issue no. 20

AVOCET The Weekly

Issue No. 20 | May 1 - 2013

“Nature, the manifestation of divinity.” - Joseph Campbell

Weekly Avocet - Issue No. 20

-2-

Thank you to all those who were kind enough to write to Ed Galing.Here is what he wrote back: “To read those letters I received is so touching. I am so glad that everyone likes my writing. Makes me want to live forever. Poetry is the way to go, Charles. To have someone compliment me when I am close to one hundred is so wonderful.”

Swan Migration

Easter Sunday, 1997

Finally the spring sun rolls back winter’s huge stone while swans drift between broken stalks of last year’s corn cropwith the stillness of white roses.Surely the swan knows beauty is never wasted—not on the stalks, nor the stone, nor myselfpassing by on a country road for no good reason. Each year on their flight to the far north they stop here where there is no one to meet them, dip black beaks and sip muddy waterlike a fine wine.More and more arrive until dark water reflects nearly one hundred pairs of them. Their cries to each other petal the air.Arcs of white necks exchanging places,they drift from shore to shore,bearing the bodyas if it were the soul.

Alixa [email protected]

“Nothing is wasted on a poet, everything they see, smell, touch, taste, and hear will appear in a poem.”

www.avocetreview.com


-3-

Charles Burchfield’s Coming of Spring

1-Sleep’s slow progressis a river in descent,

brown trees tinting green;

first blooms share their

pale light. 2-

Oncoming spring: sun dapplingon blue ice, strange day’s sky

coloring yellow, blue, gray.

Northwest wind; flurries first,

then rain.

Alan CatlinSchenectady, N.Y. 12304

[email protected]

«Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems.» - Rainer Maria Rilke


mailto:[email protected]


-4-

An English Spring Sunday

We met at the station and drove into the shire. I’d forgotten how green wet green is. Talking, catching up – it’s been a year. Wasn’t really worth opening the brolly, the rain came softly from all sides. The pub, dark and low-ceilinged. Right by the canal. A fire lit. Steak-and-kidney pie and a pint please. We had planned to sit in the garden watching the boats idling by. Still, it was good. At the next table sat foreigners with loads of kids all in brightly colored slickers. They said they were Finnish, had hired a longboat for the weekend. The tallest and blondest said, smiling, We have a heat wave in Finland right now.

Rosmarie Epaminondas (Rose Mary Boehm)[email protected]

“A poet’s work is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep.”- Salman Rushdie




-5-

Avian World Sunning myself on our second story deck, I’m surrounded by heavy, springboughs of Red Maples and Eastern White Pines. Above me, a lordly cardinal claims his territory, declaring dominance over all intruders. A wood warbler crescendos devotion to the female he’s wooing. She clicks and coosas he hurls his passion skyward. I hear quick, clarion cries of Danger and see a streaked predator sweep low then soar back up, his hooked beak hanging full. The disturbance gone, plump sparrows chatter and splash in the granite birdbath, then preen themselves dry, sheltered in a maze of crisscrossing branches. This avian world of song and drama is my haven. Inside, human illness and the dilemmas of old age await. Each day brings further decline.I give myself five more minutes of freedom. A back-capped chickadee lands on the railing next to me, bead eyes bright with expectation.

Margaret Vidale [email protected]

“To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.” - Joseph Chilton Pearce



-6-

The Fisherman Time Traveler

Under the desert sun

He wades from the demolished adobe

On a reservation by the interstate

Doors, windows knocked out

Graffiti sprayed on walls

Plywood sign: “used tires for sale”

He peers from a hat, lures attached

Hip boots, vest with tags

Tackle box, rod and reel in hand

He searches for something

To break the rippling current

By a shoreline that is no longer there

Searching for the first amphibian

To crawl from the virgin waters

Hoping to carefully hook it, reel it in

Cradle it in trembling hands

And whisper soothingly,

“Go back”

Rod [email protected]

“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.” – Abraham Lincoln



-7-

Here are three more that dared take The Tunnel Tree challenge…

Tree Tunnel Romantics

What if worldwide lovers celebrated close of April Arbor DayBy offering affection under mystical fused tree canopies’ array?Hans could propose to Brunhilda beside a sedate Bonn streetSwept up by aura of arching cherry blossoms that kiss in mid-HeerstraBe: a pink floral treat.Graham and Gwyneth could recite Dylan Thomas under tangled, broad trunk, bent-over medieval yewsAt Aberglasney House gardens: place of eerie Welsh fairy tale greenery, all askew.James might caress Colleen by Dark Hedges of stalwart, solid beech in County AntrimAs Northern Ireland’s jilted, spectral “Grey Lady” nestled in intermingling branches – dreaming of Elysium.Jaroslav might clasp Ludmila’s hand walking through leafy verdure of Ukraine’s Tunnel of Love:The natural chapel was crowned by gentleness as the two woodworkers cooed like turtle doves.Kikuma and Natsumi would pen tender haiku, senryu and tanka near wisteria’s dangling mauve arabesques:Springtime in Okazaki encouraged mildness, and two at their best.

As Tree Tunnel Romantics know: the most halcyon earthly place is where rows of arbor hug –An Eden of interlacing boughs forming a cupola for seraphic, planet-friendly couples: never smug.

