Patrick Playter Hartigan coined the term "concrete formalism" to describe written poetry that employs repetitive structural dynamics as being central to method and meaning. His writing tends toward a box form that can be seen in many of his books, published through his own press, Double Movement Publications. His blog and Facebook Group, both called Concrete Formalist Poetry, have been operating since 2008. Patrick lives in Portland, Oregon with his son, Jackson, and his wife, Endi Bogue Hartigan, who he met at the Iowa Writer's Workshop.
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1
deserts and streams
deserts and streams
deserts and mountains and streams
mountains and streams
mountains and streams
deserts and mountains and streams
streams and streams
streams and streams
deserts and mountains
deserts and mountains and
deserts and mountains and streams
mountains, streams
mountains
mountains, streams
mountains and streams
mountains and streams
mountains and streams
and streams and streams and
deserts and mountains and streams
mountains
mountains
deserts and streams
deserts and streams
mountains
mountains and deserts and streams and mountains and
mountains and deserts and streams***2.
no one called to you at last
no one spoke in the tired dark
no one had not waited years
quiet with waiting
no one set the wheel spinning
an arithmetic
no one lit the spark, the spark
no one lapsed
no one with arms or legs or
fingers for counting
no one home or keeping track
no one silent
it was the wind
that fit the key to the lock
the ocean
that rose for your arrival
***
3.
I own an automatic
When I see you weep it
triggers me awake
The day is not so long that I
cannot put a finger
on the soul of how I got here
Even lacking words
my heart holds in place sadness
with room to spare
***4.
Most of time
or mountains
most of mountains or
streams into deserts
most of deserts
fall into the company of time
You crest a hill
You set out early
and have made good time
Most of streams into
mountains
most of clouds into the sky
Can we say we
live for one another?
Can we speak
for tomorrow?
The news cannot get ahead of us
walking toward town
Most of mountains
into time
most of deserts into streams
into mountains
into clouds
into mountains into time
Into time into mountains
into mountains into time
most of deserts into streams into mountains
most of deserts into mountains into time
***
5.
if I
hold
rain
will
I be
rain
I do
says
I am
***
6.
Let’s begin with shovels and bricks
Let’s begin with shovels and bricks
Move the earth around
Move the earth around
wanderers, wanderers
I am hurt and on top of the world
I see the history of hurt and its champions
waving banners freshly painted
with the words You and Me
Let joy drench the land
Let joy drench the land
with the blood of hope’s infancy
Banners and bricks
Banners and bricks
Banners sagging with bricks
and shovels flinging away the blood-soaked ground
Let’s begin with the blood-soaked ground
a Gettysburg of spirit
I am polishing cannon with my hurt
I am polishing cannon
with the embroidered veil of righteousness
Move the world
Move the world for a penny
He who finds joy
at the end of a shovel will find rest
at the end of his days
The sun is a banner of transgression
The sun is a banner of hope
Move the wounded into columns of brand new hope
Let the wounded stand so we can see them
***
7.
I was not being you
but I am you
in place of you being me or
even as a result of being
The fast falling snow
scattered by the wind and
gathering
like bodies in a circus play
What is at the top?
The air
surrounding a spire as if
circles never stop
On slow days music hides
in the corners
we glimpse a pointed chin
we detect paper rustlings