洞月亮 Cave Moon Press September 2019

FEATURED POET:Gerry McFarland acquired his MFA in creative writing in 2011, served seven years on the editorial board of Floating Bridge Press, and taught psychology, human service and writing at the 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 Chapbook Competition. The Making is his full length book of poems produced by Cave Moon Press.

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.


Aubade

Sleepless again, 4 a.m.
I watch the backyard from behind

The cold glass of the bedroom window.
Leaves scattered and branches fell

In the night’s wind. Limbs that remain
are poised to conduct the next gust,

And the glossy painted lawn chair waits
Like a seated gardener:

Thoughtful, contemplative, grateful
For the beginning and its bright dust.


WRITE YOUR POEM!

And the glossy painted lawn chair waits
Like a seated gardener:

How do you craft your metaphors and similes?  Here they become a reflective pivot point for the short poem.  Sometimes they are the overarching driver of the poem.

The word pictures have power and can drive many decisions in your poem.  As a warm exercise write five similes and metaphors for this sentence starter. (Yes, doves are a bit loaded in symbolism....)

"The dove landed....."