This poem was an experiment that didn’t quite come off, in my opinion. After hearing Merlin Sheldrake’s interview for Emergence Magazine where he talked about “de-verbing” to be “more fungal” I decided to try to write a poem about lichen then remove all the verbs. In the end, I think verbs matter.
lichen lessons / deverbing
lichen the rock
in splotches of sage
and masses of mustard
sometimes they
like tufts of feather
or gummy rubber crusts
they
then the news of the dead
white marble green
