Time flies
multiply
slower
than
other flies.

Scripta manent verba volant.

"The written word stays, the spoken word flies," said the sage.

"The written word says, the spoken word lies," noted his disciple.

in the margins of a Peter Hutton film

The film tore                    just where
the glass      spilled                    Cleft
thinner than     a                mica leaf
Calmer than l                     A wraith-
note

Sung in slow            tide       Round
under my tongue               No more
but so?              Of winter blossoms
lace-leaf                        & thale cress
spoke

The sheet frayed               just where
the drop        fell                         Words
skip across water                  & catch
flame            White burns the crystal
rose

Asleep                          as deep as river
silt            Eyelashes & lime          Fall
now           or learn to fly          Sooth-
sight is breath you touch               Or
snow

The ice broke                      just where
the wing           stirred            The sun
ached     in its sheath             of cirrus
plume      Frost-leaf             & lucent
stone

Feather upon my lip              A voice
parts wisps                                 of hair
& lulls the wave                  Ice floats
upstream              Ink-white the river
wrote

A warm evening in the Heath. Gossamer bridges between blades of dry grass. The oak above my head alive with the flutter of wings, bird quarrels and terrors. The sun going down behind the line of trees: shadows grow taller and cold. I bike over the hilltop. A green woodpecker , hidden in the grass, takes fright at the approach of two large wheels, and rests on a sunlit tree trunk. Colored fungi grow in secret. Rare happiness: to desire to be nowhere else.

"so much insomnia, and what more do I know of humanity?"

dream phrase:

green pearl hunters