My poem “Well Pump” is up at Amethyst Review.
Many thanks to editor Sarah Law for accepting it.
Poem Up at Amethyst Review
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Tag Archives: poetry
The Simplest Coercion
The Simplest Coercion
Each portrait betrays a similar
attraction: faces
swallowed by the artist’s
eye, his sight being
beyond optic, that assumption
inherent in every expression
but one. Yet this, the self-
portrait, reveals a hint
of secrets – an unwillingness
to confront,
the simplest coercion.
This first appeared on the blog in May 2015.
Poem Live at Panoply
My poem “Helsinki” is live at Panoply. It was inspired in part by a Facebook thread on which editors commented on what caused them to instantly reject poems. One said beginning a poem at a window was cause for rejection. Hence the first line.
Insomnia
Insomnia
Lying awake
at two in the morning,
wondering
how a dog would suffer
sleeplessness –
silently, or with little
growls and snuffles,
scratching at its
padded bed
in exasperation,
circling, turning
back, again.
I roll to the left,
then to the right,
and flat on my back,
groaning at the pain
in my hip and the anger
of the day’s impending
bull on my shoulders,
and the looming
banshee cry
of that damned alarm.
Three Poems Up at ISACOUSTIC
My poems “Black Lilies,” “Forgotten” and “Palinode (Texas, cedar, misery)” are featured at ISACOUSTIC. Many thanks to editor Barton Smock for taking these.
Huazi Ridge (After Wang Wei)
Huazi Ridge
Limitless birds merging
with the autumn-colored hills
all along Huazi Ridge
this sadness, too, without end
Another adaptation. I hope that I’ve not strayed too far from the original’s tone.
The transliteration on Chinese-Poems.com offers:
Fly bird go no limit
Join mountain again autumn colour
Up down Huazi Ridge
Melancholy feeling what extreme
“Huazi Ridge” last appeared on the blog in June 2016.
Self-Portrait with Knife
Self-Portrait with Knife
Lacking benefit of prayer or belief,
it slips through flesh,
praising its temerity. Or,
parting the onion’s core, reclaims
the right to weep.
How many nights have we shared
these pleasures? I smooth the blade
with steel, listening to the fine hum.
“Self-Portrait with Knife” first appeared here in January 2015.
Forced to Eat Soft Food, I Consider Options
Forced to Eat Soft Food, I Consider Options
What good is pizza to one who can’t eat it? I’m thinking of a rolled crust
stuffed with prosciutto and parmesan, with onion strands and whole
basil leaves nestled among them, accompanied by a frothy pale ale,
bitter yet smooth and tuned so finely as to flit comfortably between the
notes of a liquid arpeggio. Or if not pizza, perhaps a red chili of braised
and shredded beef seasoned with ancho and chipotle and a smidgeon
of chocolate and beer, simmered slowly and served on the year’s
coldest day in front of the fireplace. I have so much and am grateful
for so little. My clothes are warm and dry, and the eggs I’ve poached
offer me sustenance and flavor and textures wrought of memories
of childhood and comfort, family and treasured books at hand. Then
I think of water and protectors, of standing rocks and centuries of
abuse and neglect and lies bred to fill coffers, and I wonder if we
could pile stones ten horses high around the cowards who spray,
bludgeon and strip search, who fire water cannons in sub-freezing
temperatures, and throw concussion grenades directly at pacifists, all
for the cause of holy oil. What good is pizza to those who can’t swallow?
I fork a bite of egg to my mouth, and choke, but only for a moment.
Written while recovering from abdominal surgery, this appeared on the blog in December 2016 just a day or two after the first draft spilled out. Unusual for me, to say the least, but it was a topical piece. Let us not forget those who stand for us and others.
New Year
New Year
How transparent you’ve become:
even the leaves blow through
your pockets, and penitents
line up, awaiting the latest word.
Those who have, fear the most.
Each day collapses under its own
weight, rising again into the new.
Surgery brooks no illusions;
this house, too, will fail.
Owning little, I pour tea and wait.
“New Year” first appeared here on January 1, 2017.
Poem Up at Spider Mirror
My poem “Hunger is Hunger” is up at Spider Mirror.
The poem was drafted during the August 2015 Tupelo Press 30-30 challenge.
O at the Edges 