ANTLER
GLAZE AMAZE

A tree
sheathed
in ice
Is an icicle
with a
tree in it.
Sure it's not your
usual icicle
shaped like a dagger.
This icicle
is shaped
like a tree
Because every part of the tree
is glazed
with 1/4 inch of diamond ice.
The poet
is able to remove
the tree
Without breaking
a single twig or root
and plant it elsewhere
So just the icicle
shaped like a tree
remains.
Perfect sparkling icicle
in the shape of a tree
in early morning light
Wins first place
in the ice
sculpture contest!

Antler's "Selected Poems" (2000, Soft Skull Press, NYC) spans poetic output from 1966 to 1999, including his long poem Factory which Lawrence Ferlinghetti's City Lights Books brought out in its Pocket Poets Series in 1980 and was heralded by Allen Ginsberg as "the most enlightening and magnanimous American poem I've seen by anyone of the 60s and 70s decades." Other works of his appear in the anthologies Wild Song: Poems from Wilderness Magazine; Poetry Comes Up Where It Can: Poems from American Journal; and American Poets Say Goodbye to the 20th Century.