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The vanity of what is not embodied

Deep yearning builds to a transcendent peak, a shared moment, fading into daily life's calm

December 17, 2023

Appetent reach. Unctuous gnarl.
Wait turned winged and suspiring,
as the hilldogs croon mass to the
congregation of waylights. Dimmeting
askance. Smoked duskdew. Soon peaks
afar but almost there, there, enclouded,
to be chanced upon as lips find water
in the lap of thirst, fledged in prospect,
in breathpulse, the fruiting heart aglow
with hum, dub, sonor, climb. And then
glimpsed accord; our glances, geographic,
voicing decumbent and keen as a bird
one palaces not to cell but to shelter
the song. Later the whitewaves claim me
like dawn as you court light and fire,
timebeing become molten. Nascent.
                       Then the silence crowned. 
The world spun, and the laundry came.

📖
PART OF A COLLECTION

Earthed and 3 other poems

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Alvin Pang

Alvin Pang, PhD, is a Singaporean poet and editor whose writings have been translated into more than twenty languages worldwide, including Swedish, Macedonian and Chinese. A 2022 Dublin Literary Award judge, Civitella Ranieri Fellow and Adjunct Professor of RMIT University, his recent books include Uninterrupted time (2019), Det som ger oss våra namn (2022), and Diaphanous (2023; with George Szirtes).

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