The Apostrophe Blog
My poem, “The Weight of Too Much,” was published in Margie: The American Journal of Poetry in Fall 2006—one of my first poetry publication successes! Margie is an annual literary journal based in Chesterfield, Missouri that features the work of the nation’s leading poets. This journal was established in 2000; it is named after and dedicated to the memory of Marjorie J. Wilson (1955-1977). This poem later appeared in my chapbook, The Hours of Us.
The Weight of Too Much
The great-horned owl,
down the long branch from
burl and bunion,
cranks up the silence.
High in the canopy,
I clamp binoculars over my eyes.
I’ve hidden in this tree so long
there’s no life to see,
no life that wants me
not even the too-dumb-to-know-better
sheep in the university
barn over the next hill.
Rain through the night changes
driveways to rivers,
my tree into an ark
atop the Oregon Ararat.
Limb by limb, I descend,
sinner with no two of anything,
spared.
The kitchen skylight taunts me
to sing the praises of heaven.
Tongue tied, I flee.
Turn my back on
the closet’s cedar secrets,
a compost fattened on the alphabet,
file drawers near-starvation,
every manuscript incomplete.
My prison was always my own making—
a stage set trompe l’oeil—
the bars an inferior
alloy of shame and regret.
The public domain image above is a scan of an illustration in the 1903 edition of The birds of North America.
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.
- Published Online after Being in Print: “And I will tell you a story” - September 5, 2024
- Oregon Poetry Association Honorable Mention for a Prose Poem - September 2, 2024
- Playing with Form: The Abecedarian - August 28, 2024
