Category: Poetry

Listen to this poem using the player above.

I’m losing my voice today, which has the positive side effect of lowering it by about an octave. This is how I wish my voice always sounded. So I took advantage of this illness to record an audio version of this poem. The music is “The Lady of Khartoum” from the album The Lady of Khartoum (Creative Nation Music, 2008). Thanks to Eric Hofbauer and Garrison Fewell for allowing me to use the music. Buy their album, OK? It’s brilliant.

Always

Who is anyone to say always?
Always is a lie. Perhaps
a white lie, told to stave off
loneliness, to salve the bite
of the onrushing winter
and its gray mornings.
Always is a road with a sharp bend
around which can be seen … nothing.
Nothing at all. And the future rushes
toward us around the corner and we,
for all our best intentions,
are forever unprepared.

Listen to this poem using the player above.

This is poem #21 for the November Poem-A-Day challenge. My poetry tractor has apparently driven into a ditch and I am therefore confined to writing on one topic and one topic only. Ah, well.

permission slip

here is your hall pass
my room is at the end of the hall

you’ll recognize the painting
you were there when I got it

please don’t linger in the hall
just come straight to my room

I’ll be sitting in bed, reading
but as is my habit these days

I’ll be reading only so my mind
has some words to swim in

while I think about you
my delicious affliction

I’ll put the book down
when I hear your footsteps

and if the light is just right
you’ll see me smile as you enter

and if the light is just right
you may notice my cheeks are wet

and if the light is just right
that won’t matter

Listen to this poem using the player above.

Poem #20 for the November Poem-A-Day challenge. The prompt was to write a poem about what’s wrong or what’s right. I’m not thrilled with this one — it feels trite.

The philosopher sits on the mountain top and argues with an echo

this is wrong
        this is right
this is a mistake
        this is long overdue
this is not how I planned it
        these are choices beyond strategy
this is a turn in the road
        the road is a circle
this is not me
        this is exactly you
this is too painful
        the pain means it’s working
this is a sign of weakness
        this is a sign of recognition
this is the end
        this is the beginning

Listen to this poem using the player above.

She leaves, and takes everything with her

So this is what she had felt,
all those years ago.
He hadn’t realized,
hadn’t been able to accept how it hurt
to lose the center of the world.
Now he stood on the pier,
watched her sail away,
felt his soul sink beneath the waves,
to drown in an ocean of tears,
like the poets write about.

Listen to this poem using the player above.

This is poem #19 for the November Poem-A-Day challenge. Today’s prompt was to write a poem “with a hole in it.”

A poem with a hole in it

Me.

Listen to this poem using the player above.

Poem #17 for the November Poem-A-Day challenge. Today’s prompt was to write a “tell me why” poem.

Tell me why this happened

Why it took me so long
Why you called
Why time runs in a circle
        but never repeats
Why it took you so long
Why I answered
Why this commercial plays
        over and over
Why last night was different
Why the other nights were the same
Why some are alone, and some are not
Why this hummus tastes like summer
Why it took us so long
Why you called
Why I answered

Listen to this poem using the player above.

Poem #15 for the November Poem-A-Day challenge. Today’s prompt was to write a “just when you thought it was safe” poem.

You can’t talk your way out of this

said the counselor, so I took the pills
let them dissolve into my bloodstream
within a few weeks, the sun
shone outside my bedroom window
and I lost 23 pounds, all from my psyche
I think we’re going to be OK, I told my wife.
I think this time we’re going to be OK.
On the dining room table, my teacup
started shaking. Do you feel that? she asked.
Feel what? I said.

I read my poetry today as the featured speaker at the Hudson (NY) Rotary Club. Once again, reading to Rotarians proved to be a ton of fun. They were a very attentive and appreciative audience, and they bought all but one of the books I brought. Amazing!

Click on the PLAY button above to hear a complete recording of this 22-minute reading. This is the first time I’ve read exclusively from my book, Unexpected Sunlight. Well, almost exclusively — I did toss in one new poem at the end.

Side note: Charlie, one of the members of the club, came up to me before I read and said, “Have you heard of John Ashbery? He goes to my church and lives here in town.” No pressure!