Three Poems

by Lawrence Cottrell (July 2022)


The Boat, Odelon Redon, 1897

 

Breezes

Recedes sorrow’s tide along the buckling shore of his
____confusion;

____breezes switch,

________earth’s perfumes ride sighs asea.

From time’s abyssal he retreats ´to verdant shoulders of a
____June,
Where daisy tribes fleck cuffs of roads, and sorrels sup
____penumbras in the gardens.

The lady having stayed her journey into naught, his soul’s
____anew,

____magpie trifling with play-pretties;

Passion shifted on its axis, rue’s ajar, through which steals
The flowering beat of summer’s heart to mingle with her
____own

____upon his spirit’s plain —

 

 

Each Old Song

… on the road from hospital, where lay (half in pieces) the
____dearest dreamer of my dream,
Three girls rehearsing their routines, cheerleaders of some
____school, keen in their gymnastic…
And I would have spoke to them of she, who knows the
____words to each old song (it seems),
Dances for no reason in the kitchen, loves language,
____family, country,

____me (tuber sprouted ´neath a locust tree)…

But they would bear her like rill in flood a leaf, ´round a
____bend and then forgotten,

____too much decants of life’s elixir.

O’ I should tell them what I’ve seen, that in her cell
____beside the sun
A lady shoos the shadows still, surprising and surprised;
I should tell them what I’ve seen, of nestling glee behind
____her eyes…

____artless grace behind her eyes…

____________she surprising and surprised —

 

 

Recollection

… can’t recall an unalloyed day entire, when this was
____satiate soul…
When I was six, perhaps, loved Carma Lee, or the first
____delicious transit of the sun

____when school was out,

Watched trains shift dawn to dusk in the New York
____Central yard…
When nothing cloyed, how so much it filled my eyes;
Was blithe in realms of make-believe, dwelt as mist
____among the sweeps and planes of grownup care.

Perchance ´twas never so. There were moments, merely,
Boutonnieres in mind’s lapels that age would make a
____garden…
But I would have it otherwise, that some commonplace
____quotidian was sublime,
And I quaffed it like a ruby throat petunia wine, a
____dionysian thirst

____I slaked one flawless instance

____________of a summertime —

 

 

Table of Contents

 

Lawrence Cottrell has lived in West Virginia, mostly, preferring to dwell among good people, in a place where change is an unloved orphan. He has a BA from West Virginia State University and attended several graduate schools, leaving each finally to walk mist-hewn hollers and prowl wind-blasted ridges, to be where valleys can be spanned by two arms and a broom handle, and noons aren’t quite sure of themselves. His poems have appeared in The LyricAppalachian HeritageGood Foot and Grab-a-Nickel, among others. His work is in the celebrated anthology Wild Sweet Notes: Fifty Years of West Virginia Poetry 1950-1999. He blooms presently at a bend of Elk River’s meander.

Follow NER on Twitter @NERIconoclast

image_pdfimage_print

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

New English Review Press is a priceless cultural institution.
                              — Bruce Bawer

Order here or wherever books are sold.

The perfect gift for the history lover in your life. Order on Amazon US, Amazon UK or wherever books are sold.

Order on Amazon, Amazon UK, or wherever books are sold.

Order on Amazon, Amazon UK or wherever books are sold.

Order on Amazon or Amazon UK or wherever books are sold


Order at Amazon, Amazon UK, or wherever books are sold. 

Order at Amazon US, Amazon UK or wherever books are sold.

Available at Amazon US, Amazon UK or wherever books are sold.

Send this to a friend