The Esoteric

c. 1996

I think I was listening to too much Skinny Puppy or Tear Garden around the time I composed this book. 
The poems in this collection are ones that didn't seem to fit in any of my other books, whether because they were just after-thoughts, writing experiments, or potential lyrics.  They were pulled from the period of 1994-1996.  The artwork was done by Antoinette Hancock and featured an incredibly intricate goddess/woman that perfectly embodied the "esoteric".

Here's my favorite piece:

nepenthe

once I thought of how
you would look with
age, how beautiful, how
graceful, dear daughter

now I think only of
absence and loss, and
twitching, twitching,
how you never kept
your ancient name

let me absorb this final
image, sweet child,
lying in tears and
silk of the elder you,
in pain, that which
I shall not forget.