—Poems and Photos by Taylor Graham, Placerville, CA
A BLANK WALL?
Gray concrete underpass wall beneath Hwy 50—overnight appeared a dragon spray-painted in red, white, and blue, undulating under speeding traffic; the legend: “Tribute to El Dorado’s Asian History.” Dragon elemental, whisper-skimming waves and foam, sky and sea under four lanes divided. Newspaper reported people stopping to admire, to capture the art with their cell phones. By Tuesday it was gone, worried-away; over-painted gray, the fate of graffiti.
a dragon lives for-
ever—cyberspace, memory,
imagination
Gray concrete underpass wall beneath Hwy 50—overnight appeared a dragon spray-painted in red, white, and blue, undulating under speeding traffic; the legend: “Tribute to El Dorado’s Asian History.” Dragon elemental, whisper-skimming waves and foam, sky and sea under four lanes divided. Newspaper reported people stopping to admire, to capture the art with their cell phones. By Tuesday it was gone, worried-away; over-painted gray, the fate of graffiti.
a dragon lives for-
ever—cyberspace, memory,
imagination
REMEMBERING HERE, THERE
A small boy’s missing from the town.
You hear about it every night;
the TV news keeps coming down
with details, everybody’s fright
about the neighborhood, the talk
says: it’s not safe to take a walk.
You hear about it every night
and wake to hear if he’s been found
and everything’s turned out alright.
But still they’re covering the ground
on foot and from the air: still lost
as fallen leaves on storm-winds tossed,
the TV news keeps coming down.
There was a boy, decades ago—
dark-bright eyes, hair disheveled brown,
alive with all his life to go—
Our earth is such a worry-ground,
each hillock, hollow, grassy mound
of details—everybody’s fright—
unseen. What might be hidden there,
kept secret from the morning’s light?
A boy has vanished into air.
We searched the woods, a vacant yard.
Beyond the fence, a dog on guard.
About the neighborhood the talk
was Billy, Larry, now Ramon.
(Above the field, a hunting hawk.)
Each one of them left us. Alone.
The night is wild and dark,
as, at each dawn, the meadowlark
says. It’s not safe to take a walk,
I’ve heard. Pick flowers for the grave,
you leave many a broken stalk.
We’re losing as we try to save.
And yet we search, because we must,
and look for footprints in the dust.
WEATHERED WOODEN MARKER
Arched for a vaulting roof,
one dollhouse wall still standing—
girl just five years old.
DROPOFF
At edge of switchback
two crows in a barren tree—
where to go but up?
WINDING ROAD TO TOWN
Old man and small girl
on ATV—they both wave
at you, a stranger
and you wave back, you’re smiling
all the way to town.
IT LIVES FOREVER
She worries about things. Glass breaks. Wood splinters. Ceramics crack and chip. She likes plastic, it lasts forever. Strong but durable, lightweight, weather-resistant. It keeps its shape. Dozens of plastic containers nest together in a stack, take up hardly any space. Her pantry’s full of plastic. But what she hears on TV causes worry. Don’t dare use plastic in the microwave. Toxic chemicals leach out of plastic. A thousand years to decompose in landfills. Microplastics in the ocean, in Arctic snow. It’s a caution,
more worrisome than
rats in the pantry, plastic
survives forever
Today’s LittleNip:
DISTRESS CROP
—Taylor Graham
The old oak scatters
uncounted acorns—its faith
in next spring’s rebirth.
____________________
Our thanks to Taylor Graham for fun forms making lovely poems this morning, plus photos riding alongside. About today’s poems, she says, “’Remembering’ is a Trenta-sei (invented by [John] Ciardi). Otherwise, just Haibun, Haiku, Tanka this time.” She has also brought in Worry, our Seed of the Week last week.
For more about the Trenta-Sei, go to www.writersdigest.com/writing-articles/trenta-sei-poetic-forms/. For more about the Tanka, see www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/tanka/.
____________________
FORM FIDDLERS’ FRIDAY!
This week, Carl Schwartz (Caschwa) has sent us a Tuanortsa (“astronaut” spelled backwards), a Palindromic poem which reads the same from front to back as from back to front. In this case, there is a couplet in the middle before the poem turns itself around. The poem is based on our Seed of the Week: Through the Back Door of the Castle:
HAIRY CHESST
—Caschwa, Sacramento, CA
the proud Bishop
never one for
following all the rules
dropped his pants and
attempted to penetrate
through the back door of the Castle
while the King and Queen slept
Knight came and went
through the back door of the Castle
attempted to penetrate
dropped his pants and
following all the rules
never one for
the proud Bishop
Bravo, CS! Also in the Wordplay Department, Joseph Nolan fiddles with sounds and rhymes, both at the end of poems and in the middle of lines. Good plan; too many end-rhymes can get sing-songy really fast:
ARROGANCE ATOP THE BASE
—Joseph Nolan, Stockton, CA
On top of
The bottom,
The fresher fruit
Grows rotten,
Despising
Its baser base!
Oh! How vanity
Finds its place,
On every, single ladder,
Leaving not a trace
Of humility,
Or grace,
To support the base,
Who live at minimum-wage
$Seven-Twenty-Five
An-Hour!
* * *
INFINITY AND DEFORMITY
—Joseph Nolan
The inevitability of infinity:
If there were a final boundary
What would lie beyond it?
And what about within?
Does a finite form of infinity
Go on and on,
Deep inside your skin?
The enormity of deformity
As defining characteristic:
Surely a wolf-pack knows
Which beasts run on
Hobbled-toes
And which are easy meat,
For which they can’t be faulted.
They're just like
The blue-light shoppers at K-Mart
Prowling the aisles in search
Of something to take down
From shelves, up-vaulted,
To take home
To consume.
No sin
In
That!
________________
Thanks to today’s Form Fiddlers, and don’t be shy about bringing other such tasty dishes to the Kitchen!
For up-coming poetry events in our area, scroll down to the blue column (under the green column at the right) for info—and note that more may be added at the last minute.
—Medusa, celebrating the special sound of every word ~
—Photo by Taylor Graham
Photos in this column can be enlarged by
clicking on them once, then clicking on the x
in the top right corner to come back to Medusa.