Recent New Poems by Phyllis Hoge Thompson Shimmer of the Possible All of my rhythms are based on iambic pentameter, which seems to me to provide the most flexible structure in English poetry, perfectly unbalanced, i.e., it is impossible to break it into two equal parts. To me, the sound of a line is central to the meaning conveyed. I rely on the master-poets of many languages for instruction and inspiration.

Updated: June 15, 2008
　

xliii  Jose At Breakfast in the Rehab
("LOOK" Series Poems)
　

Propped up in his heavy wheel chair
  Jose, who is barely awake,
Handles a smoke, only air
  In his fingers. It's no mistake

That he lifts to his lips to inhale
  A remembered cigarette
Observing the missing trail
  Of the only smoke he can get.

　

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Updated: December 1, 2005

Their Quietness

The quietness of things that do not move of themselves....
quilt, paper, doorknob, waterglass.....
draws my thoughts to them. It is
as if they were waiting,
present to me, inclined.
They are.
They do not offer their being.
They do not ask anything.
They are familiar to my touch,
when I lift my grandmother's silver hairbrush
or pull the lamp chain or hang towels on the rack,
I do not regards them.
I would like to carry them with me
to wherever heaven there may be,
not out of greed or pride or ownership,
only because of their quiet attendance.....
because of how they live.

　

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 (Since 11/21/06)