Avocet The Weekly
Issue No. 8
| February 6 - 2013
Weekly Avocet - www.avocetreview.com
WINTER LIGHT Season’s first splendoring snow wind-driven, drifting calls me to abandon words bundle up walk out into pristine lucence swirling about city streets Proud pinnacles of glass and steel lost in blown sheen of radiance Hyperbole of politics and guarantees of commerce hushed - almost to truth Daily rush-rush-hurry impeded by high drifted iridescence Multifarious human lamps veiled, shown for dim imitations they are Strangers, knowing nothing of each other except this storm we have in common, speak in passing as we walk deeper into the stunning lightness of winter’s mind Charles Harper chatharper@comcast.net “There’s no money in poetry, but then there’s no poetry in money, either.” - Robert Graves
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February 6, 2013 - Issue No. 8
Weekly Avocet - www.avocetreview.com
Long Ago Snows The muted silence of a foot of new snow brings memories of a country road, trackless in the morning, and our joyful frolicking off to school with wool pants tucked into galoshes, buckles fastened to keep out the snow. The only sounds are the shushing of boots and my sister’s laughter as she follows in the trail I’ve broken. Then a car appears magically behind us, tire chains clinking. A neighbor slows to wait for us to move off the road and waves as his car hums past. We rest by walking in the tire tracks he makes, heads wreathed in our breath, bodies warmed by trudging, sliding, laughing. Now, a lifetime later, the thought of mushing those miles makes me shiver. I no longer burn with youthful heat. I hibernate in the house and listen to those long ago snows. Art Elser artelser@me.com
“Poetry is imaginary gardens with real toads in them.” - Marianne Moore
February 6, 2013 - Issue No. 8
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Weekly Avocet - www.avocetreview.com
For now,
they merge with waves, hundreds
of Canada Geese lifting, disappearing with gusts that streak a blue sky black, test the old oak’s foothold at the pond’s edge, whirr through firs in the dry air.
New ice allows no carp to leap,
no painted turtle to sun along the fallen trunk, no snake to test the trail.
All color gone, leaves spiral back
upwards, chickadees call across great distances. A single cormorant claims the cove where summer swans once nested in down, left deep imprints in tall grass, now all leveled in frozen flatness.
Harp-strings of ice laced straight
over the dam surprise me, as does my effort to listen for their soft tones, and to hear them.
Ann Taylor ataylor@salemstate.edu
“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson -4-
February 6, 2013 - Issue No. 8
Weekly Avocet - www.avocetreview.com
Jack Frost He jumps from front to front along the weather, just a boy who stomps the wet from puddles, leaves behind white footprints and measures progress by isobars. He diamonds out across the river fast as a water spider, traps us in his icy silk, treats us like his own dessert, frosting our dreams of the sun. Previously published in New York Quarterly P M F Johnson PMFJohnson@PMFJohnson.com “Always be a poet, even in prose.” - Charles Baudelaire
Company for Lansa
Through the Mahoosuc winter it is lonely in the topshack, even for a prickly old Finn, even with the constant wind, the speaking snow and pines. Beside the trail, naked branches are stripped, damp and yellow. He hollows out a small shelter in the snow bank beside his window. Every day he portions half his chips knowing how the wild things love saltpurchasing a hands-off sort of friendship with the taciturn porcupines. Previously published in The Aurorean Sonja Johanson sonjajohanson@gmail.com February 6, 2013 - Issue No. 8
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Weekly Avocet - www.avocetreview.com
“Our task must be to free ourselves... by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.” - Albert Einstein
Sheet/Ice a cold glistening sheet of hardpan clings to the surface deflecting the edge of the blade ringing through each strike splitting the sheet into fractals clattering shattering scattering skittering fragments of a puzzle trying to fit slot tab and notch into a mirror reflecting the eventual slip skid and slide down out and away from a once secure purchase David Sermersheim dsermersheim@snet.net
“Not just beautiful, though--the stars are like the trees in the forest, alive and breathing. And they’re watching me.” - Haruki Murakami
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February 6, 2013 - Issue No. 8
Weekly Avocet - www.avocetreview.com
WOLF MOON Lacing skates we watch the daring plows leave the mill pond showing the ice is tested and true. A few circles warming ankles we pick up speed and head straight to the river outlet racing down the winding trail of its unknown length. Soon the others, tiring, turn; one shouts, “Remember, we have to skate back!” And they do. The Wolf moon resplendent and full of itself climbs higher to watch the two knives slicing across the glinting crystal; it casts gangly bone shadows that from each shouldered bank bend to touch their crooked fingers. Propelled by the rhythm of the dance Left sway right sway Left sway right sway unstoppable as the forward flow of remembered water driven like lemmings toward the sea. The moon rises higher and smaller; the final vowel of a distant howl dangles hauntingly in the air. Carol A. Amato carolardito@yahoo.com “The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.” - John Muir
February 6, 2013 - Issue No. 8
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The Weekly Avocet of us every Wednesday, lease check out these Great an e-mail of Nature Poetry Shots of Animals. These
photos could easily lead a poet to write a poem. Thank you Sharon Dennis for sending us these fantastic photos - sddphoto@cox.net http://photos.msn.com/slideshow/photos/top-animalpictures/23mgywpq#10
We hope we provoked you to thought; that you leave having experienced a complete emotional response to the poetry. I want to thank our Poets for sharing their work with us this week. And, “Thank you for reading, dear reader!” Again, if you haven’t, yet, sent in one nature winter-themed poem (please, only one) please do! Please remember it is one poem, per poet, per season for The Weekly Avocet’s submissions.
• Please send only one poem, per poet, per season. Let’s do winter-themed poetry for now. • Please no more than 38 lines per poem. • Please use single spaced lines. • Please use the Times New Roman - 12pt. font. • Please send your submission to angeldec24@hotmail.com • Please remember, previously published poems are fine to send. • Please always put your name and email address under your work, thank you.
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Be well, see you next Wednesday Charles Portolano Editor of the Avocet, a Journal of Nature Poetry
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I love getting poems sent to my computer. What a great way to start any day. A wonderful website is Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac, every day one poem and lots of Art history. Please check it out: http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/ I start everyday reading it, great fun! Thank you for reading.