the impalpabilities

it is the sense
       of things that we must include
             because we do not understand them
the impalpabilities
      in the marine dark
            the chords
that will not resolve themselves
      but hang
             in an orchestral undertow
dissolving
       (celeste above shifting strings)
             yet where the dissolution
gathers the echoes
       from an unheard voice:
              and so the wood
advances before the evening takes it-
      branches
             tense in a light like water,
as if (on extended fingers)
       supporting the cool immensity
              while we meditate the strength
in the arms we no longer see.


charles tomlinson