Category: Poetry

POEM: Last Hurrah At The Stevens Motel

Published 20 May 2025 by Jason Crane

Last Hurrah At The Stevens Motel

Every expense was spared
at the Stevens Motel.
No art in the room.
Overhead florescent light.
One malfunctioning lamp by the bed.
One interrogation lamp on the desk.
When my former sorta-in-laws stayed here
I thought it was quaint.
Doing it alone is … grim.
Kelly asked if this would be
my last trip to State College.
That hadn’t even occurred to me,
but maybe?
What a gift that would be.
It’s taken me years to survive this town.
To reclaim some of what it stole.
As I watch my son get ready to leave,
I hope his mom will follow,
so none of us need ever come back.

/ / /

17 May 2025
State College PA

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POEM: On the same day I learned my aunt would likely die

Published 15 May 2025 by Jason Crane

On the same day I learned my aunt would likely die

On the same day I learned
my aunt would likely die,
I sent a photo of my cat and me
to my mom – the first text in years.
I couldn’t tell you why,
other than I’m not as angry as I was
and my cousin is about to lose
her second parent in a month.
Maybe rage and love must balance
for my universe to exist,
some mathematical equation
I feel without understanding.
I’ve never been good at math
but I’ve always been good at feeling.
I’m like a reverse Matt Damon in that movie
whose title, of course, I know.
I’m being poetic.
Anyway my mom responded
with a photo of their cats.
Then my cousin said it’s close.
Alex Bregman hit a home run.
I breath in, try to feel the math.

/ / /

14 May 2025
Charlottesville VA

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POEM: Deluge

Published 14 May 2025 by Jason Crane

Deluge

It’s been raining for 24 hours,
so long the water has won
its battle over caulk
and now my cat is mesmerized
by the drops and streams
running down the bedroom wall.
I hurry to save photos
I’ve stuck up with Blu-Tack:
the only photo of my father;
my grandmother, young and coiffed;
me as a baby
against a portrait studio backdrop.
As the water drips and pools,
my body remembers a night in the van
when hours of rain exposed
a slow leak in the ceiling,
right above my cot.
There was nowhere else to lie
in those 32 square feet.
On this night I wad up a towel
at the base of the wall,
send a text to the landlord,
try to ignore the dripping.
It takes a long time
for sleep to come.

/ / /

13 May 2025
Charlottesville VA

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POEM: Ash And Stone

Published 11 May 2025 by Jason Crane

Ash And Stone

Perhaps even the abuse
was the best they could do.
We are none of us prepared
to shepherd a helpless life,
to watch it grow beyond us
while still needing – or worse,
not needing – our guidance.
I tended the fires of rage
until my heart ran out of fuel,
until in the ashes that remained
I found a stone that was
warm to the touch, and silent.

/ / /

11 May 2025
Charlottesville, VA

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POEM: New Pope

Published 8 May 2025 by Jason Crane

New Pope

The new pope is an old white dude.
I mean they’re usually old white dudes.
He once said social media causes the gay.
I’m paraphrasing.
The new pope was born in Chicago.
Might have grown up a Cubs or a White Sox fan.
Eating deep dish, listening to the blues.
Probably not the blues thing, though.
The new pope looked kinda stunned on TV.
Maybe he was thinking:
“We’re still doing this shit?”
He looked as good in the hat as anyone.
His Italian sounded OK to me
but then again I don’t speak Italian.
The new pope is infallible now, I guess.
That’ll make Vatican trivia night easier.

/ / /

8 May 2025
Charlottesville VA

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POEM: in the air (Wed 1:23 PM)

Published 7 May 2025 by Jason Crane

in the air (Wed 1:23 PM)

a cardinal, who then swoops
low over the grass

smoke from two sticks of Japanese incense
burning in an ash-filled Mason jar

the sound of Scott Robinson’s bari sax
with the New Art Orchestra

two little brown birds (maybe house sparrows)
heading for the empty feeders

a mid-sized jet
bound for Charlotte NC

the voice of a work at the perpetually
under-construction house next door

birdsong
so much birdsong

a truck engine
on the busy road nearby

one slowly descending maple leaf

a sense of anticipation

oh, and a hawk

/ / /

7 May 2025
Charlottesville VA

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POEM: flipping

Published 7 May 2025 by Jason Crane

flipping

flipping through
Patrick Heron’s paintings
on my phone
I think:
perhaps these aren’t for me
before I slap myself
across the face of my mind
and remember:
I haven’t seen them yet

