Welcome to “Poetry at The Arts Fuse.” A new poem every Thursday

from Parting Gifts

Sometimes people bathe in
the fountain and gather bodily
strength from the life-
vibrations which have been set
up in the water by the exercise
of angels  I left the warm
pool when the stars were no
longer visible

A cloud isn’t there
and then it is  Magpies
taking turns at picking at
a dead garter snake  The
view of the hills is
blotted by talking wires
Through the stillness at Avalanche
Ranch comes the sound of the Crystal
River  The fittingness of
things increases  The lotus
lamp in the window will guide
you home

The Pearl of the Peninsula  The
Ruby of the Rockies  We are all
part of the Great Huge Going On
Whether you take Holy Communion or
sit for a séance, your purpose is
the same

Columba composed a poem during
a thunderstorm in order to protect
an oak grove  There is a book,
who runs may read  Just enough
corn to make your cake  A feeling
of oneness exists between all the
strangers standing in the crop circle

Whit Griffin is a poet-medium and semi-professional hermit. Author of such nonlinear metaphysical epics as We Who Saw Everything (Cultural Society) and Uncanny Resonance (Lunar Chandelier Collective). With visual artist Timothy C. Ely he collaborated on the book Interior Voice / The Great Practice (Granary Books). With Michael Klausman he edits the journal Luigi Ten Co. After a decade of living in Rocky Mountain West, Whit now resides on the Kitsap Peninsula of Washington.

Note: Hey poets! We seek submissions of excellent poetry from across the length and breadth of contemporary poetics. See submission guidelines here. The arbiter of the feature is the magazine’s poetry editor, John Mulrooney.

— Arts Fuse editor Bill Marx