The Chanter's Reed

The Bells on the Tabla Fields 11

I
Afterplay
The Chanter’s Reed 15
Blinded by my Senses 16
On Lines I’m Not Sure Art My Own 17
Rage 18
Remembering My Lai After Leaving the
VA Hospital Healing Farm 19
Under the Sign of the Societe D’Encouragement
Pour Industrie Nationale 21
Rumination 22
Sometimes a Fly 23
Two Opossums Lying at a Train Crossing 25
The Dumbing Down Finale 26
Submission 27
After All 29
The Gift 30

II
Imagine
Cradled 35
The Belly of a Spoon 36
Imagine Another 37
Lament for a Milltown Son 38
Drinking Ouzo at Kolanaki Square 39
Not Every Girl Comes Naked to the Forest 41
Stretching the Imagination 42
On the Train to Cambridge Through Ely 43
Mugwampery 44
Dropping Fuel Over the Pacific 45
Death Longs for Its Own Garden 46

III
Primal
The Penguin Stone 49
Primal 50
Taming the Sloth 52
The Beachcomber 53
Let’s Say You Like Horses 55
For the Nippers and Pippers 56
The Need for Visionaries 58
At a Loss 59
Notes on My Two Day Ph.D. Discuss Party 60
The Poet Laureate and the Team Captain Christ 61
To the Immunologist Who Studied Bald Mice 63

IV
Astonishment
Swan-Upping On the Thames 67
The Bitters at Henley 68
Buying a Print of Van Gogh’s Irises 69
The Weight of an Umbrella 70
In a Time of Terminological Inexactitude 71
Sharpening My Wit 72
Mapping the Universe 73
The Astonishment of Light 74
At His Dying Moment Einstein Whispered… Now 75
Under the Under 76
A Room on the Irish Coast 78
The Venus Star 79

Acknowledgments 82
About the Author 84