Saturday, December 10, 2005

LONE WOLF AT THE TABLE

Here is a poem by the next featured poet, Christopher R. Vierck, from the new writing group that meets in Greensboro. He is the lone male of the group, the lone wolf, and has several other pseudonyms as well.

Black Coffee


most of the students drink
more than just a little bit
to stay up late, 5 or 6
no sugar
no cream
bitter straight black coffee
caffeine
i don't need the fix
not from that curious liquid
i have you to keep me up
all night dreaming black coffee
i don't take you in with my eyes,
i eat you with my eyes
can you see the appetite?
look close.... closer..... closer still
feel my breath on your face
look into the black black coffee
is not as dark as your eyes
or as hot as your steaming skin
or as bright as your dark hair
or as fluid as the curves
of your soft physique,
all carved out
perfect black coffee
crease on crease
each move i make
seems an error in tactics
now, move, go, touch—
not now! what are you doing fool?
retreat! black coffee
being with you sounds like a dream
and i need to wake up black coffee
i steam black coffee
you make my blood hold black coffee
your image is trapped
in my blood starved brain
everywhere i look
i see you
in shadows
in snatches of stone
in drying leafs
in ice dropped
in too bitter, too hot black coffee.

Christopher R. Vierck is one of those lone wolf poets who has spent most of his career writing poetry and then never submitting anything to be published. He has a BA Degree from Pitzer College in English Lit and has studied with poets Mitsue Yamada and Ari Sherman, among others. He is currently a stay at home dad of four kids "with sixteen legs."

8 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Looks great Dopey.

8:14 AM, December 10, 2005  
Blogger J.B. Rowell said...

Yes Dopey, it is great, maybe the Lone Wolf should consider sending his work out for publication - doncha think?
:)

9:38 AM, December 10, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dopey just got up bleary eyed and yes, he agrees it looks good (thanks Julia) even through the haze. As for sending stuff elsewhere, he just has to figure out how to work a mailbox....

10:41 AM, December 10, 2005  
Blogger J.B. Rowell said...

Sorry Rae - that wasn't clear - this poem is BY him, and an old one ('89) since I haven't figured our how to post poems that are not left justified. Most of his current work is "spaced out." Do you know how to tab in posts?

5:47 PM, December 10, 2005  
Blogger J.B. Rowell said...

     test
          test
               test

9:25 PM, December 10, 2005  
Blogger J.B. Rowell said...

Woops - that didn't quite work . . . I'll try again later when I'm not sleep deprived, I was up last night with the little one burning up with a fever. UGH.

9:28 PM, December 10, 2005  
Blogger J.B. Rowell said...

      test
           test
      test

8:27 AM, December 11, 2005  
Blogger J.B. Rowell said...

Hooray - I can tab - you can tell I'm very new to this - my last test worked because I had a space between &.nbsp (but with no period/full stop) and the next word. Also, I'm posting a poem tomorrow with lots of tabs but lost them all when I switched from html to Compose mode and had to start the whole tedious cutting and pasting process all over again. Oh well - blog and learn! Thanks so much Rae for your help.

8:31 AM, December 11, 2005  

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