洞月亮 Cave Moon Press February 2019

FEATURED POET:  GERRY MCFARLAND acquired his MFA in creative writing in 2011, served seven years on the editorial board of Floating Bridge Press, taught psychology, human service and writing at University of Phoenix until he retired to write full time. His poems have appeared in Contemporary American Voices, Bayou, Crab Creek Review, Crucible, Limestone, Meridian Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, Sanscrit, Zyzzyva, and the journal War, Literature and the Arts, among others. He was a finalist in the 2014 december Jeff Marks Memorial Poetry Prize, and his chapbook, Gunner, was a finalist in the Frost Place.  His latest collection The Making is soon to be released by Cave Moon Press




WHEN RICK DIED, LINDA SAID

She will toss his ashes in the Mekong,
The black grain an arc from her furrowed hand.
That seemed generous. When I am gone
My body will go to ruin in the land,
The soil in a garden comforting.
I will grow there, while my wife weeps
Above the decomposing birth of things.
I will lie in my ungenerous sleep.
I don’t believe in spreading myself thin.
How would they ever find me? And who would try?
My travels done and every place I’ve been
Just punctuation in the dust when I die.
For myself, I need to find one place
With language carved in stone above my face.


GUNNER GETS HIS SEA LEGS

While I was seasick my first months
At sea, the Boatswain’s Mate said:
S’all in ya haid, boa!
So I learned to right myself at sea:

When the starboard beam
Of the USS King slipped down, swollen
As a pot-bellied sailor, my dungarees
Flagged in the groaning gusts,

I remained upright starboard aft
In the hard turn, work boots
Black wedges flat on the non-skid
While the gray planet shifted rudder,

The wind veered and the splashing
Vessel sloped into the long turn,
I leaned into the curve of the earth
And put my face into the wind.

WRITE YOUR POEM!
Colon or not to colon, that is the question.  Unless it is dire emergency during a colonoscopy, the question really doesn't have too much weight...unless you are a poet.  In translations of poetry from different languages, punctuation can create meaning or detract, but the decision on whether you use a colon or comma needs to have one person in mind- the reader.  

So just like you would wrestle for days over the correct modifier or metaphor, punctuation should take on the same consideration.  Yes, there are different schools of thought, but many of the arguments boil down to how much salt you should put in the stew.  In any case don't let the questions freeze you up.  Write your poem.  Draw it with a stick in the snow bank, take a picture and post it on Instagram.