if nothing else
Harold Bowes is a master of the understated short poem… let this collection draw you into its alert intimacy as it finds and pinpoints emotional connection everywhere.
if nothing else
there are these clouds
floating away
Excerpt
Yin
The world we live in is but thickened light.
—Emerson
In the sand dollar,
there's a hole,
right in the middle.
Something lived inside,
then it was gone.
The space filled
with salt water.
What a beautiful shape,
round like the moon,
narrow along the perimeter,
then, like thickened light,
rising toward the center.
The air entered here
through this small hole.
Everything dried out.
The air was both inside
and outside.
Stippled and curved,
there's a design.
