Viola Lee's poem "Conversation of the wood" in Alice Blue Review issue three, winter 2006, here is a great one, it's a piece that deals with a solid focus and yet brings in disparate elements in a way that doesn't overshadow any of the little or big ideas in the work.
Of course, the opening lines sound like Pound's cantos, and where she goes with it is truly unique and well thought out. There's this great sense of being on an island; I always think the best poems make me want to travel. And I loved the ending. What an interesting look at trees, place, the earth; I love the subtle colors that come through too.
It starts:
Branch over branch over branch, this is
how it looked: clusters of wood, stone
over stick, and branch over branch.
There was also straw on gray rock; and
the rock turned the color of cobalt.
Today we are inhaling the avalanche of
blue water; [...]
And it ends:
[...] your voice that never mentioned one
branch, never those fields, never ever,
the wood, the field of bamboo, never,
that tobacco, never a history.
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