“Forgetting Charm” first appeared in Issue Two of The Icarus Anthology.
Recording of “Forgetting Charm”
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Tag Archives: love
Ghazals
Steph Burt writes about the ghazal form, in particular Agha Shahid Ali’s “Tonight.” An illuminating article.
And here’s a link to Kazim Ali discussing the poem: Poetry Off the Shelf
How to Take an Amazing Photo of a Solar Eclipse
Today, of all days, I just had to reblog Stephanie L. Harper’s poem!
“Solar Eclipse with Sunspots” by Matthew Harper
First,
get knocked up,
plan a wedding in three months
and waddle down the aisle in white pumps
that fit you when you bought them.
Gain a total of forty-eight pounds
while throwing up for forty weeks,
and give birth to a nine-pound baby boy,
who is bigger and cries louder than any other
newborn in the maternity ward.
After you blink once or twice,
find yourself moving across the country
for your husband’s engineering job,
with three cats, the six-week old baby,
and all of their respective paraphernalia
crammed into a purple minivan.
Critical Step: Raising Your Boy
To do this, start learning more about more things than you knew existed;
begin appreciating that this cherubic, gorgeous,
but almost alien issue of your loins
sees individual ice crystals in distant clouds,
hears crickets chirping at dusk
over the sound of rush-hour traffic,
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Staircase at Fifteen
Staircase at Fifteen
Ascending, her centrifugal
influence captures me
and I follow,
breathless,
witless, wordless,
despite all longing
and shared
discretions, in spite
of the thundering
pulse
and the incessant
demand to act
or run.
She pauses, looks
down, sees
nothing.
Suddenly freed,
spinning off
and slowing down,
shrinking,
far below, on equal
footing but so
apart,
never to meet
in truth, unable
to define direction or
motive, I remain
fixed as she moves
higher, far away, close
but up,
always up.
Recording of “Magic”
I’m experimenting with recording. This is a slightly revised version of the one I posted a while back, with a little music added. It’s not quite where I want it to be, but hey, I’m learning.
“Magic” is included in my forthcoming chapbook, From Every Moment a Second (prepublication orders taken here), and was first published in Taos Journal of International Poetry and Art.
Please note: prepublication sales determine the print run, which means this stage is crucial in terms of how many copies will be printed and the number of copies I’ll receive as payment. So if you feel inclined and are able to help me in this commercial endeavor, please purchase your copy during this period, which runs through August 11. The book’s tentative release date is October 6.
Recording of My Poem “Latitude”
“Latitude” is included in my chapbook, From Every Moment a Second, now available for pre-publication order from Finishing Line Press. It was first published at Poetry Breakfast in October 2016. Many thanks to Cate T. for sponsoring the title during the August 2015 Tupelo Press 30/30 Challenge, and to Charlotte the hen for laying the egg that inspired the poem.
Please note: prepublication sales determine the print run, which means this stage is crucial in terms of how many copies will be printed and the number of copies I’ll receive as payment. So if you feel inclined to help this poet in his commercial endeavor (which does seem a tad strange), and are able, please purchase your copy during this period, which runs through August 11. The book’s tentative release date is October 6.
Ode to Bacon
Ode to Bacon
How you lend
yourself
to others,
enhancing even
the sweetest fig
in your embrace
over coals,
or consider
your rendered
self, how it
deepens flavor
with piggish
essence, coating
or absorbed,
blended or
sopped. O belly
of delight, o wonder
of tongues,
how could I not
love you
and your infinite
charms, even
when you resist
my efforts and
shoot sizzling bits
of yourself
onto my naked
hands? I pay
this toll
gladly,
today and
next year
and all those
days to follow,
till the last piece
is swallowed
and our sun
goes dark.
Hyperbole
becomes you,
smoked beauty,
salted love,
and I shall never
put you down
or leave you
behind
on a plate
to be discarded
or forgotten,
unloved.
With thanks to T.S. Wright, for her challenge.
December Moon (1999)
December Moon (1999)
If loneliness breathes,
then rain is its heart,
always falling to its lowest point
before receding. Water graces us
daily in all its forms – the slowest
drop, the line of ice on the wall,
your breath, so soft and even
in the cool night. But no one,
no thing, can fill the void of
departure. You exhale and turn
away, and the air, with its empty
arms, embraces the space
you’ve left. I feel this daily,
whenever we part. At forty-one
I’ve known you half my life
but have loved you even longer,
through the millennium’s demise
and all that preceded or follows.
The brightest moon for a century to come
is but a shadow in your light.
This first appeared on the blog in October 2015. It’s hard to believe that I wrote “December Moon” nearly eighteen years ago. Busy with books, work and life, I didn’t write much in the nineties. But this, the last poem of that decade, recently surfaced. The sentiments are as true today as they were then. I am a lucky man.
Recording of “Magic”
I’m experimenting with recording. This is a slightly revised version of the one I posted a while back, with a little music added. It’s not quite where I want it to be, but hey, I’m learning.
“Magic” is included in my forthcoming chapbook, From Every Moment a Second (prepublication orders taken here), and was first published in Taos Journal of International Poetry and Art.
Scarecrow Contemplates Pi
Scarecrow Contemplates Pi
At the moment you snipped away
my reticence, I spoke so eloquently
that even the stones wept at your
indifference. As you arranged my
pose and buttoned the shirt
around the wire and fodder
replenishing my torso, I understood
your roots and mine should never
merge: transcendental, and in
collusion with the irrational, we
circles cannot be squared. And
how must I reconcile my unheard
words? The longer I speak the
greater their magnitude – a balloon
expanding in volume retains its
ratio – one day my words will sift
through your filters and you will
at last receive them. I pull this
particular comfort close – that
patterns and frequencies and
tendencies become law, that the
fleshless and soulless, the mute
and misunderstood, the powerless,
the different, nevertheless will be
heard. But what of love? How may I
contend to feel, to know that which
is your right? A nervous system
conducts electrical and chemical
impulses, yet lacking these, my
coreless heart sags at the thought
of your departure. I am no man.
Is this truly not enough?
“Scarecrow Contemplates Pi” first appeared with two companion pieces in Eclectica in summer 2016.
O at the Edges 