Frederick Wilbur Verse-Virtual 2017 September

September 2017

I was brought up and still live in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia so I rely on imagery derived from the natural landscape to explore human relationships. My wife, Elizabeth, and I have two daughters and three grandchildren. I have been an architectural woodcarver for over 35 years and have written numerous articles and three books on the subject. My poems are forthcoming in Able Muse, The Chariton Review, Plainsongs, Poetry Quarterly, and Snowy Egret among others.

Congruence
for Robert Leonard Wilbur (1915-1998)

Computer maps tell me where I want to be--
Exeter Street printed on the pavement in diaphanous white,
in the New England town of my ancestors.

Upon the door I use as a desk, my father’s photograph lies:
a high-schooler’s serious face, tall in cadet uniform,
1933, the glint of saber nearly lost in grayscale.

I click and zoom between playground and cemetery
searching for the front yard grass where he stood.
I look for clues beyond his attention to verify the location:

I cannot hear the children or smell graveyard flowers,
or knock on reticent doors. Over his left shoulder
is a gabled clapboard, a stone wall either side of his waist,

a roadster nudges his right elbow like this flight of cursor
which allows me to feel backwards my human need.
I match screen image to yellowing artifact with the luck of my life.

Now, in experimental archaeology, I can stand where he stood,
salute him, and like one of his buddies, prank him to a smile,
our hats cocked as sure as any comrades in arms.

“Congruence” is from my book, AS PUS FLOATS THE SPLINER OUT, to be published early next year by Kelsay Books.
2017 Frederick Wilbur

Editor's Note: If this poem(s) moves you please consider writing to the author (email address above) to tell him or her. You might say what it is about the poem that moves you. Writing to the author is the beginning of community at Verse Virtual. It is very important. -FF