Categories: Willawaw Journal Winter 2018 Issue 5

Vincent Wixon

Surface Tension

In the place where an embarrassed silence falls,

I put a candlestick or a water glass.

–Yannis Ritsos, Monochords

Sometimes

it’s simple objects

that matter, a candle

lit on the windowsill,

the ceiling light off

so the glare dissolves

and the faces relax.

It’s still silent, but different.

The couple at the kitchen table

reach out to a glass of water

which has begun to inch

across the oilcloth.

Vincent Wixon’s recent book of poems is Laying By, from Flowstone Press. Previous volumes include Blue Moon: Poems from Chinese Lines and The Square Grove. He co-edited Sound of the Ax, a collection of William Stafford aphorisms and poems. Vincent Wixon lives in Ashland, Oregon.

Willawaw Journal