My poem, “Nothing of Heaven,” is live at Vox Populi. Many thanks to editor Michael Simms for his support and kindness over the years.
Poem Up at Vox Populi
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Tag Archives: death
Poem Up at Vox Populi
My poem, “Dream Score,” is live at Vox Populi. Many thanks to editor Michael Simms for his support and kindness over the years.
Pushcart Prize Nomination
My poem “Trigger Alert,” which was published earlier this month by Stone Circle Review, has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. I am grateful to editor Lee Potts for the nomination, and for taking this piece, which is one of a series of hendecasyllabic (eleven lines consisting of eleven syllables) poems written since early September. My illness has been rough at times, but at least a few poems have emerged from it.
Poem Published at Stone Circle Review
“Trigger Alert” is live at Stone Circle Review.. I am grateful to editor Lee Potts for taking this piece, which is one of a series of hendecasyllabic (eleven lines consisting of eleven syllables) poems written since early September.
Poems Up at The Big Windows Review
My poems “Nothing Happening Again and Again,” “What Is the Sound of the Cold Moon,” and “Olive Oil Cake” are up at The Big Windows Review. I am grateful to editor Thomas Zimmerman for taking these poems, and for his generous support over the years.
Poem Published at Amethyst Review
A handful of my poems have been published since January, and in the grip of my illness I did not properly acknowledge the publications. I hope to make up for this, at least in part, by providing, at this late date, links to the poems in these journals.
“While Listening to Fleck, Hussein and Meyer, I Consider Children’s Book Titles, Hops and the Ongoing Search for Meaning,” was published at Amethyst Review in January. I am grateful to editor Sarah Law for taking this sonnet, and to Stephanie L. Harper, who provided the title during a fundraiser for Tupelo Press iin August 2016. Little did I know that four years later Stephanie and I would be married. Ah, the power of poetry.
Poem Published at Panoply
A handful of my poems have been published since January, and in the grip of my illness I did not properly acknowledge the publications. I hope to make up for this, at least in part, by providing, at this late date, links to the poems in these journals.
My poem “The Kohlrabi Polka” was published at Panoply in January. I am grateful to editors Andrea, Clara, Jeff and Ryn for taking this piece, and to Pleasant Street, who provided the title during a mini-fundraiser for Brick Street Poetry in September 2021.
Poems Published at The Big Windows Review
A handful of my poems have been published since January, and in the grip of my illness I did not properly acknowledge the publications. I hope to make up for this, at least in part, by providing links to these journals.
My poems “In That Moment of Clarity,” “Hearse, Departing,” and “In This Gray Morning I Think of Hiroshige” were published at The Big Windows Review in March. I am grateful to editor Thomas Zimmerman for taking these poems,
Scarecrow Considers the Afterlife (with recording)
Scarecrow Considers the Afterlife
Gathering threads, I join them with a central
knot, producing a sunburst flower or constellation
of ley lines spreading forth and connecting their
tenuous truths – megalith to fjord, solstice to
dodmen and feng shui, suppositions entwined
and spat out. And who’s to say which alignment
stands taller than the next, which rut, which energy,
defines our direction? When I cease to be, will I
remain or dissipate, return in another form or
explode and scatter throughout the universe, the
residue of me sizzling along the starways for eternity
or perhaps just the next twenty minutes. It is clear
that I possess no heart, no internal organs. My spine
is lattice, my skin, fabricated from jute. Eviscerate
me and straw will tumble out. I do not bleed. Yet
the crows consult me in secret and conduct their
daily mercies, and I think and dance and dream
and wonder and hope. Oh, what I hope.
* * *
This was first published at Eclectica in July 2016, with two companion pieces.
The Resonance of No (with recording)
The Resonance of No
Yes, yes, we’ve heard. The dishwasher wastes less
and cleans better. But Kenkō believed in the beauty
of leisure, and how better to make nothing
while standing with hands in soapy water, thoughts
skipping from Miles Davis’s languid notes to the spider
ascending to safe shelter under the sill (after I blow
on her to amuse myself), washing my favorite knife
and wondering if I should hone it, not to mention
my skills on the six-string or the potato peeler.
And if I linger at the plates, even the chipped one,
admiring their gleam after hot water rinses away
the soap residue, who could question the quick gulp
of ale or the shuffle of an almost-but-not-quite
dance step-or-stumble while arranging them on the
ribbed rack, back-to-back, in time to Coltrane’s
solo. Then the forgotten food processor’s blade
bites my palm, and I remember that I’ve outgrown
the dark suit, the cut branches still need bundling
and none of the words I’ve conjured and shaped
over decades and miles will extend their comfort
when I stand at my father’s grave this week or next.
“The Resonance of No,” was published in December 2016 in Gravel, and is included in my chapbook, From Every Moment a Second.
Daniel Schnee wrote about this poem here.
Music Credit: Cool Vibes Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
O at the Edges 