Nothing perfects the world like darkness
There’s no quiet past the silence of the shadow.
A long moment of flight.
Pleasant songs are your whispers and sighs
And our closed eyes make for clear seeing
In this calm absence of light.
It’s now we find one true communion
As distractions of details recede
In a world at last made right.
Tumbledown and ruckus will be back
As the sun shades back in our divides
But it will come again, the night.
I’ve read this poem to groups a number of times and it gets a good response pretty much every time. I even had a doctor to whom I’d given a copy of a chapbook with the poem in it stop me in a grocery store to tell me he really liked it. I like it for a couple of reasons–it’s as close to a romantic poem (in the sense of powered by imagination rather than the more common recent understanding of romance as powered by lust), even dusted as it is with the post-modernist understanding that we are what we think we are; and I used the word distraction as a collective noun.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Patricia A // Apr 4, 2008 at 10:12 am
I really enjoyed this poem also and I applaud you for seeing the process through. My night poems never see the light of day. Lethargy and procrastination always win.
2 Stan // Apr 4, 2008 at 10:26 am
Thank you. This is high compliment from someone who I believe deserves respect. Maybe we need to fix you up with your own blog so your poetry might come out. Or post them here if you like. I’d be happy to upgrade you to writer status here.
I’ve been attending the Writers Group at the Narciso Martinez Cultural Arts Center on first Tuesdays at seven for about six years and it’s been a good thing for my writing. I use it for “test marketing” the product. It’s a comfortable setting and you get ten minutes to read whatever you want.
We do listen critically, but don’t criticize unless called upon to do so or do so only in conversation after the meeting.
What criticism I’ve had and offered has been in the original sense of criticism–the application of criteria to an object, not comment of a personal nature. You’d be welcome, I’m sure.
3 Patricia A // Apr 5, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Thank you for the kind words, Stan. As far as having a blog of my own, or attending a writing group, all I can say is that my brain can smell expectations a mile away and usually runs in the opposite direction. I might, however, take you up on your generous offer to publish an occassional poem on your blog. Thank you again.
4 Stan // Apr 5, 2008 at 2:29 pm
I certainly understand the point about expectations. Mrs. Raines nearly had to drag me to the writing group the first time. But I read what I had brought, a few poems no less than ten years old, and the group was not only polite, they were enthusiastic. Do consider the group, which is co-sponsoring and co-organizing the Valley International Poetry Festival at the end of this month. We’re good folks. Well, the ones doing the actual organizing are good folks.
And I’d be happy to put up any poem you’d want me look at. Email me one and I’ll put it up or post one as a comment. You could even post the first one under a pseudonym to relieve the expectations.
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