Monday, June 1, 2009

poems found while cleaning, and an unedited poem.

Emma:
Cleaning out my desk this afternoon, I found piles and piles of poems people photocopied for me over the years. Oddly, a great number of them were read at various meetings/mics this year. Here are a few that I don't think were.
Nude Interrogation By Yusef Komunyakaa
Sunday by Timothy Liu
Poem by Frank O'Hara
Kong Tries for a Mature Audience by William Trowbridget

And here is a poem I just wrote. Sort of a different tone maybe. I have not edited at all. Suggestions and observations?

canning
i will slowly fill
jars with snapshots. i will boil
the jars, to seal the rubber edges.
i will hold them up
to a window and admire
the ruby, citron, emerald
as the light stretches fingers
through the glass. i will save
them through the winter, stacked
on my pantry shelf between
boxes of tea and food coloring,
the edges of each photo
crinkling and grinning. in february,
i will crack, with a spoon
i will pry the lid from one jar, and greedily
we will scoop out the contents,
lick ink and chemicals
from our fingers, scrape the inside wall
clear with a paring knife.
we will try not to look
at its siblings, shining rows
marinating in the next room--

hunger can be too much.

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