the bell of ten thousand names.
A clepsydra with veins of blood.
A caravel on a tide of bloodletting
is also our necessary clock, so
the he who is I at the
time lets out my elephantine toll.
Vein of granite, vein of quartz.
Piezoelectric hum wherefore
we cast a tiny ear of water, we
who clang and unmoor our fleet.

About this poem
"This poem is one of 14 poems called 'Time' in my forthcoming book, 'The Falling Down Dance' (Coffee House Press, 2015). It's an invocation of sorts, a launch. Electric time, geologic time, sea time: There's no end to the durational array."
-Chris Martin

About Chris Martin
Chris Martin is the author of "Becoming Weather" (Coffee House Press, 2011). He will be a visiting assistant professor at Carleton College next year and lives in Minneapolis.

(c) 2015 Chris Martin. Originally published by the Academy of American Poets, www.poets.org. Distributed by King Features Syndicate