[This poem, written almost exactly one year ago, is from my collection The Spring Ghazals—more info after the poem itself]
January Morning
the cow pond exhaling smoke at 6 degrees the blue gray fog an aquarium miasma filled with sagebrush & emptiness
a face staring backwards & forwards in the blue gray frozen fog thru the willow thru the cloud of juncos & sparrows & the sagebrush breaking thru the snow on the round hill eastward
the rocks white the willow’s long hair black the poplars skeletal
a face staring backwards & forwards in a cloudy mirror & the mule deer outside the window leaping the barbed wire without any effort the dazzling flight of a magpie subdued in the freezing mist & white air
the chill is a teardrop mandolin tremoloed in its icy throat on a high octave E & the crow’s bitter snow is a chill in the heart muscle a contraction
tho the air is blue & gray & opaque & the ridge to the east has sunk below this sea of fog with its frosty water droplets distributing chill to the lungs
the cowpond exhaling smoke at 6 degrees the owl on the wing over the skeletal grape vines the owl appearing to me each night its face a white fog of feathers its wings knifing silently thru the white air soaring south
& the road is white with ice a frozen current swerving south without moving
a face staring in every cardinal direction seeing the white air the willow’s long black hair streaked white with hoarfrost
a rheumatic shoulder the lungs an aquarium miasma filled with sagebrush & emptiness the heart contracting its owl's wings in the white white air
a face staring into a blue gray frozen ocean stitched with barbed wire without a horizon
is it a new day
John Hayes
© 2010
My collection of recent poems is called The Spring Ghazals & it can be purchased at any of the following online outlets:
Lulu
Amazon
Barnes & Noble (new—& a bargain at $11.04 US!)
Amazon UK (£7.94)
Both Amazon & Lulu have the book for $12 US.
In addition, you can read an excellent review of The Spring Ghazals by Sheila Graham-Smith on the Tangerine Tree Press blog right here. In the course of the review, Ms Graham-Smith offers a beautiful reading of "January Morning."
Willows and fog and hoarfrost. These are a few of my favorite things. Beautiful, John.
ReplyDeleteThis is positively beautiful. The language is so rich and the images so striking.
ReplyDeleteHi Tess & Caroline
ReplyDeleteTess: Thanks so much.
Caroline: Really appreciating your appreciation! Thanks for the Twitter RT too!
Good stuff. (I can imagine it, for some reason, read to Philip Glass' music - I think he did something similar for some of Ginsberg's poems).
ReplyDeleteHi Domninic: Glad you liked it--& yes, I'd take a Phillip Glass setting! Interesting, because there's been some conversation about setting some of the poems in The Spring Ghazals to music--readers have mentioned it & I've given it some thought. Still not sure how to proceed, however.
ReplyDelete