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.
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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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