Meister Eckhart's Sermon on Flowers and the Philosopher's Reply
A hollowed singularity exists in flowers
like pathos in a dandelion:
an eddy of fate, degreeless,
silvering through memory.
A scabbed consonant departing
the sentence: locust petal, bromeliad,
a surfacing shame, lightless, beyond hearing.
Solitary, the clock circumvents sound
and a horse importunes
a wasp bowing before significance.
●
It is in fact doubtless a wasp bows before significance
degreeless in a dandelion.
It also stands to reason that, in a clock, locusts circumvent memory
in order to depart through fate.
And anyone can see that singularity exists lightless
like an eddy of pathos surfacing beyond hearing.
In conclusion, however solitary
(and you know this as well as I),
a consonant will always
depart the sentence before shamed by a horse.
From Heredities: Poems. Copyright © 2010 by J. Michael Martinez. Used with permission of Louisiana University Press.