Stephen Ratcliffe
poems from CLOUD / RIDGE
4.13
pink red plane of chimney in the pale blue-
framed window on the stairs, green of trees
filling the space behind it
woman in beige
sweater telling the man next to the blue door
her last week’s dream, which ends when the man
goes to see someone named Kathy spelled with “K”
man in blue shirt writing a first sentence after
visiting Cézanne’s studio, how “the doctor tells
me I can go home again”
Mrs. Ramsay noticing
“the movement of the wings beating out,” air
“cut into exquisite scimitar shapes”
white
shoulder of wave breaking across the nearly
motionless grey plane in lower left corner,
cormorants flapping to the left toward it
4.14
parallel lines of high thin white clouds in pale
blue sky above still dark ridge in left corner,
sweptback wingspan of a jet passing overhead
woman with hair falling across left cheek
leaving message in middle of the night,
apparently having looked up and dialed the man’s
number in her sleep
woman on phone recalling
man on subway screaming “The Sopranos blew up
World Trade Center,” noticing girls in Henry
Darger’s paintings have tiny penises
girl
“choosing what her mother was to wear,” Mrs.
Ramsay noting “Rose would grow up”
curved
white cloud slanting up across pale blue sky,
left-sloping shoulder of green ridge below it
4.15
oval-shaped grey cloud moving across faint blue
white sky in window opposite the unmade yellow
and blue bed, bird calling below window blown
open beside it
tall man in blue grey shirt
quoting his “eternal return of the slightly
different,” noting that he too likes English
spelling of “grey”
woman on phone recalling
printing out the poem in Courier, seeing lines
get wider
Mrs. Ramsay “listening to a clatter
in the hall,” Jasper asking if “the same birds
came to the same trees every night”
diagonal
white cloud in front of right-sloping shoulder
of ridge, silver of sunlight reflecting across
the nearly motionless blue green plane below it
4.16
eight brown birds perched on scotch broom branch
in front of vertical plane of still dark ridge,
green of passion vine-covered fence in lower
right foreground
man in green shirt waking
from dream of woman parking blue car in green
slot, man getting out of water taking at least
fifteen minutes to dress
tall man in blue grey
shirt asking about straightness of right margin,
wondering if Robinson is man at the long white
table’s family name
Mrs. Ramsay “taking her
place at the head of the table,” wondering if
“it’s all come to an end”
sunlight slanting
down to the right from behind grey white cloud
in upper right corner, bright blue sky above it