A Still Point

Forgive us, we who
would bring what is
alive to a still point
where it can no longer
go on living mindlessly.
That part of life which
hasn’t must throw up
that which has
with a sure touch.
The only labor is just
to watch as the long
breath of something
perfect unfolds.

The Real Stuff

By the din
of the found melody,
real time unwinds
from which two-water solutions
are coaxed and sold to those
who think this is the real stuff,
the silveriest flottage
or below depth in the parlance,
while magic-buttoned
is a puffed cello blowing notes
like a pipe fitter abe to join
reed to tree, leg to elbow,
and bent mouth all the way
around to perfectly bent.

Unspooling

keep it simple
the poem comes from your unformed thoughts not from a blueprint

let your relaxed mind unspool on the computer until it comes to something important
separate that out and throw the rest away

make it into grammar and natural language and rhythms
get rid of extra words and affectations

if there are rhymes they will have come from your unconscious
do it every day like prayer

the only sin is to be false
come Wednesday when you can make it

Miyuki Tsurumaki

Urned

A car pulls into a driveway
deep in shadow,
and focus falls sharply
on a tipped beach chair
hard by the rock garden:
a wedge of old man,
powerless to get back in.
He’s right.
Lots of this is funny.

To eschew a gravestone,
to be emptied into an urn, instead.
Then to be planted
between twin scrub pine
beneath a brass plaque
inscribed with his own poem:
he would have said
he had urned it.

To ride a horse,
to shoot a rifle,
to sit a building.
Something to live by.
The garage cameout a bit high.

On his hands and knees,
he dug out of sand
at the west end.
For what?
He told me, but I forgot.
Something about roses.

Rev. Ernst E. Klein (1916-1979)

Celebrate George De Gregorio’s book!

The Red Wheelbarrow Poets will celebrate George De Gregorio’s book, Zerilda’s Chair and Other Poems, on Friday, Jan. 8 at 7 PM. GainVille Cafe, 17 Ames Avenue, Rutherford. $4 cover includes coffee/tea and pastry. Open Mike follows.

Michael O’Brien – Book Release: Absence Implies Presence

Mike O'Brien reading from his book

Gaineville Coffee Shop Rutherford NJ

December 4th

Conjure Illinois deckled in rain:

Corn fields

whispering through

the Connemarra burren;

Hear the crop

crackle over a peat fire.

Read the article in The Leader.

Poets inspired by William Carlos Williams

The Red Wheelbarrow Poets is a group of poets that gather for readings and writing in Rutherford, NJ, lifelong home of Pulitzer Prize winning poet William Carlos Williams. All are welcome to attend our special events, monthly readings, and peer-to-peer writing workshops.