Poems by year: 2007  2006  2005  2004  2003  2002  2001  2000 
By series: Bridge St  In Yr Ear  Ruthless Grip

Forest of the Night

The trees invented metonymy
tho' remain silent on the point.
It's our last public secrecy
ubiquitous chestnut, ash, and oak-
the creative process of self organization
in every sycamore, spruce and beech,
here a tree, in a woods of more and
(no need to admit their unpoetic
nest-building termite colony parts)
knowing better
their continuous discourse
adjacent to Norway maple population,
the streets of Philadelphia:
Cherry, Chestnut, Walnut, Spruce
play of shade trees in semantic fields
branching to a continent of trunks,
heaven of wet leaves
as contingent and accidental as wood
changing to wood
in a woods of noisy wood.

Tom Devaney
5/11/98