mnLIT presents: Neil Dyer
This week's mnLIT winner, from the What Light Poetry Project, is one of two selected for the 2009 cycle of mnartists.org's literary competition. This week's poem, "Compline," was selected by poet Dobby Gibson.
COMPLINE
An inclined head in the darkness
listens, listens as white
windmills excavate a
concavity somewhere
in the night; Lord, to lie
down there in the penetrating
quiet and will the pulse
to a sleepy horizontal plane,
a flat geometry with
Cartesian counterpanes, a
tessellation, an interlocking
staircase of dissolving
acids. Long folds of wind
come off the Mongolian steppe
where no sticks
are found, where we make
fires from the dung
of bristle-maned horses;
on the bronze rock
knuckle I could see the endless
curvature of the earth; I could
see chariots and colored chargers;
sometimes I lie down
and dream myself there,
blood letting, letting blood
flow in an issue from my
starving heart, it
leaves me like a vapor
from a corpse.
*****
About the poet: “My name is Neil Dyer and I am a resident of Moorhead, Minnesota. I was born in Bismarck, North Dakota, and have lived all of my life in the upper Midwest. I am married with three children and three grand children. I am by training a veterinarian, but have written poetry and prose since I was a teenager. My hobbies include reading, writing, bird watching, and bicycling.
About poetry, Dyer writes: “Poetry is an exercise in capturing images, and then using language in a way that appeals to the ear as well as the spirit. This “quest” for images is somewhat endless in that there is a perpetual challenge in trying to find new ways to present an emotion, experience or idea. I love words, the sound of words, and the manner in which they convey meaning. For me, poetry provides the richest medium in which to attempt such crafting.”
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