| InterBoard Poetry Competition | |
PERSEIDS
William Neumire
(The Writer’s Block)
Wake when the moon is low enough
to show the fall, a golden shower
overcoming the black rafters of space.
Know the astronomical history:
annual tail of bolides and earthgrazers,
dark heart of the comet carapaced in flame.
Know, also, what's been applied:
one who escaped
the warm confines of the womb
only to be sealed in a box
and thrown into the sea,
who floated to an island
and knew darkness
as his first view of the world
and who, when he died,
was cast into the ether
and anchored by stars.
Drive to the country
where the universe is clear.
You wonít need a telescope
to see the string of lights
come from Perseus,
or to watch hundreds of them
drop into oblivion.
There is something of a wish
in the storm, to hold still
as stone bodies, to arrest
the fires that consume
themselves so quickly
we hardly see them
except in their disappearing.
To moor the light into place,
to keep a picture of our dying
that returns to us each year
when the sky is just this dark.
Judge Wayne Miller’s comment: “I feel I should recognize ‘Perseids’ here as well. While the poem’s strategy and movement are perhaps not as unique as the above poems, its attention to language and descriptive detail is first rate. Checkout both the rhythm and elegance of the second stanza: ‘...annual tail of bolides and earthgrazers, / dark heart of the comet carapaced in flame.’ And while the idea of a shooting star as metaphor for a lived life is somewhat familiar, the description, ‘[mooring] the light into place, / to keep a picture of our dying,’ is commendable for both its music and clarity.”
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