Poetry
Modern Gospels, 1930
The widow rocks on her worn-down porch as Sister Aimee pipes Foursquare Gospel on Saturday night. Sister has the spirit, she makes you feel as clean as a wedding dress, as modern as the Packard Gospel Car she drives to … Continue reading
The Minister’s Wife Seeks Patrick McKommie’s Advice
Kildrummie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, 1661-62 I spoke to her bent head, her clenched, gloved hands: We’d test the sign she brought, then find amends. We watched as the strand of hair left in her bed Curled wormlike, snakelike in my flame; … Continue reading
Poor Body
We study charts that tell us at what age Our blood pressure will likely rise, while symptomless, the body lies. Oh yes, it’s capable of subterfuge, a front for all its fears. We can’t really blame it. No body entirely … Continue reading
Nosferatu in Florida
Nosferatu in Florida Maybe vampires hear an annunciatory trumpet solo. Maybe they gather at the customary tourist traps like a blanket of pink flamingos plating a lake and lake shore by the tens of thousands to drink. The whole, tacky … Continue reading
Remedy for Pessimism
The clevis has lost its pin says the griot. We know what he means. Such are the squalid futures of the small. Yet thinning beyond recognition gave Marc Antony an inner life to envy. In much of the country important … Continue reading
Virabhadrasana
To step into this moment, ease out of time, become tranced with resolve, a thought honed to a spear that every muscle holds poised, that belies the sinews’ malice, the quenchless feud flowing between stillness and intent, and stare dead-on … Continue reading
Darkness and Light
The darkness around us is deep. — William Stafford Still and all, Stafford kept on going, morning after morning at his table. I see him now, sitting in my armchair, eyes half-closed, resting his fertile mind. You never know, he … Continue reading
The Humans
Have scattered, have dithered and dathered, the humans In helmets, in velvet, and veil, the humans recoil to their roosts With buckles and booze, in funny white shoes, The humans in duds of charmeuse, in knickers or knit, they scatter … Continue reading
Buckeye
Audio recording of Buckeye Read by the Author It didn’t make sense to invest so much in a pocketed nut. But for ten sure springs, my grandmother withdrew a buckeye from her purse and placed it in my palm. I … Continue reading
Pickett’s History of Alabama
Rugged individualism? Sure, but long gone corporate, plus the Dutch and French, and the Spanish before them settling around the ports and islands. For many years the enterprise is reliant on native shipments and trade with natives. Forests and swamps, … Continue reading