by KRIS HEMENSLEY
for Denis Smith
[6-xii-23 (Santoka’s diary
1930 “falling away behind me/
mountains i’ll never see
again” – matter of fact or wistfully?
life’s what’s become (became — literally
here and now but also synoptic — analogy
doubles the actual fact since reality’s
everything else besides — softly softly
haiku reveals its epic
(a month or so before expiring in his sleep
Santoka quips — the way self-deprecation keeps
the harder truth bobbing on a string
– disposes the parallel persona – “talentless
and incompetent as I am two things I can do:
walking with my own two feet —
composing my poems
”Diary, August 1940 — ah Santoka
[10-xii-23 — 1 pm Degani
forecourt among widows & their dogs
proliferating! — slide chair sideways
to preserve — no — to think own thoughts —
why & where God situated the planets —
interpolating Santoka — i make the old ladies’
traveller’s tales his hikes & his
haiku our own dictation —
to say nothing of the stars — that is
everything about Time’s phantom skin
or its veil when Philosophy’s let loose
by the one who stands and stares
[28-iii-24 — done
Northcote VIC