Four Poems

 

Emmett Lewis

 

 

 

 

At Falling Waters in Saugerties, NY

 

 

                                    falling awake 

                                    fallen 

 

rocks ahead

dip 

 

                                    in the shoulder

                                    low 

 

shoulder 

no shoulder to

 

                                    mind the river

                                    in the gap 

 

in 

the leaves 

 

                                    en-

                                    circling

 

sunlight

reaches over

 

                                    lime

                                    green river growth

 

clouds reflected

a long a porous 

 

                                    amorphous edge

                                    curving 

 

shale shoreline 

a triangle of reflection

 

                                    black locust

                                    cloud and sky 

 

river growth

or water hyacinth

 

 

 

 

 

At Napatree Point in Westerly, RI

 

 

                                    eelgrass

                                    sea green  

 

golden locks

of sea-

 

                                    weed

                                    pulled toward

 

the shoreline

glow in the

 

                                    sun’s low

                                    angle of incidence

 

piping plovers

on flittering

 

                                    feet

                                    the color

 

of dry sand

a sad whistle

 

                                    pwee-doo

                                    pwee-doo

 

in my palm

a pill-

 

                                    shaped stone

                                    with markings

 

that match

my cracked pink skin

 

 

 

 

 

Reading Anne Carson in Cannes

 

 

                                             overtakelessness

                                             or that which

 

cannot be got round

offshore wind energy

 

                                             the undertaker

                                             underwrote the unsaid

 

into an amphora

uninterred

 

                                             and in this amphora

                                             an anaphora of arrowheads

 

each arrowhead a name

no longer named

 

                                             uncooked

                                             or unable to stand

 

yet easily stacked

or embedded underfoot

 

                                             in sand unearthed

                                             bronze unsung

 

the unspeakable

is untried and

 

                                             uncertain

                                             un certain regard

 

until the ocean

undulates

 

                                             undo

                                             undo

 

and the turbines

unwind

 

 

 

 

 

Towards a Public Utility

After Tropical Storm Isaias

 

 

1.

 

                                             i heard a crashing

                                             and stepped out

 

on the porch

to find the yard

 

                                             full of tree

                                             full of green

 

blocking the street

from view

 

                                             blocking all paths

                                             the suburb jungled

 

overthrown

a downy woodpecker

 

                                             dancing

                                             on the downed branches

 

red oak

horizontal

 

                                             magnolia bough

                                             torn free

 

the power lines went down

and tangled in the trees

 

                                             the top third of telephone pole

                                             snapped off in the street

 

and i talked to the neighbors

for the first time

 

 

 

2.

 

                                             seven thousand live volts

                                             lay drooping down the block

 

for seven days or more

before Con Edison

 

                                             made an appearance

                                             Con Edison claims

 

to be prepared

for climate change

 

                                             but what incentive

                                             does a monopoly have

 

as we sat in the quiet

a second tree fell

 

                                             sparking a transistor

                                             smashing a Jeep

 

we heard a buzzing

we tiptoed

 

                                             over live wire

                                             under dangling limbs

 

and the smell

of fresh oak

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Emmett Lewis is an MFA candidate in poetry at Columbia University.  His work has recently appeared in Hamilton Stone Review and he reviews poetry submissions for the Columbia Journal.  He lives in Brooklyn, NY. 

 

 


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