Floaters

by John Witte

There what       was that a face

at the edge of sight        or a scatter

of minnows        the eye’s        tossed confetti

speaking of the body        falling apart        a clout

on the head        jarring loose        bits of cortical gel

like moths        or is it        the peripheral flicker

of memory        or is there        a world inside

this one        filled with ghosts

 

John Witte’s poems have appeared widely, in publications such as The New Yorker, Paris Review, and American Poetry Review, and have been included in The Norton Introduction to Literature, among several anthologies. He is the author of Loving the Days (Wesleyan University Press, 1978), The Hurtling (Orchises Press, 2005), and Second Nature (University of Washington Press, 2008). He is also the editor of numerous books, including The Collected Poems of Hazel Hall (Oregon State University Press, 2000). The recipient of two writing fellowships from the NEA, a residency at the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, and other grants and awards, he lives with his family in Eugene, Oregon, where he teaches literature at the University of Oregon. (1/2011)