In silhouette, the large, dark eye
of the girl from India seemed
not to belong to the face at all,
but rather like a great, black beetle
attached to blind porcelain
and, maybe, about to crawl—
and the luscious lashes of unusual length,
closed & opened, closed & opened,
suggesting a butterfly's pulsing wings
clipped to a black-eyed Susan, say—
and for one tingling moment, I felt
I would reach out and possess this exotic
creature, this exquisite Agassiz humbug
and might have, but for propriety.
* Larry Kimmel is a US poet of both haikai and mainline forms. His most recent books are this hunger, tissue-thing and Blue Night & the inadequacy of long-stemmed roses. (Modern English Tanka Press).
And, to round off the picture, here are some more details about his latest collection, including a short review...
Blue Night & the inadequacy of long-stemmed roses (2nd Ed, with The Temperature of Love) by Larry Kimmel. Price: $12.95 USD. ISBN 978-1-935398-02-8 Trade paperback.132 pages, 6" x 9". Modern English Tanka Press, PO Box 43717, Baltimore, Maryland 21236 USA. www.modernenglishtankapress.com
"Blue Night & the inadequacy of long-stemmed roses is truly a distinguished collection of some of the finest of Larry Kimmel's poems. His skill with words and images, with rhythm and mood, are on elegant display from the opening work to the final page. Whether in the ancient form of tanka or in the very new structure of cherita, which he helped midwife, emotional and verbal content are effectively matched to the chosen pattern.
"Above all, a compilation of this kind has lasting value only when the poet’s personality is evident in each phrase and every setting, and Blue Night & the inadequacy of long-stemmed roses certainly could not have been written by anyone except Larry Kimmel of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, of Colrain, Massachusetts, and of many places in between. Kimmel possesses, in addition to a poet’s ear, the eye of a painter, and so it is not a small matter that these wonderful poems are now appropriately and permanently showcased. All the details of the physical presentation – the splendid cover painting, page design, font – work beautifully together. A book any poet could be proud of." ...review by Carol Purington
