Temple Cone

What miracle is left to believe? Perhaps if I picked up a violin And played Bach’s partita in G minor with my untrained hands, I’d hear the world a new way, my fingertips whirling into ears. If there can be no poetry after Auschwitz, there c [...]

The Greek psi, first letter of psyche, the word for breath, Resembles both a windblown iris and a butterfly drinking nectar Through its uncurled proboscis before the light wind bears it away. In his favorite photograph, Whitman sits with a butte [...]

In the dream of reference, a word is epithalamion to what it signifies. But what word signifies silence? And what does the word for silence signify? And who’s dreaming this dream anyway? Are we hearing God, or the serpent? The rest is silence, [...]

We want to leap with Abraham and believe a ram will be provided. Isaac is so beautiful—his curly hair, his wide trusting eyes. How heartrending to find that faith has nothing to do with happiness. Pain comes from darkness, writes Jarrell, and [...]

In the parliament of birds, laws pass on song votes. The wood thrush would be recognized. He claims the heavens Are silver flutes playing a Mozart concerto in the rain. Mozart hated writing for the flute! So his revenge Was to give it melodies [...]