William L. Ramsey

On Zhao Meng-Fu’s“Wang River Scroll”-Yuan Dynasty
More interesting eventhan the mountain cottage
are the seven pine treeson a nearby slope. Alone,
except for scattered shrubs,they break the foggy distance
into fact, draw forththe gaze toward far peaks.

Origins of Echoes
There is no cleverness that can obscurethe issue more than a lifetime. The kernel
of it lasts when the body has begun to wasteand finally shines out from the mind’s foil,
shredding memory with sheer immediacy,the dry shell wet with the sound of water.

William L. Ramsey is an Associate Professor at Lander University in South Carolina. His poems have appeared over the last 25 years in Poetry, Poetry Northwest, Southern Poetry Review, The South Carolina Review, Tar River Poetry, Louisiana Literature, and other journals.