Five poems published in The Beatnik

This year is turning out to be a good year for publication for me!  In addition to having a poem ("Thoughts While Viewing Van Gogh's 'Fishing Boats...'") published in the journal Do Not Look at the Sun, five poems of mine were published in the on-line journal, The Beatnik.  The poems are:  "Claudia Greets Me in the Morning," "Dead Roses," "Rain Falls from a Somber Sky," "Reading Li Po on a Winter Day," and "Age Pares the Fruit of Life."  Both journals are on-line; both provided links to my blog page, which has resulted in more traffic on this site.  Thank you to the journal editors, and to readers for following those links.

The poems in The Beatnik are available here:  http://whollycommunion.blogspot.com/2011/03/michael-ratcliffe-five-poems.html

I've currently got poems out for review at Little Patuxent Review and You Are Here:  the Journal of Creative Geography, both journals in which I've published previously.  Keeping my fingers crossed for a few more published poems.

January 14, 2012 Update:  the poems out for review at the Little Patuxent Review and You Are Here were not accepted for publication.

CLAUDIA GREETS ME IN THE MORNING

[Published in The Beatnik, March 26, 2011, on-line at http://whollycommunion.blogspot.com/]

CLAUDIA GREETS ME IN THE MORNING


Claudia greets me in the morning
with coffee and half a smile,
eyes downcast somewhere
between sadness and a different place.
I am there also,
only closer to sadness,
knowing no other place to be.


I stare out the café window,
at all the purposeful people
on their way to purposeful days;
it hurts to look at them
in the morning sun's glare,
so I follow Claudia
as she shuttles between tables and kitchen,
taking orders, pouring coffee,
delivering food,
while the manager shouts her round the restaurant—
"Claudia, pick up!"
"Claudia, new customer!"
"Claudia, clear that table over there!"


Claudia looks my way.
I sense a glance that says
take me away from here,
take me to another place,
and I want the same from her,
but neither of us says a word
as Claudia pours me another cup of coffee.

DEAD ROSES

[Published in The Beatnik, March 26, 2011, on-line at http://whollycommunion.blogspot.com/]

DEAD ROSES


Dead roses lie on the table,
still bundled as they came from the store,
for want of water, they withered.

AGE PARES AWAY THE FRUIT

[Published in The Beatnik, March 26, 2011, on-line at http://whollycommunion.blogspot.com/]

AGE PARES AWAY THE FRUIT


Age pares away the fruit of life,
to the heart,
to the kernel of spirit,
to be sown anew in the second spring.

The parts once thought tastiest
now lie discarded,
no longer digestible;
they do the soul no good.

The seed,
though hard and once thought bitter,
now is prized,
for it contains new life.

READING LI PO ON A WINTER DAY

[Published in The Beatnik, March 26, 2011, on-line at http://whollycommunion.blogspot.com/]

READING LI PO ON A WINTER DAY


Sitting in the brown rocking chair
next to the window in my bedroom
waiting for the afternoon sun to stream in again,
I read Li Po.

Cold wind gusts outside,
whips round the eaves,
rattles the front door.

Outside the window, a shutter flaps against the house—
the same shutter I thought would fall off last year.

The afternoon sun streams through the window.
Some day I’ll have to fix that shutter.