Poetry - Year V - Number 42 - November 2020

THE FIRST LOCKDOWN birdsong splashed mornings grass-shadowed fawns quail, rabbits and coyotes abound a brief reprieve, Brothers and Sisters Fool’s Gold how lonely we’ll be when you’re gone I read once that nothing is ever lost. Does Gaia hold you always in her heart—your spirit,...

Creekside Why can’t every day be pancake morning?  Last night Mom made treaty with the monster under my bed. Front yard pine needles nest in my hair because I won’t give up on keeping tally of fireflies. Mouse...

AMULET voice of Penelope 62 All the young men came in  But you were never there Standing as likely under a rafter  Off-center  Visible enough 63 As a still small-footed  Never old & wandering vine  Your trunk the exact imperfect Square pillar 64 Light red leaves  On a low...

BEETHOVEN A memory within music, a ripening with vineyards overgrown, and your mind's ear in tune; alert with days you look through a small window at strangers, the relentless wave-pulse, uncorked knowledge on a journey through a territory where time gathers shards of meaning. A frustration of the...

Pulse What of the drum its timbre a taut membrane between beat and rest systole/             diastole pounding blood to the surface, twinning one’s body to the world. If you give yourself to it, find yourself on a riverbank at night padding a cadence barefoot until mud...

The Cork Oak of Portugal Riding the bus down and along— Lisbon to Faro on the Algarve coast, passing through dry, hilly forests— from the distance of your seat, they seem to be the same burly oaks of California—many with...

Goulburn A muddy river flanked by gums wanders through town past rope swings hanging from high branches, rippling around snags and sandbanks, flowing home Tingalpa The bush spread to the reservoir’s edge. Water stretched out of sight round the peninsula. Wind-blown waves chopped across...

The Solo PerformerThe tiny ballerina, hersummer run long over,limbs brown and withered,hanging hair disheveled,bends stiffly at the hip,shriveled hands stretchedto the tip of an extended toe,frozen in a permanent pose of thanksfor praise of...

M Charactered And in the glare Mu Cephei roils As if to dare armed craft to draw near Or to deter steel souls from rare risk Which is the high dream I Kalki chose So now I boost thrust...

Alma Desatada A serração desceu rápida e do-í-da.Veio duma latência em rodeios Açorianos.Solitário rochedo, suspenso em fosca água-lusa.Longe, o coro das oliveiras ao léu. Açores! Por quem te desatei as naus um dia... Volátil, irado, vulcanizado.Mouro-Sefardita dum...