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    Bite Down Little Whisper
    Bite Down Little Whisper
    Bite Down Little Whisper
    Ebook119 pages1 hour

    Bite Down Little Whisper

    By Don Domanski

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    *Winner 2013 J.M. Abraham Poetry Award *Finalist 2013 Governor General’s Award for Poetry


    From a master poet, meditative lines running like veins through the dark grace of being alive.


    Governor General's Award-winning poet Don Domanski's new collection, Bite Down Little Whisper, delves into the interconnectedness of all life with spiritual gravitas and powerful mindfulness. These are poems brimming with mythological and scientific energies, with a multi-dimensionality that opens itself to both complexity and clarity. Domanski shows us seams and fastenings that unite our longings with the earth itself, with the nonhuman vitality that surrounds us. The heart's need for unity and reverence is present in these poems as a whisper we hear in occasional moments of quietude, when it's possible to perceive the workings of a larger existence.


    Quietude is called returning to life Lao Tze says
    even on a Tuesday afternoon in Nova Scotia
    even with the hood ornaments of chocolate irises
    gleaming outward from their arterial darkness
    with the unborn standing high up in the trees
    like cemetery angels
    one finger pointing to heaven the other to earth
    — from "Ars Magica"

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrick Books
    Release dateAug 15, 2013
    ISBN9781926829975
    Bite Down Little Whisper
    Author

    Don Domanski

    Don Domanski was born and raised on Cape Breton Island and now lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He is the author of eight books of poetry. Published and reviewed internationally, his work has been translated into Czech, French, Portuguese, Arabic, Chinese and Spanish.

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      Book preview

      Bite Down Little Whisper - Don Domanski

      BITE DOWN LITTLE WHISPER

      BITE DOWN LITTLE WHISPER

      Don Domanski

      BRICK BOOKS

      LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

      Domanski, Don, 1950–, author

      


      Bite down little whisper / Don Domanski.

      Poems.

      ISBN 978-1-926829-97-5

      I. Title.

      PS8557.EO43B58 2013     C811'54     C2013-903712-8

      We acknowledge the Canada Council for the Arts, the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund, and the Ontario Arts Council for their support of our publishing program.

      The author photo was taken by John Proctor

      The print edition of the book is set in Minion Pro, designed by Robert Slimbach and released in 1990 by Adobe Systems.

      The cover image is by Don Domanski.

      Print design and layout by Cheryl Dipede.

      Printed and bound by Sunville Printco Inc.

      Brick Books

      431 Boler Road, Box 20081

      London, Ontario N6K 4G6

      www.brickbooks.ca

      ABOUT THIS BOOK

      Finalist for the 2013 Governor General’s Award for Poetry

      From a master poet, meditative lines running like veins through the dark grace of being alive.

      Governor General’s Award–winning poet Don Domanski’s new collection, Bite Down Little Whisper, delves into the interconnectedness of all life with spiritual gravitas and powerful mindfulness. These are poems brimming with mythological and scientific energies, with a multi-dimensionality that opens itself to both complexity and clarity. Domanski shows us seams and fastenings that unite our longings with the earth itself, with the nonhuman vitality that surrounds us. The heart’s need for unity and reverence is present in these poems as a whisper we hear in occasional moments of quietude, when it’s possible to perceive the workings of a larger existence.

      CONTENTS

      FORESIGHT BY EARTH

      URSA IMMACULATE

      GLORIA MUNDI

      MADONNA OF THE DIAPHANOUS LIFE

      WILDERNESS OF THE RAINDROP

      ARS MAGICA

      BARDO

      FORESIGHT BY EARTH

      GREEN BIRD

      APOCRYPHA

      MAGNUM MYSTERIUM

      APPARITIONAL HOUND

      NIGHT SCROLL

      THE GARDEN IS SECRETIVE AND ITS WOUNDS

      ARE LIGHT TO THE TOUCH

      STEEL CITY

      IN THE DOORYARD

      FOR THE PURE MOTHER BEE

      A FERAL TRANCE

      A BRIGHT FABLE IN A DARK WOOD

      FIRST FOLIO OF THE UNWRITTEN

      BIODIVERSITY IS THE MOTHER OF ALL BEAUTY

      A FERAL TRANCE

      COLLECTING ANTLERS

      IN THE WILDERNESS

      KRAKEN MARE

      2010

      LINES WRITTEN BENEATH A STONE

      BITE DOWN LITTLE WHISPER

      ABSENCES IN GRASS ROOMS

      THE ALCHEMICAL LION IS GREEN

      AND DEVOURS THE SUN

      THE LIGHT OF UNOCCUPIED MEMORY

      RADIANCE AND COUNTERPOINT

      ETERNITY

      WRITING ON BLACK SILK

      WAITING FOR ARCTURUS

      ALL SOULS’ NIGHT

      BENEATH A FELINE MOON

      LITTLE HOUSE OF MISFORTUNE

      FAIR AND SQUARE OF THE FLESH

      MARGINALIA

      THE LIGHT OF UNOCCUPIED MEMORY

      UNBORN

      WINTERING

      SHUDDER AND CLIMB

      ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

      NOTES

      ABOUT THE AUTHOR

      For Mary

      ... there is only one subject ... this indivisible subject

      is every being in the universe and these beings are

      the organs and masks of divinity.

      ~ Jorge Luis Borges

      FORESIGHT BY EARTH

      URSA IMMACULATE

      night swept back over the headlands

      someone’s sign language alone in the forest

      scratching words in the air   haunting

      narrow spaces between the pines

      hieroglyphical pheromones carried on the breeze

      anagrammatical gestures almost apparitional

      almost perceptible

      midnight and a redtail asleep in his negative theology

      luciferin shine of fireflies   a coyote folding the pleats

      of her wound   swaying her god with the pain

      with the suffering that falls through belief’s chasm

      that small caesura between flesh and bone

      I’ve been sitting alone beside the lake   subbing

      for a rock or a blade of grass   watching

      the phrase ex nihilo feather the water’s surface

      and faces of the Julii shine out from drab houses

      of the midge larvae

      the moon puts on a clean white shirt and rises

      I lean back into the blood of my shoulders

      and neck   into the pure vowels of my spine

      vocalic pins attaching vertebrae to nerves

      what was mutely sung by everything nameless

      everything forgotten.

      *

      solitude is our nourishment and redemption

      in a world that is sensed rather than understood

      quietude our reprieve from the skin-trade

      of language   so I come to seek refuge here

      in the stillness spreading among evergreens

      like the dissemination of algae   like nightjars flying

      through first kisses and Chinese whispers

      we should confine ourselves to the present

      as Marcus Aurelius wrote   but it’s a hard sell

      when memories like pollen set ablaze

      fall from the air

      with their final wish for us

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