Walking to school we see her ahead,
something large and furry flopping out of a sandwich of napkins. Shuddering we run up to her, urgently tell her to deposit her load: a dead pine marten head hanging out of its tender shroud. Did she think it alive, a new pet? No. She worried the birds would plunder the Picture Book form. She wanted to bring it school, find a quiet burial spot in the Garden: a homemade cross, penciled prayer. Her autistic mind all raw absolutes. Body deposited in a bush, we now debate washing hands while wiping down her well-done disappointment. This poem was included in the 2017 Origami Poems Project anthology, The Best of Kindness, found on Amazon
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The following publication is a PDF of a mini-chapbook called 23.5 Degrees, published by the Origami Poems Project in July 2019.
The cloud steams up our eyes:
countless frantic dragonflies swarming under a darkening sky, prehistorically old hunting frenzy. The children zip out of the class and are immediately ooohed into reverence. Modern mammals admiring ancient insects with wings older than the Himalayas, dinosaurs. The children estimate the numbers, give similes to describe the chaos. “they look like a cloud breathing in and out, not sure of its shape.” Published in The Dawntreader #47, Summer 2019 We unearthed this lost emperor
of men managing an agriturismo tucked up against the palace of Perno, population 75, bordered by the rich Barolo vineyards. First met we thought him a local worker, in his woollen hat, jogging bottoms, pointing out a parking place, then up a stone shattered path to the yellow bricked walls. Softly spoken, confidence crumbles like the crumbled clay of the ancient seabed, heaved up with the Alps, weathered over millennia, moulded into a landscape of masculinity half- way between snow and sea. No weather washes out his smile, not even his inactive left arm: a winter vine stump topped by a swollen hand, gnarled knuckles, lumpy stems that hints at a cruel season. Tenderly manoeuvred into action by his patient right branch, like the vintners in the snow speckled hills, trimming back deadwood to guide the whispers of new growth, while winter’s fatalities crackle into memorial smoke of renewal. Holy man, always remembering water with wine: naturale o frizzante? He taught us all the names of famous hilltop towns and castles, pointed where proud Barolo sits cuddled jealousy by Langhe arms. He bade us to listen to the birds in the scruffy rattini valley below. Tranquilla, tranquilla, he told us, holding a moment of silent grace as proud of his Piedmont paradise as any of the old vineyard families. Wake to songbirds excited that snow becomes a legend and the sky talks bluely of Spring. Go to sleep to the screeches of owls owning dark hills drawn close under unveiled winks. When we left, sadness blossomed and hung purpled in our woods. No more guests that day. Shook his greenwood hand. The hardwood hand held back, just smiles for us. Published July 2019 in #24 of The Brasilia Review. |
Poetry Biography:I have had over 70 poems published in the following worldwide magazines and literary journals: A Handful of Stones, Acta Victoriana (Canada), All the Sins (UK), The Amethyst Review (USA), Amsterdam Quarterly (NL) The Blue Nib (Ireland), Bolts of Silk, Borderless Journal, The Brasilia Review (Brazil), Bushfire Literature & Arts Review (US), Cadenza, Cake Magazine, Carillon, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal (Hong Kong), DASH (USA), Clackamas Literary Review (USA), Cooch Behar Anthology, Dawntreader, Dreamcatcher, The Dillydoun Review, Earth Love, The Ear (US), Eastlit (East Asia), Erbacce, Envoi, Finger Dance Festival, Ginosko, Gloom Cupboard, Hidden Channel, Inlandia Journal, IS&T (Ink, Sweat & Tears), Into the Void (Canada), The Journal, The Lakeview Journal (India), Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Lunch Ticket (USA) The New Writer, One Hand Clapping, Orbis, Oregon English Journal (USA), The Passage Between, Prole, Sentinel Literary Quarterly, Sonic Boom (India), Third Wednesday (USA), Of Nepalese Clay (Nepal), New Contrast (South Africa), One Hand Clapping, Opportunity Publishing, The Oregon English Journal (USA) Origami Poems Project (USA), The Paddock Review (USA), Panoplyzine (USA), Paper Swan Press, The Passage Between, The Peacock Journal (USA), Pens on Fire, Poetry Salzburg (Austria), Potomac Review, (USA) Prole, Pulsar Poetry, Rear View Poetry, Queen Mob's Teahouse, Qutub Minar Review (India), Red Ink, Shiela-Na-Gig (USA), South Bank Poetry Magazine, Stand, Waterford Teachers Centre, (Ireland) We Are a Website New Literary Journal (Singapore), Weber - The Contemporary West Review (USA), Windfall (USA), Writing Magazine, Words for the Wild and Verbal Art (India). Archives
March 2024
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