Two poems, by John Levy

 

Through the Cemetery

I take this detour again.
It's in my mind. Again I find
the small boy in a dark suit
that fits him, chosen by his mother,
and he has wandered 

away from the speeches again
and taken the small red rubber ball
out of his pocket to bounce
against a headstone. He doesn't care
that a stranger, me, has also wandered 

away from the words. He throws
and catches, throws
with the measured force of a boy
who knows what he's doing
among the dead.  

 

 

Beginning with a Line from an Email from John Phillips (12/12/25)

 

“I’ve been doing a bit too much thinking in my head.”

 

All my life I’ve had this head, with visiting

thoughts

keeping me company

along with what vanishes, as do

sentences─

and then here are the people

when they stay.

 

John Levy lives in Tucson. He is married to the painter Leslie Buchanan. His most recent book is 54 poems: selected & new (Shearsman Books, 2023). A chapbook, Vast Spaces, appeared in 2026 from above/ground press. He will have a book published soon by Yavanika Press and another book published in 2027 by Shearsman Books.

The Lineage of Silence, by John Levy

 

 

Silence hid before
language 

then tried to

conceal itself
within 

words

inside each
word 

it tried

to find itself

                               for John Phillips

 

 

John Levy lives in Tucson. He is married to the painter Leslie Buchanan. His most recent poetry book is 54 poems: selected & new (Shearsman Books, 2023). Two chapbooks of his poetry were published in 2024: Guest Book for People in My Dreams (Proper Tales Press) and To Assemble an Absence (above/ground press).