Sonnet
Paul Valéry published sparingly
then quit writing poetry altogether
to study how the mind works.
For twenty years he explored the difference
between Pushkin and Lermontov—
in Russia Pushkin is the sun,
but Lermontov is nearer to the moon.
Tolstoy’s War and Peace was a meteor
that fell into midcentury Europe.
I prefer to sleep rather than to read
If I wiggle my toe an entire foot crescendos—
In the room where women come and go
Chagall chat chat just autumn and endangered
Candles Cher Queer snow.
Sonnet 8 1/2
A finger ends each of Mastroianni’s
scenes, implying a fatal fluency.
Everything he saw he drew toward
and into himself (it was not really a question
of pointing to a realistic reproduction
of ennui represented in the film about
which one could have many reservations).
In this matter of the visible everything had
a cost and in a strange way so did standing
in for Federico Fellini’s sexual fantasies.
What truth did he embrace in those few moments
of clarity? When he hit snags in his writing
did he bury his disappointment in work,
abandon himself in crowds, take up a team sport?