Sills Author:Michael O'Brien Sills assembles poems from four books and combines them with new work. O'Brien writes, "The poems dance their dance of stillness and motion. The issue is a quiet, patterned music, animated, disciplined, ecstatic; not closure, but recognition." — "No other poet now writing registers the world with O'Brien's oblique precision. Sills i... more »s our first comprehensive look at an American master."- August Kleinzahler
Michael O'Brien is the author of five previous books of poetry, including Veil and The Floor and the Breath. He lives in New York City.Selected PoemsSundayThe wind pressed against the glass.
The light upon the page was morning.I went outside. The tide
carried the river back where it came from.Across the island, another shore.
The shards are broken. They will not join.Meeting of rivers troubles the water.
It does not know which way to turn.Here the river has two currents,
one the tide's share, one that waits.Evening resolves them. They flow south.
The moon touches the river's mouth.Another Sundaya durable blanket
covers the citythe dogs speak French
we know the same number of wordsMoira's toys
are a doll & a school-satchelin the caf
a disease of mirrorshe plays pinball
& talks to his girlis it winter coming, or spring
the elegant cop salutes meI read Eluard
I think of youthe bus goes to the Pantheon
the deaf speak French with their handsPostcardSomewhere in the Hudson Valley
a gull is looking at a cow.
A sullen wetness smoulders.
The silo would like to lie down.Out of its kitchen, ethical as dough
& simmering like The Original Amateur Hour
spring's one-man-band
lurches across the sodden, lion-colored turf.QuarrySo much eyelid in a girl's downcast gaze
Washington Square powdery with duskcicada-song of the nervous system
crossing the day's vacant places37 floors of parallel lives
little bell of the coffee-cartLandowska's harpsichord, a clatter of wings
dune grass another part of the darkthe speck of perceptionthat ignites