January (a, b, c, d, e)

January (e)


Storm's Wake

Clouds curdle along the ridge
Oak limbs scrub the mottled sky
Below, tan willows but whisper
their gossip to the crows

-Mary Churchill


January (d)

I Told You So

for Brian Howlett

There is art and there is art
I do both

motor starts stops starts
the sun is a dying star
act like there’s no tomorrow
everything must be done now
mow lawn trim hedge whack weeds
blow leaves not a moment idle
driven by predestination’s curse
let no moment go unoccupied

while I slice the olives
washing machine agitating

speaks of the past
and the future
Afrique Afrique Afrique
it says to me in French

the thumb all along
destined for greater things
beyond its mere grasping ambitions

“I have written a truly marvelous poem
which this page is too narrow to contain”
signed Son of Fermat

space suit
clothed by circumstance

I can be the center of the universe
or an imaginary particle
to go quietly mad or madly quiet

neck deep in river
ducks float up like guests at a cocktail party
my head on a platter of sun splotched liquid

no one needs to know what I know

-Pat Nolan


January (c)

Moon Yoga:

Everything is still

everything moves

in the silvery net of moonlight

trees are finally themselves

after a full day of just standing there

-Eric Moes


January (b)

Simply

That beautiful unmade bed of Li Po

how I would like to join him there

the moonlight breaking up my soft body

and silence caressing the world

maybe a bird call of love for me and Li Po

and the whole world alone

-Janice Fisher


January (a)

Moon: Take 1

Fog and rain
pressing into the corners of my window,
as I flatten my cheek against the glass,
and bring the fog inside,
with my breath.
A dark sky, nothing.
Flashing television ads
from the third-floor window across the street
will be the moon tonight.


-Seraphina Goldfarb-Tarrant