You can take me out of the country, but …
blocking footpath entry to a Dalles-like gorge
that was greasy or grassy – two women
on a concrete-floored inner courtyard;
me, climbing the cherry wood rails
under the structure – to their rescue
Poem copyright 2017 by Jnana Hodson.
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Because I was an offbeat adventure
I meditated regularly
Once I started thawing
I wasn’t an expensive restaurant.
Listen, that bastard even sent
a note of condolences.
Assuming it’s true, your ocean
is the color of a storm cloud.
I could be clever or observant
except where they overlap.
Which can’t be said regarding
the sympathy cards that followed.
Poem copyright 2017 by Jnana Hodson.
To read more, simply click here.
seldom overlapped with theirs
acid seeping from the tunnel of abuse
contrasting
– bowling, billiards, Canobie Lake –
amid rows of gemstones and blown-glass flowers
on the other hand, dreamt
Poem copyright 2017 by Jnana Hodson.
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A regular came in at the last minute and was irate
we had run out of pizza. “Why didn’t you come earlier?”
“I won eight thousand dollars and was buying a BMW.”
So he should have been able to go out and buy his own pizza.
“No, I spent it all on the car. Which is why I’m here.”
And then I was in the middle of conversation with one woman
when she looked at the clock and said, “Oh, I have to go,”
telling me of a movie she wanted to catch on the TV.
“What channel,” and she told me it was cable.
After she left, I realized it was on a premium station
I can’t even afford.
I guess it’s just a matter of your priorities
and perspective when we pass the plate.
Poem copyright 2017 by Jnana Hodson.
To read more, simply click here.
classified advertisements
or new model cars no, I should recognize everything
when she leads me to the graveyard
in snow-covered woods, the way death
is also a divorce, as much as bells and incense
how uneasy quietude sits in the glinting sunlight
why shouldn’t I have expected to become
another bead in her rosary or gun sight
rather than spending the night in her bed
after evening vespers?
no way to begin an animated conversation
with ease
solid earth, ground not selfish or proud
Poem copyright 2017 by Jnana Hodson.
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Let me tell you about Jonah, swimming in deep water
when I suddenly panicked before resigning myself
with a strange kind of calm and accepted survival as
a gift inevitable for those who keep their wits and
instead let the shark decide with undue temptation.
The horrible surprise was the feminine face of death.
With her hairy nose, almost like a mustache.
It was quite different from helping someone
with the zipper on her dress. Someone
with so much bottled up, secretive, and guarded.
Let me tell you about Jesus and the Disciples
carrying lawn chairs to watch fireworks
on the high school lawn on the Third of July.
And then that’s it.
Poem copyright 2017 by Jnana Hodson.
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a heavy smoker who manages
a multimillion-dollar recreation department
two executive secretaries
the head nurse in an emergency room
who tells me physicians are fleeing
because of legal and financial difficulties
a junior high math teacher known as the Wicked Witch of West
a hair-designer who gave me a fifty-buck haircut
in exchange for a jaunty Italian dinner
plus a four-eleven Korean who never showed up
after I’d driven an hour-and-a-half
through a snowstorm to meet her
Poem copyright 2017 by Jnana Hodson.
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When I fiddled you said I lacked self-assured
Indian summer cornsilk on my strings even though
I’d filled jars of sunflower honey on slatted hoppers.
I don’t take those remarks personally, should I
have carved pumpkins rather than backing out
of polished jade in the apartment next door
or my galleries of crystallized inquisitiveness?
All along, looking on the devil in your angel’s face,
I wanted you to believe I was the answer your dreams
on a bed swimming through the crack of night.
Poem copyright 2017 by Jnana Hodson.
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indulging in a good joke now and then;
could always be depended on
by a few friends, family, coworkers
long journeys, publishing, philosophy,
higher education,
hopes, humanity rising, shy, careful, businesslike
add to calculations almost contradictory
in their natures
even though lively, she should enjoy sports and
outdoor life
but didn’t, except for the dude ranch
usually a difficult place for a woman
Poem copyright 2017 by Jnana Hodson.
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I majored in philosophy
which hardly provides a living.
It’s a lot like pressing three hundred
or delivering drywall in the rain.
The first time I felt melancholy was adolescence
returning to my bedroom on a rainy night
after the family dined out in an old gristmill.
The new vinyl disk on the turntable was Chopin.
The pensive or wistful terror or blues has taken
many incarnations since, and I’ve learned to lift them.
“So how’s your social life?”
I bought a fishing boat. I enjoy the quiet.
Poem copyright 2017 by Jnana Hodson.
To read more, simply click here.
