Category Archives: Poetry Month 2024

2024, Ohio River Valley Literature, poetry, Poetry Month 2024, spring, waterfront, Working Class Literature

Untitled Series 1 (2024), 12 thru 15

12.

take in the sun you salamander you. the grass will not grow itself. we ride the river south at dawn when the high water currents are sleepiest. keep yer boots dry for the rainy season. dry rot seeps into the wood ‘tween the ears.

13.

follow the river up route 42. take the Rabbit Hash road. Avoid the air traps. Watch the flight configurations of birds of prey.

14.

the machinations
will not
let up
their
constant
thwartings

15.

the sun reflects off high water
the upper hand of the floating world

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2024, Ohio River Valley Literature, poetry, Poetry Month 2024, the no-scape, Working Class Literature

Untitled Series 1 (2024), 11 [for my daughter]

11.

I wanted for you what all fathers want:
a better world than the one handed to me

one of those out of the books I gave you:
all poetry and light, love and love and kindness

because those are the things that matter.

I tried, as all failures do, one more machine
Inadequate to the task.
We try. I tried. My parents tried. And theirs. And always, always, always with hope

and a little bitterness

when, at the onset of your long walk through
that the landscape falls short of prayers offered by these fumbling hands.

The world is far too ugly. But there is loveliness too
and love and love and poetry and light

that can build a better world
than what you were given.

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2024, Ohio River Valley Literature, poetry, Poetry Month 2024, river life, the no-scape, waterfront, Working Class Literature

Untitled Series 1 (2024) 9-10

9.

this high water
losing pressure

these clouds
molotov wicks

drowning
in drowning

as tugs race through
we roll

10.

this sedated rain
we slog through
as through
repeated dreams

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