16 Feb Two excerpts from CONSCIOUSNESS SUITE by David Landrey
XXIII
Pain strands weaving us
tied to power
the kraft of it leaving us
stranded amid confusion:
how to hold diaphanous threads
shreds of “life as we knew it”
or thought we did or
did we
think or grasp and
will we
in the new order
the “world forever changed”: or
can we
and if so what?
What what is there
outside
inside or
all around our stranded selves?
XLII
To know love’s meaning
may be
the end of consciousness
and oh it takes so long
to reach the end and
maybe
if and when we do we
what
yearn to start again
to know sooner
maybe
to realize the end to
bring it to form before
the end of mind
occurs to us and
maybe
our whole selves
may be
at last.
About the Poet
photo credit: David Moog
David Landrey is the author of Consciousness Suite, (Spuyten Duyvil, 2008), Psyche & Ares, (Fairfield Press, 2016), Intermezzi To Divorce Poems and Dinner Table Scenes, (Jensen Daniels 2002), and other books.
A former student of Charles Olson at the University of Buffalo in the early 1960’s and Fulbright teaching scholar in Turkey, he taught literature and American postmodern poetry at SUNY Buffalo State University for over 35 years. His immersive style of teaching, focused primarily on Nineteenth Century and Post-Modern American Literature and letters, inspired his students to live in and through the works he introduced them to and taught; not just as works of art to be analyzed, but dimensions of consciousness required to be explored, opening minds and hearts to alternative and deeply humanist modes of understanding and navigating the myriad passages and experiences of life.
These poems appear in Consciousness Suite.
Related Events
- David Landrey will be the featured reader at The Screening Room Poetry Series event at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, February 19th. The Screening Room is located at 880 Alberta Drive, Amherst, NY There is a $3.00 admission charge.
- Landrey will also present a special stage reading of excerpts from Consciousness Suite with an ensemble of actors and vocal performers including John Vines, Verneice Turner, Perry Nicholas, and Celeste Lawson at 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 5th at the Centro Culturale Italiano di Buffalo, 2351 Delaware Avenue in Buffalo, NY. Admission is $5.00 for non-members. Free for members.
The Poem of the Week feature is curated by literary legacy awardee R.D. Pohl.