The Apostrophe Blog
In Fall 2016, two of my poems, “Meridian,” and “Tide Table,” were published in From the Finger Lakes: A Poetry Anthology in Fall 2016.
Here’s a bit more about this collection from the volume’s website:
“The Finger Lakes Region of New York is easy to find on a map. But is there something intangible here, a spirit that can touch the human heart? This anthology of poems from more than 100 authors includes the well established and those just commencing the poetic craft. You will find a wide variety of voices and content here attesting to a felt connection with the Finger Lakes, and also poems that take a reader to other regions where poetry alone can sail.”
Both of these poems previously appeared in my full-length poetry collection, Every Door Recklessly Ajar, published in 2015 by Cayuga Lake Books. “Meridian” won first place in the Free Verse category of the Oregon Poetry Association’s Spring 2013 contest. “Tide Table” won first place in the Traditional Verse category of the Oregon Poetry Association’s Fall 2013 contest.
MERIDIAN
Maybe you wanted to become
the sun, be noon, stand
on the threshold between
ante and post. Maybe you resolved
to straddle magnetic poles, mold
latitude from every veil wrapped
around your heart. How long before,
elastic knotted into a jungle of jump
rope that snapped then stung
the legs? Later came the celestial,
constant, every coordinate deemed
scribble then muck. Maybe you’d hoped for
a tooth of recognition, a dermis of float,
skein from salts, in the bath
one ellipsis inside a great-circle
symphony of wins or prepositions,
a cut-off pinky, saintly relic
resurrected within the lines
of longitude through St. Peter’s
holy holy holy in Rome. How long
could you stand before the bullet-
proof glass and weep, one more son
marbled across his mother. Her gaze:
window on your midday, your own lost
count, the too many pulses past
ante and post.
On the threshold.
Your sun dallying.
Meridian.
Crossing at noon.
TIDE TABLE
Leadbetter Point
Willapa National Wildlife Refuge, Washington
beyond the edge of words a fading line
surrendered into silence syntax moved
directing where to stalk or pantomime
in semaphores the byways unimproved
beyond the edge of worlds a failing dream
that seeks to beach the tidal rising fast
past slipstream rush through estuary sea
runs eeling too a salted push of grass
for refuge snowy plovers poised to lift
from mudflat nests gone boggy skyward hail
upended wintering down a calling cliff
beyond the edge of worth what loss unveils
inscription on the fly leaf faithful no
ellipses still how much I do not know
Interests: Reading, writing, not arithmetic. The art and craft of poetry. Photography. Vegetable and flower gardening especially heirloom bulbs and dahlias. Movies in real theatres. Theatre on real stages. Art in real galleries. Crossword puzzles and, of course, Wordle. Singer-songwriters like Aimee Mann and Patti Griffin. All kinds of music especially 1930s jazz. Venice, Italy! The Dude abides.
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