Originally published in:

The Irish Review. 21 (1997) p. 120.

Reprinted with slight variations:
Contemporary Review. 272 (1999) p. 195. 

Swift Is The Sound Of The Arrow

Swift is the sound of arrow

    discharged from the bow

Deep the silence of the pool

    unmoved by its flight

Single the ease of the thought

    to plummet them both

Bowstring posed in fingertips

    floodgate to movement

From horizon to horizon

    the multitude held

Words dividing thought from thought

    drawn from the same source

Strands dark and light coil together

    bow braced end to end

Words unformed lie in the ink pool

    quiver full of thoughts

In the beginning when all things

    begged to be begun.