Poetry – Excerpts From ‘The POND Project’ (By John L. Stanizzi) These small poems are from a one-year-long project called POND — The poems are acrostics. Everyday, at different times during the day, I visit our pond with notebook and camera in hand. I jot down some notes, take a picture or two, if a good photo op. presents itself. Then […]
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At a Party I spoke with two people at the party Saturday. A young police officer, short-haired, fit, chiseled face who had two young children. He felt constrained by the law, without discretion to question mopes (perps) aggressively or to let go those who were obviously no threat. Even at a family function he seemed straight-backed, correct, devoted to his […]
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The Stop & Shop Strike The Stop & Shop strike v. Game of Thrones. In Game what’s not made plain is the condition of the people compared with warriors and queens. There is no mention of land-clearance, tree-felling, pruning, chopping, digging, hoeing, weeding, branding, gelding, slaughtering, salting, tanning, brewing, boiling, smelting, forging, milling, thatching, fencing and hurdle-making, hedging, road-mending and […]
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On Mixing Macarons and Vicodin That winter split me like firewood. I was smaller, splintered, Elliot Smith would play on cassette in my blue Volkswagen, while our breath coursed through flared nostrils and damaged lungs. * I hid my pain like a sick dog. I slinked out, under the back deck, I swallowed some pills. In those hideous places I […]
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Insignificance Late in life I struggle against my insignificance When I should enjoy the freedom from performance before an audience. Applause is happiness but if they withhold applause, embarrassment. When Da Liu put me to work crunching hexagrams and spreadsheet numerology Instead of ghost writing his books about T’ai Chi for longevity I was humiliated but freed. No need to […]
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Life Science If only I was older, wiser than gapped tooth, golden haired twenty-two, I wouldn’t have wondered, what whiskered man is this? His hair like a peppered moth, he sat stubbing cigarette butts into the ancient ruins of the bar ash tray. There was a familiarity in the corner creases of his brown eyes. I could smell the paste […]
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Mammo At first, the grief was bare, an unsheathed sword, its presence sharp. But then it turned, slowly, into a faded tattoo on a hidden part of my body. I tried calling your phone last night. I don’t know what I expected, but I was scared. When I’m dripping in too much darkness, that same profound, welling of […]
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Elizabeth, Mother of my mother, her knotted knuckles cradled my scraped elbows, the heaviness of my childhood heart. Her beauty unrepeatable, blistering. She stands hunched over the sink, peeling potatoes, buttering bread, in the yellow light of the pre-war kitchen she is ageless. When I think of home, I think of her, kindness dripping from her embrace like honey. […]
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Sylvia’s Son I was wrapped in a towel like a bad dream, wet feet on linoleum. I was too preoccupied to see the cracked blood, to hear the silence until I was knee- deep in your tomb. Sometimes, I dreamt you were a baby being born, waking to a pain that was not yours, a motherhood I never had. It […]
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Resisting Arrest Uniting uniformed unity You and I defy the sky Team work and collaboration Up to personal discretion Civil Rights Civility Minorities against majorities Stick to the status quo But should we…? Really? Defy thy stars And seek new avenues Harness the power of creativity And merge sense with sensibility “Utopia” was conceived by Thomas More But all […]
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