Friday, February 27, 2009

the view from here

these mornings of oatmeal and email
daunted in holy grail quests
for hit-counter highs on obscure sites
rites of passage recorded
benign to sordid faithfully writ
peep hole peeped from
wrists unslit
dim-lit rooms
yield to bright of climbing sun
things unstarted
things undone remain
but spring will come
spring will come
(refrain)

- ralph murre

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Again, With the Bird?

Ralph Murre

I'm continuing to explore the theme that I first showed you on my post of January 13th. This time, I carved in ice. The piece, which is shown horizontally here, is actually a vertical sculpture, about five feet tall.

~ RM


Friday, February 13, 2009

Loco Motion

get out onto the platform
you never know
there could be one more train
going your way
and you paid for your ticket
long ago
there could be
one more engine steaming
down the gleaming track
smoke curling
from its blackened stack
one more chance
for loco motion
one notion still waiting
to dawn in your silvered head
once more the quickened beating
of your golden heart
once more, a start

~ ralph murre

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Bluebirds

The sky is full of bluebirds
but not everyone can see them
so they think it's just a blue sky
and at night, when it's all crows
well . . . you know.
And early and late
come the cardinals and flamingos
but don't try to explain that
to just anyone.
There are gray birds, too.
- Ralph Murre

I had the chance, last Friday night, to spend the evening with some of my favorite people, listening to one of my favorite bands (Big Mouth) playing some of my favorite music WHILE glazing the little pot you see above. All this was going on at the Hands On Studio as a whole bunch of other people were doing roughly the same thing. It all sounds a little too cozy and crafty to me, but I'll admit that I loved it. Never tried something quite like that before, but was fairly well pleased with the result, which is a design I came up with to accompany this little poem.

NEWS FLASH! The review I wrote of Sharon Auberle's Saturday Nights at the Crystal Ball now appears within a larger and wonderful article by Norbert Blei on the website "Poetry Dispatch".

http://poetrydispatch.wordpress.com

And by the way, if you're not already a follower of this exemplary site, WHY NOT ???



Sunday, February 08, 2009

hornetzzzzzz

we grey-bearded men
telling our used-to-be stories
hornets in winter
~ arem

Sunday, February 01, 2009

Inquire Within


Inquire Within
I'll sell some land
I'll sell some books
I'll sell fishing hooks and second-hand lures
I'll sell some tourists narrated tours
I'll sell some cherries
I'll sell the orchard
I'll sell some tortured antiquities
and try to sell the shining seas
I'll sell baseball diamonds
I'll sell football fields
I'll sell museums that sell the past
I'll sell the future whitefish yields
I'll sell plastic siding
and hide the profits
I'll sell fake stones and aluminum soffits
I'll sell some photos that show what it was
I'll sell the laborer and what he does
I'll sell the oak
I'll sell the birch
I'll sell the school
and the Lutheran church
I'll sell the lake and sell the bay
I'll sell the sizzle and move away
- Ralph Murre
appeared first in "Knock" magazine