Brian Glaser
THE DARK AGES
1.
Europe thinking.
Silent nights
where they would ask
one another
what day had seen.
Learning is
the gentlest faith:
O my god—
make of my mistakes
the light
you denied
without knowing.
2.
The barn
will grow more dense
there,
the prophets
speak backwards,
the trace
will be ordinary
as the crisp pronunciation
of a child.
3.
My pride
at healing and being healed
is not quite
a thousand years old,
young
for an art.
It waited for me
to listen
to myself.
4.
And the silence deepens,
a salary
as a gift—
it was the error
of the beaten path.
5.
My enemy
loved me like a friend.
I was blessed
with four.
An innocent mistake—
that is why
they hated me,
my love
descended
from the darker age.
Brian Glaser has published one book of poems, The Sacred Heart, as well as many essays about poetry and poetics. He is an assistant professor of English at Chapman University in Orange, California.
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THE DARK AGES
1.
Europe thinking.
Silent nights
where they would ask
one another
what day had seen.
Learning is
the gentlest faith:
O my god—
make of my mistakes
the light
you denied
without knowing.
2.
The barn
will grow more dense
there,
the prophets
speak backwards,
the trace
will be ordinary
as the crisp pronunciation
of a child.
3.
My pride
at healing and being healed
is not quite
a thousand years old,
young
for an art.
It waited for me
to listen
to myself.
4.
And the silence deepens,
a salary
as a gift—
it was the error
of the beaten path.
5.
My enemy
loved me like a friend.
I was blessed
with four.
An innocent mistake—
that is why
they hated me,
my love
descended
from the darker age.
Brian Glaser has published one book of poems, The Sacred Heart, as well as many essays about poetry and poetics. He is an assistant professor of English at Chapman University in Orange, California.