handed
and blue skinned
Horror
and ecstasy
look like
one another
Let
opposites
erase
each other
And you breathe
Don’t shout
4.
A heap of ashes
on the path
flakes dark blue
white
greyblack
A winged radiance
is ready to burst
from the embers
On a live coal
wisdom
ripens
But whose?
Mine
mine
or mine
Ants
butterflies
roe deer bicker
Silent is he
who lit the fire
who raked together
a heap of ashes
6.
Those
who cleave to God
and want to be at one
with him
Likewise with those
who bow
to the flower
Their faith
lasts
only a summer
The prayer
then
goes to seed
9.
What dictates
the game
of subtraction?
Remove
the tree
so that you can see
the forest
Tear the leaves
so that you can get
to the branch
Stop
breathing
to have
breath
Pull
the world
from its
image
Wanderers
of all sorts
beg you
James Sutherland-Smith lives and works from Slovakia. He has published six collections of his own poetry, the most recent being Mouth (Shearsman, 2014). He also translates, with the Selected Poems of Miodrag Pavlović out from Salt of which this sequence is a part.