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