Cut and Chiseled Stone


Learn how you listen     to the overthought

strained story you hear in stone,     lean into 

form like rain. Loosen what track you've trained your

thoughts on.     Swaying's the first sound to startle

on a bridge you find yourself on.     Feel fierce

wind, thunder thrashing.     Strive to sense skewers

of light in sky,     cut off tone of tense.     Free

your form like letters without lines, free by

chiseling sound,     surrender certainty 

of a last note—     wonder at     what wanders in.



Robert Manaster

Robert Manaster's poetry has appeared in numerous journals including Birmingham Poetry Review, Image, Maine Review, Rhino, and Spillway. His co-translation of Ronny Someck's The Milk Underground was awarded the Cliff Becker Book Prize in Translation. He's also published poetry book reviews in such publications as The Rumpus, Colorado Review, and Tar River Poetry.

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“There is a tomorrow here someplace”