Spring 2011, Volume 10

Poetry by Allan Peterson

All This Ordinary

I see pine flies, parasites
search among the three-strawed needles
of Jack Pines, potter wasps
fashioning vessels in the hand-thrown
concrete of the curtain wall.
I began to think evening was greying
to nonexistence when the deck light
started up from a last ray and then the whole
prow of the inboard, the issues of the West
which retire, and the East which arise,
then the hocused beginnings hyped by light,
then by shadow.
I see the four horse-stars in the great
square of Pegasus just after scorch streaks
as the west visits the infirmary below the waves.
The miracle of all this ordinary is like my first day
in California, everyone entitled to oranges.

Purpose Well

it looked like purpose how the freighters passed
between the sycamores
and the black leaves settled in the lap pool
in a map of the Orkneys
how one sun moved across the window with another
still in the trees  rain light
and dove color entering and exiting each other
the once passive armoire
expectant with its polished and welcoming handles
even worms in the compost
showed me my lost screwdriver moving rinds aside
I still had doubts about wishes
but there were people throwing silver to water

 

 

BIO: Allan Peterson's latest book is As Much As from Salmon Press, Ireland. His other books are All the Lavish in Common (2005 Juniper Prize), and Anonymous Or (Defined Providence Prize 2001). He is also the author of five chapbooks, most recently Omnivore, winner of the 2009 Boom Prize from Bateau Press. He has received fellowships from the NEA and The State of Florida and recently read from his work at the Cuisle International Poetry Festival in Limerick, Ireland. www.allanpeterson.net