I am thrilled that Does It Have Pockets has published three of my recent prose poems, “Metastases,” “A Patient Noose,” and “Everywhere But Here.” I am grateful to editor Camille Griep for making space for these poems.
I am thrilled that Indianapolis Review has published two of my recent poems, “The Over/Under” and “Bargaining.” I am grateful to editor Natalie Solmer for taking these poems.
Don Perkins responded, but the formatting was off, ruining his superb poem. Here we go again:
Mustanged Ghazal for/from Bob and Anna Marie
It’s sometimes funny, and sometimes it’s not,
the phantoms that swim up from memory’s murk.
A dangerous thing, that dream of power
born from falsehoods escaping memory’s murk.
Drop everything for joy,* a blessing saved
and consumed like breath from memory’s murk.
Return to rituals we were to the night;
Shake loose, dance to tunes from memory’s murk.
Describe yourself in colors named in songs,
And mixed from pigments aswirl in memory’s murk.
Stumble, poefying down the path of life,**,
Bemused by the sun and memory’s murk.
Don Perkins 11 Feb 2024
Acknowledgements: Bob Okaji; Anna Marie Sewell; * Shawna Lemay, “Finding Your Joy,” Transactions with Beauty, 3 Feb 2024;
** Anna Marie Sewell, email 10 Feb 2024.
The Zoom Saloon was so much fun! If you’re inclined to respond to our poems, please do so in the comments here or at Prairiepomes.
I will be the featured reader at the ZOOM SALOON hosted by Anna Marie Sewell on February 10, at 1 PM MDT (3 PM Eastern). I’m excited about this. Last year, on February 10 (!!!), I lost my voice. For months I could barely speak. But it’s back now!
Here’s the link:
Join Zoom Meeting
I will be the featured reader at the ZOOM SALOON hosted by Anna Marie Sewell on February 10, at 1 PM MDT (3 PM Eastern). I’m excited about this. Last year, on February 10 (!!!), I lost my voice. For months I could barely speak. But it’s back now!
No need to RSVP. I’ll post the link later in the week (or email me, and I’ll get it to you). I’ve been following Anna Marie Sewell for many years, and I love and admire her work and dedication to the arts. If you’re not familiar with her writing, you must visit Prairiepomes.
I am thrilled that Midwest Zen has published six of my shakuhachi poems, which were written in November 2017, during a self-imposed poem-a-day jag. I am grateful to editor Mark Howell for taking these poems. I still can’t play that damned flute!
My poem “I’ll Have the Body Sandwich, and Hold the “Me,” Please” is live at Poem Alone. I am grateful to editor Colin Dardis for taking this piece, and to artist Ron Throop for providing the title during a fundraiser for Brick Street Poetry a couple of years ago.
I’m delighted to announce that my poems “Moon Cows” and “In the Batter’s Box” have been published in the print journal Shō Poetry Journal. A photo of “In the Batter’s Box” appears below. Thank you editors Johnny Cordona and Dominique Ahkong for taking these pieces. The journal features work by such luminaries as Jack Bedell, Ariel Francisco, Arah Ko, Robert L. Penick, Sage Ravenwood and Jane Zwart, among others.
Note: My two poems are part of a series of hendecasyllabic poems (eleven-line poems, each line of which consists of eleven syllables) written since early September. Another in the series, “Trigger Alert,” was published by Stone Circle Review this past fall.
Until
This face looking back at me never lies.
I feel as if I’ve cheated, drawn the winning
ticket, passed the exam without suffering
through classes and boring soliloquies.
Then I see the sagging jowls, the dark
circles, those lines—so many of them—
marking time and various scars
invisible to the unaided eye. When death
failed to claim me, I inhaled the ecstatic
fumes of second chances, faked my way
through another sixteen months of drudgery
before pulling the plug. Now, seven years
later, a thousand miles to the north, I study
you lying behind me in bed, unaware
of my gaze, of the power you possess
even asleep, and I wonder how to retain
this minute, these days and all that will unwind
so slowly, so quickly, inevitably, until.
“Until” was published in (print-only) Shō Poetry Journal last June. I was thrilled to have poetry published in this excellent journal, and am pleased that the next issue, coming out in January, contains two of my recent pieces. Thank you, Johnny Cordova and Dominique Ahkong, for your continuing support! I urge you all to peruse their site, and to send them your best poetry.
O at the Edges 