Author Archives: tamolantern@gmail.com

Harlem Night Song   Come, Let us roam the night together Singing. I love you. Across The Harlem roof-tops Moon is shining. Night sky is blue. Stars are great drops Of golden dew. Down the street A band is playing. … Continue reading →

Look The moon thumbs through the night’s book. Finds a lake where nothing is printed. Draws a straight line. That’s all it can. That’s enough. Thick line. Straight toward you. –Look. ~ Rolf Jacobsen (translated from the Norwegian by Olave Grinde)

Days Each one is a gift, no doubt, mysteriously placed in you waking hand or set upon your forehead moments before you open your eyes. Today begins cold and bright, the ground heavy with snow and the thick masonry of ice, the … Continue reading →

Emergence It’s midsummer night. The light is skinny; a thin skirt of desire skims the earth. Dogs bark at the musk of other dogs and the urge to go wild. I am lingering on the edge of a broken heart, striking … Continue reading →

A Portable Paradise And if I speak of Paradise, then I’m speaking of my grandmother who told me to carry it always on my person, concealed, so no one else would know but me. That way they can’t steal it, … Continue reading →

You Can’t They will fall in the end, those who say you can’t. It’ll be age or boredom that overtakes them, or lack of imagination. Sooner or later, all leaves fall to the ground. You can be the last leaf. You … Continue reading →

Midnight   The spirits are not fooled by my faked sleep, my regular breathing; the magic animations do not take place. I wait for the window to tear off its bandages, cured of its blindness, the tape recorder to fall … Continue reading →

Home Homes have no walls No rooms, no furniture, no thresholds Nothing through which you might enter And nothing from which you might want to exit Because homes are not houses Homes are built in the eyes Erected by naked, … Continue reading →

Housekeeping We mourn the broken things, chair legs wrenched from the seats, chipped plates, the threadbare clothes. We work the magic of glue, drive the nails, mend the holes. We save what we can, melt small pieces of soap, gather … Continue reading →