Sunday, May 27, 2012

Bound for Glory




Bound for Glory

this train of black boxcars
     raining
this rain on the too thin roof
this black boxcar blue
this graffiti blue
this hue of spray-can
this spray-can’t
     sign of times
this sign of signing
     this singing     this song
  along the rails     this wailing
of a failing America
(or is this how it works?)
this boxcar with my name on it
this train of our names
this signing
this signature
this bounced check
this stacked deck
this black cloud thunder
     under
this trestle as long as a life
this train
            this ride
                       this other side


~ Ralph Murre

Monday, May 21, 2012

hear it?



the deafening weight of disappointment
the inaudible lightness of hope
a faint sound of lifeboats rusting
and from somewhere
an orchestra, laughter, dancing

~ ralph murre

Monday, May 07, 2012

White Bike at the Cross + Roads


Mentor to the midwest and publisher of Cross + Roads Press, Norbert Blei, recently sponsored a little event in the competitive sport of poetry writing, through his excellent Poetry Dispatch . Spur-of-the-moment, drop what you're doing and write a poem.  You can have a look at the results in his two most recent posts, "The White Bicycle" and "The White Bicycle II".  Some very good work here, and I'm happy to say that while my little piece didn't make the podium, it landed squarely among the best of the not-quite-ready-for-prime-time poems.  Good enough.  Here it is:



her white bicycle

the way she rode it
as much on clouds
as on concrete

as much from as toward
on a pavement of dream

the way I saw or didn't see
the way it didn't seem
she any longer needed me
to run along beside

the way the ride then
circled back in setting sun

the thing about a cycle
is the way it'll repeat

her white bike may come back
may lean up
again against my shack

who knows when a cycle
or circle is complete?

~ Ralph Murre