Barbara [email protected]

“Man’s heart away from nature becomes hard.” - Standing Bear



-8-

Cocooned Under a Canopy

Where branches join beneath the skya stillness beckons me within.I tiptoe softly, breathe a sighwhere branches join beneath the sky.Beside a pool of sun I lie,at peace with all my creature kin.Where branches join beneath the skya stillness beckoned me within. Lauren [email protected]

“We cannot command Nature, except by obeying her.” – Francis Bacon

Tunnel of shadows

My little girl growing up so fast,right in front of me,letting go of my hand,telling me to go ahead.I watch as her headswiftly switchesfrom side to sidewith every tip-toe stepshe dares to takeunder the shrouded darknessof these tunneled old oaks.The little light that filters through with the slight breezethat blows the leaves on these massive trees around,makes a scary, swishing soundcreate dappled, moving shadows dancing, swirling across the graveled ground,with dangling, gnarledbranches appearingready to grab hold of a souland drag it up into the darkness.I want to hide and jump out.yelling “Boo” to my daughter,but know her mother would beway beyond mad at mebeing such a bad daddy,and, I am quite spooked myselfseeing faces etchedinto the dark barkstaring at me from each tree.Finally coming to the end,I see my daughter running up to meinto my waiting arms.“Daddy, that was so scary!Can we please do it again?”

Charles [email protected]

“Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today.” - James Dean





-9-

Please read my review of Anne Taylor’s won-derful, prize-winning collection of poetry, The River Within.

The River Within, poemsBy Ann TaylorPublished by Ravenna Press45 poems, 65 pages$11.95 from Ravenna Press at ravennapress.com

What a wonderful title, what a pow-erful quote by T. S. Eliot, “The Dry Salvages,” andwhat an amazing lead, title poem, “The River Within” by 2011 Winner of The Cathlamet Prize for Poetry. The title, the quote and the lead poem set the stage for all the magic that will follow. In “The River Within,” Ms. Taylor speaks of all the waters that have run over our earth from the beginning of time, those ancient waters are still the same waters with us today, just as the emotional river that has run through us over the course of humankind is still the same. Both cutacross, cut deep into the landscape of what makes planet Earth so special and what makes us humans so unique among all the species that populate the planet.

Triceratops washes down volcano dust with what I’m sipping now

or with today’s Ganges floating a shrouded body to a new birth

Ms. Taylor writes many poems based on clas-sical and historical figures which are wildly enter-taining.

In “Anne Oakley: Peerless Lady Wing-Shot,” we are put into the head of Annie, to read what made her tick.

of our ownONE

of our own

From

ONEFrank Butler was a fair shotBut I beat him by one hit,Made him my attendantIn Buffalo Bill’s show,Married him fifty years.

Then there is the witty “Cleopatra’s Conquest.”

She removed her huge pearl earring,The largest in history, a King’s treasure,Richer than all Roman banquets combined.

I loved how perfectly she ends this gem!

In “Spectral” we see from a teacher’s point of view of how glad the students are to be done with a col-lege course.

They put down their books, end the course, at last,My students done, they think, and on their way –

But I go beside them, their reading ghost.

She drives home how few teachers really touch us, but those few who do, live with us forever.

“So much of my journey has been with you” is a warm, fine poem of love.

It’s hard to recall a place without youPlaced within it – you a shadow ahead

Then there are my two favorites of the whole wonderful collection, “At Ilium” and “Trojan Walls. I have always had a special place in my imagination for anything that has to do with the TrojanWar. “At Ilium” the poet writes of visiting the ruins of the infamous site in quite an amusing tale.

From the bastion where AstyanaxMight have cried to his dying father,I hear hootings, seamen happyWith escape from the sea, happy

But the best for me is “Trojan Walls” for the poet tells the tale so well that for me I feltI was circling the walls of Troy with Helen.


CALL for SUBMISSIONSThe Weekly Avocet every Wednesday,an e-mail of Nature Poetry• Please send only one poem, per poet,

per season. Let’s do spring-themed poetry now.

• Please no more than 38 lines per poem. • Please use single spaced lines. • Please use the Times New Roman -

12pt. font.• Please send your submission to

[email protected]• Please remember, previously published

poems are wanted.• Please always put your name and e-mail

address under your poem. Thank you.

so she paces the perimeter

of a doomed city, awaits return to her starting point -where her captivating beauty will once more be enthroned,

There are countless poems in this collection that resonated with me as a reader. Joan Houlihan calls Ann Taylor’s poetry, “Intelligent poetry,” which it certainly is. I reveled in her intelligence. I felt she was making me more intelligent from having spent quality time reading her impressive verse. I will come back again and again to her writing, wishing I had had the privilege of having her as one of my college professors.

By Charles Portolano, Editor of The Avocet,

a Journal of Nature Poetry

SUPPORT NATURE’S POETS!

We hope we provoked you to thought; that you leave having experienced a com-plete emotional response to the poetry.

I want to thank our poets for sharing their work with us this week. And, “Thank you for reading, dear reader!” Again, if you haven’t yet, send in one nature Spring-themed poem (please, only one) please do! Please remember it is one poem, per poet, per season for The Weekly Avocet’s submissions. Be well, see you next Wednesday

Charles PortolanoEditor of the Avocet, a Journal of Nature Poetry

STAY INFORMED

To know it, that you are a poet, you must write, read other poets, subscribe, buy poetry collections,

and bring poetry into the lives of those who don’t know of its beauty.

SUBSCRIBE

Please think about sending a subscription check just $24 for four issues, 64 pages of pure poetry

(shipping in the USA) made out to:

Avocet, a Journal of Nature Poetry Charles Portolano, Editor

P.O. Box 19186, Fountain Hills, AZ 85269

Sample copy - $6

With your subscription, The Weekly Avocet, every Wednesday, is sent by e-mail to all the friends of the Avocet to read and enjoy nature poetry

for the-middle-of-the-week.

VISIT US ONLINEwww.avocetreview.com

unsubscribe If you want off of this list, please send an e-mail to [email protected] and write “unsubscribe” in the subject line.

continued...

http://www.AvocetReview.com

issue no. 20

Documents