Library Cards, by Sean Howard

 

(taken from cape breton university)

 

i. the technique of oil painting

colors mixing
in the square. straw-

board fields. the buckram
coat. saucepan; stirring

sand to sun. corner-
ed: students pain-

ting…

***

the canvas
leaves. distant verid-

ian. the ochre stage. the
touched sky. (picasso: blue

tumblers.) the
wind, flak-

ing…

ii. testing: its place in education today

marks-
ism. learning

to score. strange fruit; pre-
pared minds. (the Ameri-

cannery…) waste pro-
ducts; fresh out of

school?

 

iii. smoking

heavy-
handed. (dead

camels.) stubb-
ed light; slow-

mo, Daniel
blown a-

way

iv. comparative physiology of animals

the pre-
cipitating sun. truth’s

tissue. age of discovery;
vessels in the cell…

incomparable?
God’s lost

form

***

men, ani-
mal mechanics:

measured beating, the
laboratory rabbit…

death, walls
dissolv-

ing

 

__________

Sean Howard moved to Nova Scotia from England in 1999. His poetry has been published in Canadian journals including Geist, Other Voices, Quills, Prairie Journal, The Antigonish Review, The Nashwaak Review and Prairie Fire as well as zafusy (UK) and 4AM Poetry Review (USA). Sean holds a Ph.D in Peace Studies from the University of Bradford, UK, and is adjunct professor of political science at Cape Breton University, pursuing research interests in nuclear disarmament and the philosophy of science. A recent paper – ‘Very Different Butterflies’: The Scope for Deep Complementarity Between Western and Native American Science’ – was published in ‘The Pari Dialogues: Essays in Science, Religion, Society and the Arts’ (Pari Publishing, 2007). To view some more of Sean’s poetry on-line, visit www.zafusy.org/poetry/seanhoward.

________________________

Copyright© 2008, by Sean Howard and Spinozablue. All Rights Reserved.

 

 

Library Cards, by Sean Howard
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