Monthly Archives: February 2019

Musing on My New Chapbook (3)

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The pre-publication order period for I Have a Bird to Whistle ends on February 24. I believe that there will be a small increase in price after that.

 

From where do these poems come?

The third poem in the chapbook, (soubasse, plenum, leaf), started with an interest in the sounds trees make when suffering from drought, and moved on to etymology, politics, questions of measurement and, as always, perception. The definitions of “plenum” were particularly illuminating, as were the origins of various units of measure, as were those sounds we sense but don’t hear, those feelings tugging at us, perhaps without our knowledge.

The book is available here to U.S. residents for $7.50, shipping included.

Non-U.S. purchasers can order it directly from me by emailing aBirdtoWhistle@yahoo.com.

 

Senate (Tritina)

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Senate (Tritina)

Not imposition, but welcome.  The way
cooperation welcomes coercion, turning the
tenor of the intended phrase, opening

the statement to interpretation, opening
a point without dissension, in the way
of politics, agreeing which fact will shape the

morning, which truth will determine the
next word and the subsequent, as if opening
the issue, claiming to have found the way,

one way, the only, but never actually opening.

 

* * *

A tritina might best be described as the lazy poet’s sestina, consisting of ten rather than 39 lines, with the end words of the first stanza repeating in a specific pattern in the subsequent two stanzas. The last line includes all three end words.

The patterns:
abc
cab
bca
The last line uses the end words in sequence following the pattern of the first stanza.

This first appeared on the blog in March 2017.

 

Soubasse (Recording)

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“Soubasse” is the first section of the third poem in I Have a Bird to Whistle (7 Palinodes), my new chapbook.

 

The book is available here to U.S. residents for $7.50, shipping included.

Non-U.S. purchasers can order it directly from me by emailing aBirdtoWhistle@yahoo.com.

 

 

 

Firewood

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firewood 

 

Firewood

For two years the oak
loomed, leafless.
We had aged
together, but somehow
I survived the drought
and ice storms, the
regret and wilt,
the explosions within,
and it did not.

I do not know
the rituals of trees,
how they mourn
a passing, or if
the sighs I hear
betray only my own
frailties, but even
as I fuel the saw and
tighten the chain,
I look carefully
for new growth.

 

chain saw

“Firewood” is included in my chapbook, From Every Moment a Second.

 

Eye (Recording)

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“Eye” is the third section of the second poem in I Have a Bird to Whistle (7 Palinodes), my new chapbook.

The book is available here to U.S. residents for $7.50, shipping included.

Non-U.S. purchasers can order it directly from me by emailing aBirdtoWhistle@yahoo.com.

 

 

Poems in Love Poem Anthology

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Stephanie L. Harper and I have individual poems and another collaboration in Epiphanies and Late Realizations of Love, a print anthology of love poems, now available on Amazon.

 

Which is an Eye or a Bowl, a Dream

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eyes3


Which is an Eye or a Bowl, a Dream

Or well-placed mirror in a sunburnt room, shivering through shifted
images: that hand, blackened and stout, opened like a dark peony;
the tattooed chin; shovel and torch; hook and owl. You say no one
chooses one fist over another, that bread’s rise completes its cycle
and begins anew, pressed flat and rounded. Take this heart and seal
its chambers. Note the anterior descent. Compression, lesion. Plaque.
Consequence. And your friend, who slept, never to awaken. Lying
in that strange bed, you taste salt, acknowledge change, whisper
to no one: audible house…audible tree, knowing that time’s limit
remains unclear. The air swirls and you accept this new light.

 

Note: “Audible house…audible tree” is from Jane Hirshfield’s “Not Moving Even One Step,” from The Lives of the Heart.

bowlnhashi

Door (Recording)

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“Door” is the second part of the second poem in I Have a Bird to Whistle (7 Palinodes), my new chapbook. I’ll post a recordings of the third part in the next few days.

The book is available here to U.S. residents for $7.50, shipping included.

Non-U.S. purchasers can order it directly from me by emailing aBirdtoWhistle@yahoo.com.

 

 

Doors

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door

 

Doors 

What would you conceal?
Or open to. Could you unfurl

your fist to daylight
and shudder loss away — one key,

one digit, one death — presuming the universe
and all its hinges available for inspection

behind yet another unlatched presence.
And this spinning disk,

how shall we step off? Every moon
sheds its coat. Listening, I turn the knob.

 

mooncoat

 

“Door” last appeared here in September 2017.

 

 

What Was She Thinking?

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An intriguing and wonderful response. Having and letting go…

Jazz Kendrick's avatarstepsandpauses

February 12, 2019.  Now and then a poem emerges in response to something I’ve read.  This is one of those – from puzzling over what Robert Okaji might’ve been thinking when he wrote Window Open, Closed.  Realities include Robert’s poem, listening to Alan Watts, and the imagery.  Our bay tree suffered heavily in 2018’s freeze, and though now only a fraction of its former size, the image reflects its determination to keep flavoring our suppers.  The photo collage includes a prior moon and prior clouds.

Read Robert’s poem here:   https://robertokaji.com – click HOME and scroll down to Window Open, Closed.

Listen to Alan Watts “Let Go Of Attachment” on http://www.youtube.com.

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