The Fire Eater's Lunchbreak / Poems

THE FIRE EATER’S LUNCHBREAK: What does happen when we stop swallowing the flame, whatever it might be? This world, our own drudgery, our passions, low or high, that locus of our experience we call “I” – and take a break? There’s a Sufi text by Shaykh ibn ‘Ata Illah whose title I’ve always loved: "The Giving Up of the Management of Your Affairs." Neat trick! But somehow that’s also the key to the present title, and God willing to something of the poems this book contains. Poem: His High Command/and an ant’s vibrating antenna//The horrors of war/and a newborn’s uncurling fingers//Flash floods/and a dry riverbed gurgling//The heart alone/and entire humanity’s pulse beat