Fall 2008, Volume 5

Poetry by Paul Sohar

Summer Evening Sonatina

the shadow cast by the poplar branch
hanging over the lawn
seems no wiser than any other creature
at dusk
the blades of grass still have their green
uniforms on
but already half asleep
fireflies move in
and start sketching out the outlines of
the approaching night
on their cue the birdsongs die off
but the ballgame next door marches
across the fence
a home run crashes the window of silence


BIO:  Paul Sohar got to pursue his life-long interest in literature full time when he went on disability from his job in a chemistry lab. The results have slowly showed up in Chiron, Grain, Homestead Review, Kenyon Review, Main Street Rag, Poem, Poesy, Poetry Motel, Rattle, Slant, Wordwrights, etc, and seven books of translations from the Hungarian, but now a volume of his own poetry (Homing Poems) is available from Iniquity Press. But his latest work is True Tales of a Fictitious Spy, creative nonfiction book about the gulags of Hungary.