Two
poems from John Poch's 52 Reasons for Rising
followed
by a note on the author
Dawson
Mining
disasters in 1913 and 1923 claimed the lives of nearly four
hundred men.
After the heavy rains, on the river bank,
a broken wheel from a mining car glows green.
A minor miracle, years after it sank,
surfaces, obsolete if almost clean.
Verdigris
wheel in my open hand, you hauled
coal thousands named "a living" from the depths –
the fuel the miners' widows cursed. They called
into the caves caved in, then called it quits.
Better
to turn attention to the ground
for the shards of crocks and pretty pottery,
the violet glass that must have once adorned
the windows of their houses. Poetry
need
not baptize its matter with utter losses.
On the hill sunflowers bury the iron crosses.
The First Star
–
Hamilton, NY
There are no paperwhites on the meadow edge
this time of year; only snow that shimmers
like paperwhite petals in the farewell window
of March's postponed clemency, dune-blown
with skirt-pretty ripples like someone cared.
Why come out here and think of paperwhites
bent toward a window with their clustered cups
of six-tricks listening when half a dozen deer
stand prey-still on the valley's facing hill?
The sound of my own voice substitutes
for the voice of God. Here I am. And, of course,
the sudden windscatter on snow like sand
and a few maples clacking. The day dies,
and an invisible coydog pack descends
on the fawn of my optimism. The first star
hovers out of nowhere. For courage's sake,
I think it is as real as a blown flag shadow.
But it could be the spark in air at the end
of a whip on the back of a nightmare.
©
John Poch was born in Erie, Pennsylvania in
1966, and was educated at the University of Florida and the
University of North Texas, where he obtained his MFA and PhD,
respectively. He lives in Lubbock, Texas, and is an Associate
Professor at Texas Tech University. John has one previous collection,
Poems (Orchises Press, 2004), and his work has appeared
in numerous journals, amongst them the Yale Review, The
Nation, Agni and the Iowa Review.
"Dawson"
first appeared in the Sewanee Theological Review, and
will be included in a fine arts letterpress limited edition
book entitled Ghost Towns of the Enchanted Circle (Flying
Horse Editions, Fall 2006); "The First Star" first
appeared in The New Republic.
