Moving Words 2000 Poems

Espresso

like the taste
of heartache itself,
it is difficult
to tame the bitterness,
no matter how much
cream and sugar
we apply.

Reuben Jackson

Morning in a Small Town

The horizon on a summer morning
dusted out in red
ripens window glass.
At six o-clock the chimney tops
mark time on tile roofs,
the silent hands of faceless clocks,
the morning's only shadows
dusted out in black

Reed Karaim

Poetry Attack

The weeping willow, like a faucet
Drips out words one by one.
A mother sparrow steals a few
For her baby's nest
High up in the tree.
Rainbow feathers shine
On their first
Free-flight voyage.
Baby bird's tender song, a sweet
Lesson, complete.

Judy Mayeux

Mother

she washes presses picks
threads off shakes her head
washes presses again
stares at it in the fading evening light
it doesn't hang just right
more threads then with a big
hot steam iron twice over
you put it on
she smiles you're
her poem

Mel Belin

Stifled Impulse

All the weight of this summer air-
heavy with humidity and honeysuckle-
flows over us, and,
three hundred miles from the Atlantic Ocean,
we drown in the brine of our sweat and tears,
ladled out like a soup for the gods.

Bernadette Geyer

Flight

On the other side of the inlet, behind the beach
A sandbar lies exposed by the tide.
Hundreds, thousands of seabirds have flocked here
Drawn by I don't know what.
Now the tide turns.
In one long swell of light
The seabirds rise into the air
As the sea swallows their ground.

Donald R. Winter

About the Poets

Reuben Jackson has worked as an archivist with the Smithsonian Institution's Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald collections since 1989. When not organizing and arranging materials found in dusty boxes, he has had poems published in journals such as The Indiana Review, and in five anthologies, including the newly-released two CD set, Our Souls Have Grown Deep Like the Rivers: Black Poets Read Their Work. His first book of poems, fingering the keys, won the 1992 Columbia Book Award. He and his wife, visual artist Theresa Esterlund, live in Arlington.

Reed Karaim writes non-fiction, fiction and poetry. He is the author of the novel If Men Were Angels, published in 1999 by W.W. Norton. He is married to the writer Aurelie Sheehan, and they have a baby daughter, Alexandra.

Judy Mayeux is a librarian and creative writing teacher at H-B Woodlawn Program (grades 6-12) in Arlington. She has been published in literary journals in Virginia and Florida. When she has the time, she makes her own books and adds her own poetry.

Mel Belin is the author of a full-length book of poetry, Flesh That Was Chrysalis, published by the Word Works, Inc. He is an attorney in the General Counsel's Office of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Bernadette Geyer received her BA in Mass Communications from Allegheny College in Meadville, PA. Her poetry has appeared in several publications, including WordWrights!, Independence Boulevard, and Mid-America Poetry Review. She lives in Arlington and works in Washington, DC for a non-profit organization that promotes energy efficient technologies.

Donald Winter is a writer, editor, and (from time to time) journalist. He has published in Gargoyle Magazine.