Bryce Milligan at Writers In Performance Series — Image by kenne
Desert mid-summer weather can provide many extremes
causing life to struggle to survive
in a relentless sun to strong winds,
heavy rains and dramatic lightning lined skies.
Since moving to the desert,
this blog has posted images of menacing skies,
with more to come, I’m sure.
Additionally, I have been writing notes
for future poems on the desert.
However, in lieu of my own poem
and as part of my “Capturing the Word” series,
I was recently reading Bryce Milligan’s book of poems, LOST and certain of it (a several times Writers in Performance presenter),
and read his desert poem, “Lightning.”
Lightning
The days that lack that flash:
heat on the horizon,
thunderheads painted bright
with the promise of rain
to wash the desert dust
from needle and flower,
yielding up red and yellow
explosions on each cactus’ tower.
The days that lack that flash
bring me careening back
to your eyes that I cannot
tell from lightning.
My next poetry book from my shelves is Circling, by long time supporter and participant in the Writers in Performance Series is teacher, writer, editor and 2009 Texas Poet Laureate, Paul Ruffin. The poem I have selected, “Explaining How Dead Are Different,” literally fail out of the book (page 72) as a result of the weakened binding of my copy of Circling.
Beside the cat-struck bird she lays
the dried shell of a roach, each
with no more life than the concrete
step she has laid them on.
“They are dead,” she says
to me in her careful four-year voice.
I nod and continue with my reading.
She points to a bird angling to land
in the plum tree out from the porch.
“But that one is not.” I nod again.
“Will you explain the difference?”
The bird in the tree is trilling
and preening, from time to time
pecking a plum; below him wasps
buzz about the too-ripe windfalls.
Wind stirs lightly in the feathers
of the dead bird, scoots the hull
of the roach. “Come sit here.”
She hoists herself to my lap
and the uncertain lesson begins.
Last August, Paul’s good friend and Montgomery County Poet Laureate, Dave Parsons read their poetry at a “Good Books In The Woods” event, “Texas Shootout.” The following video contains some of their readings and will give you a taste of Paul’s more recent poems.
One of the first presenters at the Writers in Performance Series, and one of my favorites, is Robert Phillips. Robert has authored more than 30 volumes of poetry, one of which is Spinach Days. It’s not easy to select a poem for the Capturing the Word series, since I like most all Robert’s poetry.
Early Lesson
Her mother brought her down
to the laundry room. Picking
through the wicker clothes basket
she explained, “You must separate
the colored from the white.”
Her mother brought her down
And they did. Their black maid,
ironing in the corner, nodded.
Writers in Performance presenter, March, 1996 – second in
“Capturing the Word’ poetry series
First paragraph from the poem, “Regalia for a Black Hat Dancer,”
in Robert Hass’ forth book of poetry, Sun Under Wood.
In the morning, after running along the river:
‘Creekstones practice the mild yoga of becoming smooth.’
By afternoon I was thinking:once you’re smooth, you’re dead.
‘It is good sometimes that poetry should disenchant us,’
I wrote, and something about ‘the heart’s huge vacancy,’
which seemed contemptible. After dinner – sudden cooling
of the summer air – I sat down to it. Where.
Self-portrait