/ / /

6 May 2025
Charlottesville VA

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POEM: Avoid The Area

Published 5 May 2025 by Jason Crane

Avoid The Area

police activity at the Rotunda:
problem or solution?
the phone buzzes
avoid the area

Jefferson’s roads have too many cars
he didn’t see this coming
too busy … you know
avoid the area

a softening of the heart
a lowering of walls
advice over the phone:
avoid the area

later we learn
someone shot himself
in the dark on the campus lawn
avoid the area

sell yourself short
sell yourself cheap
just sell yourself
avoid the area

don’t ask questions
don’t speak up
don’t make waves
avoid the area

/ / /

5/5/25
Charlottesville VA

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POEM: The Man I Was(n’t)

Published 1 May 2025 by Jason Crane

The Man I Was(n’t)

I’m not the man I was
or the man I pretended to be
I’ve shed that skin
stepped into the new glory of self
I was given a mouse’s moniker
standing by the bus one afternoon
my first glimpse of a world
beyond the walls of expectation
later still, one strap down,
triangle pendant flashing,
I danced to Erasure and felt
a gate open in my chest
it closed again
but not forever

/ / /

1 May 2025
Charlottesville VA

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Poem: POND LEHOCKY

Published 29 April 2025 by Jason Crane

POND LEHOCKY

I love the way you type your PIN
like it only works if you attack your phone
as if the screen knows you want in
but it would prefer you to leave it alone
perhaps it’s trying to save your brain
from Bezos and Musk and all their goons
maybe it knows they’re such a drain
it would rather you just watch cartoons
I like the sides of you that I have seen
on adventures or around the house
right up until you break your screen
I’m glad I get to be your mouse

/ / /

29 April 2025
Charlottesville VA

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POEM: close

Published 20 April 2025 by Jason Crane

close

every encounter is a mixture
of delight and regret

I’m pushing the big rock
up a steep hill

am I strong enough to let go?
will it roll over me?

my headphones block the sound of the train
as it carries me fa(r)ther away

past a hundred rectangles
divided into a thousand rectangles

I turn on Coltrane, sit back
watch the blurry trees

/ / /

19 April 2025
Washington D.C.

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POEM: all aboard

Published 20 April 2025 by Jason Crane

all aboard

a train is a good place
to write a poem
even a train that hasn’t left yet
is full of possibility
a train puts me at ease
no traffic, no tolls
no need to navigate
just ride the rails
until you get to your station
it’s a terrible metaphor for life
but my favorite way to travel

/ / /

19 April 2025
Charlottesville VA

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POEM: mayflies

Published 18 April 2025 by Jason Crane

mayflies

mayflies dead on the streets of Selma
mayflies dead on the Edmund Pettus Bridge
David and I are there to remember
to pay our respects, to see
but everywhere we look
the streets and sidewalks are covered
with drifts of mayfly carcasses
heaps of translucent white wings
uncountable numbers of corpses
we try not to step on them
it’s all but impossible
we walk with a sickening crunch
across that weighty bridge
emerging on the other side
two white people unscathed
on a field of the dead

/ / /

18 April 2025
Charlottesville VA

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POEM: this place is nowhere

Published 18 April 2025 by Jason Crane

this place is nowhere

I have learned nothing
about this place
I know the route from home to work
from home to Wegmans
from home to downtown
when my partner drives back
to their other place
I don’t know which direction they go
most days I seem to be floating
like Fenchurch in the Adams book
never quite touching the ground
today someone from afar
told me I’m flourishing
my sister says my life is stable
my kids, well, I’m never sure about them
but me? I’m here but not here
like a main street façade
built for a movie
it looks real if you don’t get too close
don’t peek around the back
don’t see the beams
propping up the illusion
I’m a dusty western town
tumbleweeds blowing through
a short hop from the highway
that goes everywhere and nowhere

/ / /

17 April 2025
Charlottesville VA

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POEM: abracadabra

Published 16 April 2025 by Jason Crane

abracadabra

no matter how many times I hear
the magic trick that was Art Tatum
I can never figure out how he did it
how his mind leapt as if he’d never
heard of the law of gravity
how his fingers found all those keys
with no eyes to guide them
how he took songs everybody knew
and blasted them into a million
glittering jewels of sound
he had an arm up each sleeve
with miraculous hands at the ends
here I sit, mouth open in wonder
grateful just to listen

/ / /

14 April 2025
Charlottesville VA

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