Literary Matters 5.3 - Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Romeo and WhatsernameYou came to my home becauseI had asked you to, because,at least the spontaneity felt right.The very pink of courtesy.Only two nights prior, duringour first immersion into an us,I took your hand shyly duringthe second act of Romeo and Juliet,and held on as those two foolsfell dead into a heap,the slowly cooling detritus of passion.Even Shakespeare could grasp thathappy endings don’t sell.Tempt not a desperate man.Still, Sunday at four, Igreeted you at my tender threshold,relieved you of one crinkly sackof Aldo’s best chocolate-dipped biscottiand the mute glory of two dozen tulips.Far too many for a man of meager vases.So we together filled a red can with them,their amputated ends clipped clean and plunged.And soon, the miracle of unfolding,their most delicate parts exposed to the evening,until everything in the room was humbled.Poem from A Factory of Ideas(A Madman’s Monologues)io porto il quarantunodi scarpe ma ho imparatoche se le porto un tantopiù piccole quarantaa volte trentanoveche così fanno malecon la testa sto megliomy size for shoes is eightbut I have come to learnthat if I wear a smallersize just a little smallerseven and a half sixsometimes so that they hurtmy head feels so much better- Antonello BorraAntonello Borra teaches at the University of Vermont.His volumes of poetry are Frammenti di tormenti(prima parte) (Longo, 2000), Frammenti di tormenti(seconda parte) (Lietocolle, 2006), Alfabestiario (Lietocolle,2009), and the illustrated, bilingual Alphabetabestiario(Fomite, 2011). Translations of his poetryhave appeared in English, Catalan, and German.He has translated into Italian, from English, poems ofW. S. Merwin and Greg Delanty; from German, poemsof Erich Fried; and from Spanish, poems of RobertoSosa and José Watanabe. He is a regular contributorto magazines and journals in both Italy and theUnited States. His other publications are books andarticles on literary criticism and language pedagogy.This bud of love, by summer’s ripening breath,may prove a beauteous flower.We ate the fish I had prepared, assuring youit had swum up from Chile just for this.O flesh, flesh, how art thou fishified.You measured each morsel as the fire snappedand Stephan Grapelli drew his jazzy bow.Like softest music to attending ears.I suggested the sofa for comfort.The time and my intents are savage.Your mouth was warm and tasted like fifteen.Before long we were peeled and joined(as if it could have been otherwise).One, two and the third in your bosom.Until we fell heavy and damp with exhaustionand you remembered you should havebeen fled two hours ago.For you and I are past our dancing days.After the red of your taillightshad extinguished beyond the turn,Eyes look your last, arms take your last embrace.I sat amid the ruins and considered, howsome beginnings must be content to end.But alas, in the morning I phoned youto inquire if we might continue orperhaps venture to begin again.You said you would get right back to meand most surely you did, three days later.O! True apothecary! Thy drugs are quick!If I had anticipated that it wouldall conclude with poisons, I wouldnot have pretended you were a great lover.At lovers’ perjuries, they say Jove laughs.-Daniel Thomas Moran26 LITERARY MATTERS | VOLUME 5.3 | FaLL/WINTER 2012
Ess-A-Bagelfor Scott SteinWe have surely beenhere before,and many times.In this briefenclosure wherebagels are birthedall day and night andnot just any bagels butthoroughbred bagels,crown jewel bagels,the bagels Abrahamprophesied for theChosen People of Stuytown.Before its door,the great broad expanseof First Avenue,rises gently toward midtown.The forever of itrolling out fromHellgate to The South Seas.Yet, in this place,everything is shoulder-widthand no more.Brown top table squareswhere the faithfulhunch in quiet worship,before tubelightsin a chilled case offish corpses and cheese.The little men in theirEss-A-Hats squeeze byagain and again and again,dissecting sighs of steamfrom bagels pursy flesh,opened like oystersto be schmeared withdelicacies beyond poetry.Taste and texture andKosher perfumes paintingthe dense air with life.You and I,once more sitting,our knees meshed likeprimitive gears, welunge forward and back,capture the overflow witheach considered bite.With an ancient rhythmwe speak our prayers towealth and abundance.- Daniel Thomas MoranGodHe is the beginning,and the end.The bearer of all forevers.His finger tipsswirl galaxies.His eye seesthe very codes of life.With his mercyHe brought forthpurgatory, andmen with two cheeks.In His wisdom,He wished a delugeupon the Earth,and fashioned Darwinfrom the muck.He is morethan we dare know,and yet less,than we can imagine.He made tinmen and popes.Black holes and the aurora borealis.He is love andlove is blind.He loves a good fight.He enjoys His fame.He had me fail geometry andmade trees which becamethe masts of ships andthe bunks in the death camps.He conceived ofhummingbirds and nuclear physics.He is indeed most righteous.In His firmanentevil never triumphs.He makesplaster madonnas weep andcauses deserts and cancer andsnowflakes and stillbirths andfireflies and widows andshadows and the apocolypse.He knowseveryone by name.He listens to prayers.He is the landlordthe taxman and the concierge.He is surely oneof us.- Daniel Thomas MoranAll poems by Daniel Thomas Moran were published in hiscollection From HiLo to Willow Pond (Street Press, 2002).Daniel Thomas Moran is the author of seven collectionsof poetry, the latest of which, A Shed forWood, will be published by Salmon Poetry, in Ireland,in 2013. His previous collection, Looking forthe Uncertain Past, was published by Poetry Salzburgin 2006. He lives in Webster, NH and Boston,MA, where he is a Clinical Assistant Professorat Boston University’s School of Dental Medicine.LITERARY MATTERS | VOLUME 5.3 | Fall/winter 2012 27
Page 5 and 6: nature and purpose of education, an
Page 7 and 8: Forum is an occasionalpublication o
Page 9 and 10: New Publications by MembersDavid Ga
Page 11 and 12: New York City Local Meeting: Decemb
Page 13 and 14: knowledge of another culture. Russe
Page 15 and 16: During the first week of my month-l
Page 17 and 18: to limit our purviews for a period
Page 19 and 20: around for a solution and a certain
Page 21 and 22: Despite the emphasis onweaponry tha
Page 23 and 24: cally portrays the split—he becom
Page 25: Poets' CornerSilent FlameFriends, w
Page 29 and 30: !""#$%&'%#()#*)+%',-&-.)/$0#1&-"2)3

Literary Matters 5.3 - Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and ...

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?