THE PANUM POEMS

The Panum Poems, by daring to look beneath the skin, become invaluable to the student of art, illuminating to the general reader, and instructive to all who are fascinated by the enigma of the human face.

Ekstasis Editions, 1996 ISBN 0-921215-93-2, 61p, 16 full page illustrations Box 8474, Main Postal Outlet, Victoria BC Canada V8W 3S1 Buy The Panum Poems from Amazon.com

"I wrote these poems while making anatomical drawings at the Panum Institute in Copenhagen. Each deals with the particular facial muscle I was concentrating on, down there in the basement among the vats. I think I wrote them to get the alcohol stink and general grisliness out of my system. And to remind myself of what these intricate muscles express, and evoke, in our communication one with another." Heather Spears

"It was wonderful to read poems that gave anatomy such a wide, exciting and powerfully psychological reading." Stephen Scofield

"It's what I hope for, or fear, that resonant line or image that will make it impossible for me to sleep at night, or to breathe easily." Susan Musgrave, The Weekend Sun

M. temporalis

If you put your head to your temples
you will find
them covering up two other hands
forever yours, as much as ever is,

temporalis, stretched
over the almost windowed mind
as if behind such beaten alabast
the minnowy temporary tick
of neurons could be counted, visible–

and time
touches first here with its white hair
who knows why? most beautiful
name, and shapely too the way these lie
steep at the caving in behind the eyes
two simple slips along the bone
and hold the head in secret, and mean no harm.
As if a voice said, Look, look forward, that
is what is coming,
do not flinch.

POETRY , SCIENCE FICTION, BOOKS OF DRAWINGS

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