A Poem Inscribed on the Inside of the Chimney

for Neil Silberblatt

One night this summer

My wife and I were woken

From sweet slumber

By the furtive sound

Of a squirrel scratching

At the inside of the chimney

Which descends through

Our bedroom wall

And I thought to myself

Scratching at the chimney

Words etched in soot black

How apt a metaphor is that

For my own poetic endeavors

Before falling back asleep and

In the cradle of darkness

Finding complete release

As the squirrel soon did too

The image I chose to accompany this poem is by the contemporary Chinese artist Chen Fanyuan.  He is an abstract calligrapher -- if you can even begin to imagine such a thing -- and I love the luminous quality of his work.  This image is one that seems to come closest the poem the squirrel inscribed and I tried to translate in my dream.