Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Greetings, Friends! I present - The Selected Poems of the Second Quarter of 2014. We begin with two short poems. And don't forget - another Full Moon is coming up this Friday. Take the time to write that poem you've always wanted to write, and send it to us.







Solstice in the Park

dusty pines, tall swaying palms
pied speckled flowers
virid grasses
children jumping into indigo skies
glistening papaya sun
i savor cool summer water

--Morgan Zo Callahan


Blueberries
picking on way to
morning shower

Odin is only 1 ½

bent down in the
thick morning fog
two poles rise into

fore legs...moose
gently sniffing us

--Joyce Pointe
Our Third Selected Poem.




In An Instant

When the clouds parted
we drove on rain slicks of sun
smooth as molten gold
                          and the cars before us
trailed their tire sprays
releasing little rainbows
then up the shoreline again into rain
holding on to our sunspots
                          afterimages
then released them
into the storm’s edge.
That our bodies can trap that light
if only for the length of a breath!
memories released
                          quicksilver droplets
for we were brief as salmon
that leap fully into the air
that hang for a moment on arcs
                          water falling slowly
if we are not immortal now
we were immortal then
                          for the flesh of that instant.

--Wulf Losee
Our Fourth and Fifth Selected Poems. A lovely, scholarly translation, and a ribald, modern transposition.





On Visiting Dai Tianshan, the Taoist Priest, But Not Finding Him
by Li Bai (李白)

amid the water sounds, a dog’s bark
peach blossoms fall, a thick rain
sometimes I see deer deep among the trees
by the stream I do not hear the noonday bell
wild bamboo divides the blue mist
a flying waterfall hangs from a green crag
he’s left and no one knows where he’s gone
disappointed I lean against a forked pine

--English version by Wulf Losee


On Visiting Dai Tianshan, the Taoist Priest, But Not Finding Him
by Li Bai (李白)

fucking dog
always barking
a leaky valve
the peaches have set
rain, thick and heavy
a neighbor’s goat
is loose
the tape of
the chapel bells
has broken
the scotch broom
divides the fog
a forked branch stuck
in the storm drain
WTF
he doesn’t answer
his cellphone
bummed
I lean against
the nearest
light pole

--English version by Brian Howlett