Kentucky February Snowfall

deep blue rhythm of arctic winter grasps
in chill fingers southern haven belies
comforts, jails them in frosted winter world
when to end? when to end? for warmth they pray
though to whom none can certain say, they pray
and curse and burn more fuel, wood, gas, coal
smoke and steam escaping impotent to heat
the world and its arctic sky snowing slow.

just weeks from vernal equinox they cry
against cold nights and bitter frost as robins
chatter of seeds and plenty and coming
pleasance under skies of promise — flowers
soon to triumph over latency and frost
filling the vernal world with truth and beauty.

david m pitchford
26 feb 2014

At the Finish

such a simple goal it seemed: write a thousand
poems. twenty-nine months it took to write
them, and that is the surprise. so much time,
so much life come and gone rivers flooded
droughts come and gone ice storms and ice fog nights
summer with tornadoes and storms of past
resurrected to haunt the now such love
gained and lost lovers won and tossed aside
not for lack of love, never that, but for
incompatibilities love not over-
comes . . . the dog euthanized . . . landslide crumbled
to dust returned the father leagues of life
traversed and each mile unmarked is a poem
failed or captured matters nothing in the end. . . .

David M Pitchford
11 Feb 2014

Bobby Prays

small town nebraska 1972

young boy severed of his fond affections
prays to a concept he not understands
—God, be God—
he prays tears burn streaking his dirty face
—we all need you sometimes
be real oh, God, be real
and if not, if not, God,
create Yourself, God
because You are God, God
and can do anything! be real—

his heaven shakes
lash-bruised body quakes
as he draws yet another
pain-wracked breath
in a life short but filled
with oxygen-starved breaths
and some natural tenderness
he cannot name
mother’s love . . .

God, be real
or create Yourself, God
he prays on bruised knees

David M Pitchford
11 Feb 2014

For the Love

in the basement of a colorado bungalow
in drywall plaster sculpted
with a cheapass trowel from home depot
my honorific oblige to van Gough
*starry night* in relief
not simply to his opus
but to the life the man the mania
art for art and beauties’ sake
because life is light flung against
dark nothing and the light will out
it finds a way through leonard cohen cracks
through pinholes and brush strokes
through seams dissected by poets
sculptors architects composers
fueled ever by love
love of the art, of the self, of light and life
love of a woman all women
love of a man all men
love of humanity and being
human . . . .

David M Pitchford
11 Feb 2014

Saved by Moonlight

days like these my tongue sticks to my cheek and teeth
hiding from every banal word, every clichéd
thought, every remonstrance against a stingy
universe overheated with summer
and stifled with ubiquitous stupid
doing, done, potential and realized   .  .  .
but then some unuttered thought springs forward
begging audience and expression,   not
a great thought, deep or philosophical,
but a thought as real as moonlight on water   —
something true if simple in its beauty,
and my heart surges, eyes alight with stars,
hand reaches for stylus as my voice frees
itself from clenched silence to say and sing.

In the Place Where You Are

sometimes the hardest part of this human
experiment is just being,     within
the moment such a challenge not to go
on with psychobabble   —   conversations
with self about psychoanalyzing
everything from the pretty girl at the
checkout inadvertently touching hands
to the idiocy of drivers and their
idiosyncrasies compared to one’s own
and the constant motion from moment to
moment usually,   customarily,
projecting into future what-to-do
or gazing into rearview at the path
so recently or distantly behind  . . .

Steampunk Angst

let’s take a zeppelin to the moon,   baby,
that cool clean landscape of the lunaphile
sweet virgin muse to myriad poets;
let’s take a steamship to the stars and sail
around the nebulae among the stars,
let’s map the great unknowable expanse
and make love on every beach under moons
we ourselves will name;   let’s take a rocket
to the gods and ask them why they fled our
fair blue world,   left their children to mayhem
and to victimize themselves in their own
sick immaturity   —   atom bomb tantrums
and greed-mongering mania polluting
the whole human race out of house and home   .  .  .

Note Left on a Cold Pillow

tomorrow,   love,   when you realize what
a douche you’ve been and want to apologize,
think long and hard about what led us to this
and ask yourself if you’re willing to put in
the work it takes to make relationship;
are you willing to forget,    forgive    (me
and yourself and the faultful world)?     what did
we learn from heated words and anger flamed
against weakest weakness   —   each taking full
advantage of our knowledge of the other
to wound deepest   .  .  .   secrets become weapons
flung against the fear of injury    (I’ll
hurt you twice as much twice as fast as you
can hurt me)   precedent long ago set.