Category: My poems

clothing

I have a painting of myself, half-naked
hanging on the living room wall
at times, a fully naked version
walks around the rooms upstairs
but even when I’m wearing my clothes
most of my vulnerable bits are exposed

19 January 2013
Auburn, AL

The Norphan

I remember when the Norphan first came to stay.
None of us had ever seen a Norphan before.
Mr. Mondegreen suggested that we put it out,
but we didn’t. It was so small and helpless.
Instead we set it in a warm bath, where
it played happily while listening to
The Velvet Underground & Nico
on a small turntable placed atop the toilet.
Not knowing its language, we had to
communicate via hand signals and smiles.
Over time we discovered it liked broccoli
but not lima beans. (And who could blame it?)
On sunny days, the Norphan would sit in the yard
watching the butterflies flutter by as it sang
“Heroin” or “All Tomorrow’s Parties” —
without the words, of course. Just a high,
flutelike voice beautifully recreating the melodies.
Then one Tuesday morning, ’round about nine,
Mr. Mondegreen came in from the yard to say
that the Norphan was gone. Where it had been
sitting on the lawn there was a single yellow flower
of a kind none of us recognized. I thought I heard
the strains of “I’m Waiting For The Man” coming
from over the hill, but Mr. Mondegreen said
I was hearing with my heart, not my ears.
We never saw the Norphan again.

18 January 2013
Auburn, AL

/ / /

I can’t remember ever writing a poem like this. The phrase “a Norphan” is a mondegreen, hence the name of the character in the poem. I heard someone read a poem with the phrase “an orphan” in it, and I briefly misheard the words. The drawing at the top is also mine. I think you can see why I chose words rather than painting as my medium.

the sublime landscape and the apocalypse

we walked through streets overgrown
with the detritus of desperate lives
bordered on both sides by high walls
of grey concrete reaching for a grey sky
plastic bags and candy wrappers
wafted upward like hawks on thermals
searching for a glimpse of heaven
as if by magic, we came upon a tree
not a towering, majestic tree
but a tree nonetheless, alive and thriving
growing through the concrete
like Lieber and Stoller’s rose
people stood in clumps around it
struck dumb by the shocking green
the finding was all that it took
for us to know there was hope
and more than hope, there was strength
strength enough to search these streets
for the next root, the next branch, the next tree

16 January 2013
Auburn, AL

/ / /

This poem is inspired by the work of artist Orion Wertz, who has a show right now at the Biggin Gallery at Auburn University. The title of the poem, and the line “the finding was all it took” are taken from the talk Wertz gave before the opening of the show. The image at the top of this post is Breeze (Detail, 2012). Orion Wertz. Oil on canvas, 33″ x 25.5″

centerpiece
for Nicky

I filled a vase with rocks
gathered from a nearby stream
covered the rocks in water
to bring forth their perfect
imperfections

the vase is the centerpiece
of my dining room table
it helps me to remember
that food comes from somewhere
and that I, like the rocks,
am made from the stuff of this earth

13 January 2013
Auburn, AL