Poems by Jeffrey Side

WHEN YOU WERE TEMPERED WITH DELIGHT

When you were tempered
with delight
your virtues were taken
down and forests
that you passed through
were not finite.

When you were
tempered with delight
you kept the
saddest oceans,
you kept
the proudest streams.
And wild pens
would
not strain your sight.

When you were tempered
with delight
you carried sand
upon your necklace and
cream upon your
lips. And you
never made the journey
through the park.

When you were
tempered with delight
you were
consumed by bikers in the
light and
nurses in the dark.
And taut strings
pulled
on you forever.

When you were tempered
by delight
strong bars were
held around your
fortress
and strong men
could never kiss the
wound you
would always hide.


THE SEEDS WITHIN ME

The seeds within me
formed my shape
and sorrows
long before I knew them.

Like some inevitable
punishment I'm
blind to
they cause predictions
to be true
and disasters to be
just right.

They stopped me
climbing in the fields
and falling on the
slopes that
framed the lake.

They made me like a
fallen tree whose
rings can be counted
and whose memory
can be read.


BOOKS THAT SOOTHE THE DYING

The humming sounds
like the
primrose singing.
New across your gaze
whole pillars torment you
between journeys.

Everywhere longings
that occurred gradually
finally overflow you.

And intently felt irony
is like bread
to the sentence of
imagination.

Also, sitting appears
doubtful
even while the wakeful
man
goes straight in
the parlour.


SKETCHES OF THE SMALL TOWN

Over provided to the
small point. Stop or water.

The highest touches are by the
snowdrifts.

But towards the waters
all sides are to the sea.

Moist flight south,
and valleys, more
finally,
become lovelier.

World looking,
listening.

Gone, distant happiness.