Mirror-Spectrum Glance, Many-Colored Gleam

Mirror-Spectrum Glance, Many-Colored Gleam

Bradley Samore

after Catharina Regina von Greiffenberg

You leap from trumpet’s bell, perennial delight—
burnished brass—verdigris banished from being.
Gloves cannot hold me anymore from being
touched. Your tongue spoons me sugar, crystals of light.

The cellar is no longer flooded with water but light,
and what remains where the loose tooth was taken—my being
with You. My sinews, nails, dark brown hair—being
now grafted by Your swift hands with light.

My masks, painted with martyrdom, are free
to be hewn by the sky and fly over the wall.
When there is only myself—make it now!—I’m free.

The kestrel’s cry pierces the wall
made of mind and marble, crumbles it free.
I walk across the rubble. There is no wall.

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Bradley Samore
Poet & Teacher

Bradley has taught English and writing in Spain and the U.S.A. and also has worked as a school service worker. The Palm Beach Poetry Festival named him a Thomas Lux Scholar in 2022. Bradley's poetry was shortlisted for Aesthetica Magazine's Creative Writing Award and River Heron Review's Poetry Prize.

Photography by Thomas Charters