All selections © 2000 The Literary Estate of Ronald Johnson,
from To Do as Adam Did: Selected Poems of Ronald Johnson,Talisman Press, 2000

ARK 77, Arches XI

steeped in makeshift
"one that loved the sun,
and sent its root down deep"

bare record of the word
umbilical, a fellow carpentree
stand but in my head

too much, too soon, fast epitaph
Opus Twin Opposites
helix matter in own right

medallion of spun glass,
sentience itself testament as
ability toll bell

earth spinning its axis
two veins & artery
counterclockwise brain's coil

rib of white whale
to tail pulled blue-eyed lion,
in the middle of nowhere

astride one great divisible,
aurora borealis
thru backward of time

mute, numinous
set to number how many streaks
on each curl of a tulip

swimming upstream to Messiah
hook line & sinker
arrest in crystal, flow

the wine-dark sea
any Odysseus order as wave,
if snail crawl equal lightspeed

where beast, rare
upon Isle of the Blest reside
shrouded in accuracy

behold stage to stage,
the curtain held
to last pounce intelligence

& revolve about one one's body
almost above notice,
while soul practice nail

any stretch of imagination --
to rise and cry out
like putty in your hands

breezes, Hesperides
feats under great spread wisdome
to speed the day, mold clay

pitchfork the un-sea-sing
and moon stupa sun,
leverage veritable deepenings

actXity sunder brainstem,
storm in the head
countour everything believable

"fraction wave through fraction,
reaction solve reaction"
inVerse salvation