December 2015
I am a retired business-to-business PR and publishing professional residing in northern New Jersey with my wife and son and a shrinking menagerie of merry pets. I began writing poetry (not very well) 100 years ago as an undergraduate at Georgetown University, where I earned bachelor's and master's degrees in English Literature. My poems have appeared recently in Contemporary American Voices (I was the Featured Poet in the January 2015 issue), the Wilderness House Literary Review, Blue Monday Review, and Atavic Poetry. In 2013, I celebrated (mostly by smiling a lot) the publication of my first poetry chapbook, What Comes Next, by Finishing Line Press. A lifelong Giants fan (New York and San Francisco), I still can't believe I lived long enough to see them win three World Series in five years. If you'd like to see more of my work, please click on http://www.whlreview.com/no-9.4/poetry/JamesKeane.pdf.
You Live
Outside your final venue
eternal day
embraces you in sunlight
unfurrowed
by helplessness
or rain. No pain rakes
through you to kill
your smile; no hatred
will destroy you
ever again. Now the wistful
dreams of happiness you
longed for in the end
implore you
to sweep them over
heavenly terrain. Wherever
you turn, may angels
adore you as we survive
to mourn you,
remember you,
commemorate you
in the end
to celebrate
the soul of your survival
unending, the eternity
of your name.
©2015 James Keane