Poems on Arthur Rimbaud by Top Critiquers

There is a Great Divide
defined differently
by each personality;  
 
  it can be seen as black
  or perhaps Palestinian  
 
So narrow the Divide
 it can close unto death
  before widening  
 
  to accept difference;  
 
  wearies of itself;
   loses short-term memory  
 
Remembers younger days
  playground antics  
    void of color and race  
 
Sometimes it stands guard
  to the entry
   of the heart;  
 
   where it doesn't stand  
    a...

rimbaud knew
that when it leaves you
must go, too ..

In an ageing morning  
a larger life unlived  
they took a graded turning  
and set the boat adrift  
 
then dozing on the shore-line  
merely basked and bathed  
to cover up the insult  
that seasoned all the rage  
 
but scorpions, remaining true  
who knew this route so well  
were not disturbed at all, you know,  
by private little hells  
 
the tide came in still resolute  
and so the dance began …  
a billion people, then some more  
the ones who also ran.

(2002)



In a twilight sleep, just before the hour
of my death, the room shifts
from the weight of a pill.

I have lost my language, love,
moving like a house as I have
for thirty years within

the stained cracks of churches,
and churches are stationary,
churches never move.

I am finished with it all
as I pull my peasant’s robe
tightly about my shoulders.

I have seen the angel-face
of Rimbaud as he squats
within his squalid grave.

I turned my face away from his.
He never forgot and as I...