Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Brass Bell: Alan Summers


Welcome to the July 2015 issue of brass bell, featuring poems by Alan Summers


calandria — every place
its own kind of sun
housebound
I take an evening stroll
through the postcard

the longest night
of a longer day
our broken moons
a lost email
crosses over

a cat picking
at discarded fast food
this night without you
filling with the hum
of regular rain

a small death
the cracked shell
of a snail
now this delay
at the train station

sometimes
before falling in love
with my wife
again and again
the cries of swifts

asthma attack —
pulling her outside
away from friends
her breathing steadies
while my own trembles

these rocks
too float among clouds
looking for something

white gravel
each day the monks
rake ripples in time

dandelion fluff
I lose count of my time
on this earth

a packet of souls
the day moon becomes
a harbinger

Khamsin winds
the piano tunes itself
in a war conflict

wind-spun flakes . . .
a child's world escapes
the snow globe

a lamb's cry
scudding clouds over
the cemetery wall

hunter's moon
the runes of mice
in its wake

after rain midnight dreams a hedgehog

Gare du Nord shifting art deco snow

twilight on snow shadows deepen the grip of stars

this small ache and all the rain too robinsong

dark news
the comfort
of crows

stick moon
we move our bones
in unison

hard frost —
the snail-hammerings
of a song thrush

night of small colour
a part of the underworld
becomes one heron

the names of rain
a blackbird's subsong
into dusk

cloud mountain
she screams her daughter's name
into the month of march

hotel room drawer
one of Issa's insects takes
charge of the reading

lullaby of rain
another pinch of saffron
in the pumpkin soup

night-tide
the rook takes back
its moon


* * *

Alan Summers is a Japan Times award-winning writer and Pushcart Prize nominated poet. He likes French wine, Japanese whisky, Premium Sake, French and Italian cooking, and authentic Indian curries (but not all of them at once), while watching bad Science Fiction or tearful Zombie romantic comedies. Alan runs With Words, with his wife, for online courses and live events. Website: http://area17.blogspot.com