Tag Archives: Vers Libre

“Illusion” by Amy Lowell [w/ Audio]

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   Walking beside the tree-peonies,
 I saw a beetle
 Whose wings were of black lacquer spotted with milk.
 I would have caught it,
 But it ran from me swiftly
 And hid under the stone lotus
 Which supports the Statue of Buddha.

In an Ancient Town [Free Verse]

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Tourists walk an ancient town,
   Hoping a residue of its past
   Will cling to them...

But not too much:
   Not the plagues,
   Not the torture,
   Not the petty monarchs 
      & aristocrats,

Just some romantic notion.

BOOK REVIEW: “Becoming Ghost” by Cathy Linh Che

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Becoming Ghost: PoetryBecoming Ghost: Poetry by Cathy Linh Che
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher Site – Simon & Schuster

This collection is built around the surreal emotionality of the author’s parents having both lived through the war in Vietnam and also having served as extras in the film, Apocalypse Now. [For those unfamiliar, Apocalypse Now was a Francis Ford Copp0la film based loosely (and partially) on Joseph Conrad’s novel,Heart of Darkness. The film follows a military officer sent upriver to assassinate a rogue Special Operations colonel during the Vietnam War, and shows the war from various perspectives as the would-be assassin travels through the country to complete his mission.]

At times, the poems read like a poem-shaped biography, but that’s not all there is to the book. There are points that imagery and language are used to shoot beyond a mere telling of events, in order to create emotional resonance with the core strangeness of living through a traumatic event only to portray a background individual (someone like one’s own past self) in a fictional retelling of events based on those through which one lived.

The poetic forms vary somewhat, though all within the modern, free verse style. Most notably, the author uses the golden shovel approach of Terrence Hayes extensively.

This collection grabbed me both with its clever language and its thought-provoking central premise. I’d highly recommend it for readers of poetry.

View all my reviews

Sunflower Horde [Free Verse]

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A horde of sunflowers
 Grows on thin stalks 
   With big, bright heads 
   That tilt chin-upwards.

Could they stand so tall 
  And proudly if they weren't
    Packed against each other?

When one bitch-slaps a sunflower,
   One expects its head to fly 
      Clean off, but it just does 
      An angry little head bobble, 
      And goes about its business, 
      Looking skyward...

   Though - occasionally - one breaks 
      Into a sad nod.

What I Know about Beaches [Free Verse]

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On a sandy beach,
 I think of each grain
    of sand as being
    the same.

But on a pebble beach,
 Each stone has its own
    color, texture, size,
    and shape.

It's made me second guess
 What I know about beaches.

On Mud & Lotus [Free Verse]

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The saying goes: 
   “No mud - no lotus!”

But I can’t help but notice
   That the flower is long-stemmed,
   Raising it high above the mud.

A tropical newbie,
   I used to confuse 
   Lotuses & Water Lilies.
 Then I learned the simplest 
   Way to distinguish the flowers
   (From a distance)
   Is that Lily pads 
      Rest on the water,
      While Lotus leafs
      Also try to rise 
         above the muddy water.

I can’t help but wonder whether 
   Our admiration has made the
   Lotus too good for its mud?

Mind Fog [Free Verse]

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The fog envelopes me.
   I draw vivid pictures 
      on its white surface.

I don't know how I do it,
    But I know why.

It's a craving:
   To fill emptiness,
   To disallow silence.

The fog's texture is
   Subtle, but existent. 

Should I not sketch my story
   On that white surface,
   But rather give it my attention
      then I might see that texture,
      and then see it clearly,
      and - eventually - feel it
          as I glide my hand 
          though space...
   Blind and at ease.

Flower Mind [Free Verse]

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Morning Glories
   don’t feel slighted
 because they bloomed 
   in the shadow of
   Mexican Sunflowers…

Though the humans 
   who otherwise might
 stop to admire them
   can now not be 
 bothered to notice them.

“The Bungler” by Amy Lowell [w/ Audio]

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You glow in my heart
 Like the flames of uncounted candles.
 But when I go to warm my hands,
 My clumsiness overturns the light,
 And then I stumble
 Against the tables and chairs.

“The Wind Shifts” by Wallace Stevens [w/ Audio]

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This is how the wind shifts:
 Like the thoughts of an old human,
 Who still thinks eagerly
 And despairingly.
 The wind shifts like this:
 Like a human without illusions,
 Who still feels irrational things within her.
 The wind shifts like this: 
 Like humans approaching proudly,
 Like humans approaching angrily.
 This is how the wind shifts:
 Like a human, heavy and heavy,
 Who does not care.