January Selections

The Full Moon Poetry Society judges have convened and selected the five poems for January. They are poems # 3, 5, 9, 14, & 18.

1

Moon through tree branches
Prepares to make its summit
Reflecting fiercely

-Tom Snow

submitted January 2010

2

Heart Sutra Abbreviated

Everything is nothing.
Nothing is everything.
So get over it.

-Bill Krumbein

submitted January 2010

3

Rain on Sonoma Mountain.
The full moon is but a whisper:
the temple bell,
the boasting frogs.

-Amos Clifford

selected January 2010

4

one full breath escapes
under big round moon hoot owl
alerts the possum

-Donna D'Orio


submitted January 2010

5

Morning Walk

red hand flashing
waiting at intersection
smell the bacon frying

-Bill Krumbein

selected January 2010

6

Full blue-moon shines
Northwest wind bites
Ode to Joy on the car radio.
Two lovers anticipate
His return home.

-Kirk Rhoads

submitted January 2010

7

Behind

No man
Has ever seen
Her behind *

Some say
To gaze upon her face
Is to gaze into her soul
Others wood rather
Look upon her backside
And gaze into her
Oh no no !

On the other hand
Venus has no penis
Not that we know of
And if she did
2 what purpose
she could not hold it *

Einstein said its all relative
Was he talking about incest ???
I do not no
I do knot have a degree *

But really
Do you thinkThe

Moon
Will ever turn around *

-Bob Knab

submitted January 2010

8

High drunk on liquor, liquor of sun,
Liquor of sunset, liquor of stars,
Liquor of clouds, liquor of moon,
Liquor of moonrise, liquor of rain,
Liquor of dawn, liquor of frost,
Liquor of twilight, liquor of pain,
Liquor of work, liquor of rest,
Liquor of first light, liquor of cars,
Liquor of art, liquor of sex,
Liquor of sitting, walking, and talk,
Liquor of tv, texting and fun.
Drunk on the precept not to get drunk
This is a test that I’m likely to flunk.

-Patrick Mizelle

submitted January 2010

9

Weeks of iron frost flee
Warm before the southern breeze
As ants appear again and go about
Their task of tidying up the world
Pretending winter never intervened
Chickadees fuss at the seed feeder
Sun and the bloodroot blooms
Bring out the sweet wet smell of earth
A few brown-edged camellias tease the eye
Scouts sniffing out the risks of January thaw
Before the next deep freeze arrives
Bluest of skies, crow caws, hawk cries
With wise wide wild surprise

-Patrick Mizelle

selected January 2010

10

Ai, Ayiti!
Catastrophe our own mortality
Writ large disaster—evil stars—
Karma devils fate
Propensity or just geology

Rumbling earth violent sky
Treacherous sea capricious flame
The drip drip chain of change
Or sudden snap

His Venerable Antiquity inscrutable
Plays snakes and ladders in the lounge upstairs
To the music of the spheres et
Clamor meus ad te veniat
Or is it all just atoms
Singing to themselves
Enigma Variations in continuous loop
No need to read a tarot deck
To see chateaux Descartes all out of luck

Thought taste touch smell
Sight hearing bodhi body
Corpse carrion cadaver shell

If life or death have meaning it is lost on me
I cannot tell you only watch and see
Hands held might we kind hearts together be
All onward past eternity

Knot knot knot no
Not not not know
Hri

-Patrick Mizelle

submitted January 2010

11

In literature and my imagination, sex
Is always paradise with ideal timing, shared
So silkenly with perfect partners, undefiled
By awkward chit-chat, smokes, or whining,
Bad breath, unclipped fingernails, or farts,
Broken condoms, zits, or disappointing parts;
No telephone intrudes, no television blares,
No former partner’s picture stares.

Prince Charming rummages in Fancy’s pants.
Poor cinder-sat Reality can’t stand a chance,
Though whisked in an enchantment to the dance.
Confused in her illusion, bound to lose,
She finds she cannot waltz in her glass shoes.

-Patrick Mizelle

submitted January 2010