TRAPPED IN NOMENCLATURE, CUCUMBER
PLANTS BEGIN TO WITHER
That’s the downy woodpecker,
invisible as he cheeps
through a virtual forest
of Japanese maples,
oaks,
cherry trees.
Constant clucking
followed by a trill,
the Northeastern sparrow’s
silk ribbon
pulled
through
straw hips
of sunlight.
Fingers,
curly green tendrils
of amaranthus,
attempt
to reach
full cacophony
inside the birds’ Purgatory chorus.
Suddenly, a tiny red spider
breezes
past the lexicon
of conventional nomenclature.
Thank god
he scurries
on all eight legs!
NEO-FORMALIST POEM
*
The topaz streetlight beneath the giant
maple removes her clothes, relaxes in a white
metal chair beside me.
**
Raindrops sniff white gutters before leaping
down their anaconda throats where, ironically,
they’re held in place, gulp by gulp, by the needle
teeth of topaz light.
***
A pair of rosy finches enters the garden.
The one with blazing red throat and cap preens
a thin wire fence, while his mate pecks at tiny
jade weeds in the glistening black earth.
****
A boat-tailed grackle waddles through
the yard; his ebony tail crushes the wet grass,
churning raindrops into tiny topaz rivers.
SPRING CLASSIC
The black
swallowtail’s
sign
language
filters
through
a
doorway.
A slender brunette
with the
patience
of a
moth
absorbs
the door’s arch
with one hand
while her other
hand
flutters
like
ashes
above
a
burning
50-gallon drum
behind
the
baseball stadium.
The curtains of her voice
rustle.
Tractor trailer
gears
inhale
damp
cool
humid
air.
The ribs
of a
split
rail
fence
are a carcass
scavenged
by white
jackals
of lamplight.
Blue fingernails
of lamplight
comb the
petals
of an
exploding
pink
rose
bush.
A
child’s
voice
is a
razor
against
the
bare
throat
of darkness.
A mockingbird
immediately
begins
stitching
the universe.
It’s a good
thing
silence
places the
porcelain
cup
of an
empty
nightmare
upon the
edge
of an
aluminum
sink.
It’s a
good
thing
the universe
consists
of ashes,
papery
ashes
blown like
toxic
dust
across
Europe
and North America,
from the
industrial
deserts
of South Africa,
from the
greedy
humans
sucking
every
nutrient
that ever
existed
from
the earth’s
volcanic
soil.
This is
a
good
thing
since
otherwise
we might be
forced
to gaze
deep
into the eyes
of the
slender
brunette
with
ashes
fluttering
from her
solitary
hand.
It is
possible
that with
eye
contact
such as this
we might
be forced
to honor
smoke rings
on the
jaguar slug’s
panting ribs
instead of a
multimillionaire’s
name
stitched
on the back
of a dim-witted
third-baseman.
It is
a
damn
good
thing
the average
human
has no
aspiration
whatsoever
to transcend
the coliseum
the domed arena
the horseshoe stadium
with its rainbow
water
falls
beer vendors
and ushers
as indentured
servants.
For to
ascend
like an
ash
that dips
and rises
on a
thermal
of freedom
brings
with it
consequences
a responsibility
to touch
the flame
to feel
the swallowtail light
in the
dark
hand
of the
slender
brunette
who leans
against
the suffering
arch
of intellect.
Alan Britt's interview with Grace Cavalieri for The Poet and the Poem will air on Pacifica Radio in January 2013 (http://www.loc.gov/poetry/poetpoem.html). He read poems at the World Trade Center/Tribute WTC Visitor Center (TributeWTC.org) in Manhattan/NYC, April 2012, at the We Are You Project (WeAreYouProject.Org) Wilmer Jennings Gallery, East Village/NYC, April 2012, and at New Jersey City University's Ten Year 9/11 Commemoration in Jersey City, NJ, September 2011. His poem, "September 11, 2001," appeared in International Gallerie: Poetry in Art/Art in Poetry Issue, v13 No.2 (India): 2011. His recent books are Alone with the Terrible Universe (2011), Greatest Hits (2010), Hurricane (2010), Vegetable Love (2009), Vermilion (2006), Infinite Days (2003), Amnesia Tango (1998) and Bodies of Lightning (1995). The Poetry Library (www.poetrymagazines.org.uk) providing a free access digital library of 20th & 21st century English poetry magazines with the aim of preserving them for the future has included Britt’s work published in Fire (UK) in their project. Britt’s work also appears in the new anthologies, The Robin Hood Book: Poets in Support of the Robin Hood Tax, by Caparison, United Kingdom, 2012, American Poets Against the War, Metropolitan Arts Press, Chicago/Athens/Dublin, 2009 and Vapor transatlántico (Transatlantic Steamer), a bi-lingual anthology of Latin American and North American poets, Hofstra University Press/Fondo de Cultura Económica de Mexico/Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos de Peru, 2008. Readings & Presentations: Panel Chair for Poetry Studies & Creative Poetry for the PCA/ACA Conference 2008 in Boston, Ramapo College in Mahwah, NJ (2009 & 2012), the WPA Gallery/Ward-Pound Ridge Reservation in Cross River, NY (2008), Ultra Violet Studio, Chelsea/NYC (2008 & 2009), White Marsh Library, Baltimore (2011 & 2012), Enoch Pratt Free Library (Canton Branch) Baltimore (2011), Pedestal Magazine Reading at the Writers Center, Bethesda, MD (2012). Alan currently teaches English/Creative Writing at Towson University and lives in Reisterstown, Maryland with his wife, daughter, two Bouviers des Flandres, one Bichon Frise and two formerly feral cats. Links: http://www.poetrysuperhighway.com/potw.html#fp1;
http://spectrumofpoeticfire.com/Reader%20Directory/Alan_Britt.htm;
http://theliteraryunderground.org/wiki/index.php?title=Alan_Britt;
http://aliensareus.wordpress.com/
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