Tuesday poem #577 : Henry Gould : AUTUMN LEAVES

 

 

Autumn of Keats & negative capability
& Urs von Balthasar
in the Alps, contemplating la Gloire
de Dieu   & the mystery of iniquity

how Minotaur was a miscast offspring
of incongruous realms
like hunchback Richard (films
his own demise) mirroring

the beginning of all things, while you
intuited the end
standing near Gravesend
like some forsaken pine   in Deserto Rosso

I learned to play “Autumn Leaves”
by Roger Williams, his bravura
kitsch extravaganza
when I was 12, or 13. Each soul conceives

her own Statue of Liberty
I think – collecting evidence
for synoptic radiance
out of the foibles of our inquiry.

Gravity plummets to the choral core
of us   where the stone
sank to its nadir-perihelion
one whole monster   beached on shore –

the scapegoat, or Natasha’s limp
or J   in Washington, DC
in the masonic Library
of Congress   waiting for me   immeasurable

imp

 

 

 

Henry Gould was born in Minneapolis, and lives there now after 45 years in Rhode Island. His most recent books are : HOLY FOOL : a memoir (Lulu.com), and CONTINENTAL SHELF : SHORTER POEMS, 1968-2020 (Dos Madres Press).

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan

Tuesday poem #576 : Maya Clubine : Morning After Solstice

 

 

 

This morning I woke late, and rising, fell
into impatience with the birds, too loud
for tired thoughts to strengthen or to dwell
on gifts with which my dreaming was endowed.
How'd I spend my extended yesterday?
My wisdom was not lengthened. I was proud
just as before. The annual display
of elongated light and warmth and time
left me somewhat unchanged. I did not pray.
The day and I rode unperturbed by rhyme
or reason. Now, the season spins around
and leaves me here to fall back to the crime
of living unaware, where dreams surround
vague dawns and birds go by without a sound.

 

 

 

Maya Clubine is a writer and artist from the Canadian East Coast. Her chapbook Life Cycle of a Mayfly (Vallum Chapbook Series) won the 2023 Vallum Chapbook Prize. She is an MFA candidate at the University of St. Thomas (TX) where she received a Scanlan Fellowship. Maya has published in Rattle, The Literary Review of Canada, Modern Age, and Ekstasis, among others. She is a member of the Common Milkweed Collective. She can be found at mayaclubine.ca.

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan